diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/webservice/enginestatus.py b/scrapy/contrib/webservice/enginestatus.py
index f7117de67..2e2469c01 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/webservice/enginestatus.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/webservice/enginestatus.py
@@ -6,14 +6,14 @@ class EngineStatusResource(JsonResource):
 
     ws_name = 'enginestatus'
 
-    def __init__(self, spider_name=None, _manager=crawler):
+    def __init__(self, spider_name=None, _crawler=crawler):
         JsonResource.__init__(self)
         self._spider_name = spider_name
         self.isLeaf = spider_name is not None
-        self._manager = _manager
+        self._crawler = _crawler
 
     def render_GET(self, txrequest):
-        status = get_engine_status(self._manager.engine)
+        status = get_engine_status(self._crawler.engine)
         if self._spider_name is None:
             return status
         for sp, st in status['spiders'].items():
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ class EngineStatusResource(JsonResource):
                 return st
 
     def getChild(self, name, txrequest):
-        return EngineStatusResource(name, self._manager)
+        return EngineStatusResource(name, self._crawler)
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_utils_jsonrpc.py b/scrapy/tests/test_utils_jsonrpc.py
index 6bb9a599f..f8f8b13fb 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_utils_jsonrpc.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_utils_jsonrpc.py
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@ from cStringIO import StringIO
 from scrapy.utils.jsonrpc import jsonrpc_client_call, jsonrpc_server_call, \
     JsonRpcError, jsonrpc_errors
 from scrapy.utils.serialize import ScrapyJSONDecoder
-from scrapy.tests.test_utils_serialize import ExecutionMangerStub
+from scrapy.tests.test_utils_serialize import CrawlerMock
 from scrapy.utils.py26 import json
 
-class urllib_stub(object):
+class urllib_mock(object):
     def __init__(self, result=None, error=None):
         response = {}
         if result:
@@ -33,11 +33,11 @@ class TestTarget(object):
 class JsonRpcUtilsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
-        crawler = ExecutionMangerStub([])
+        crawler = CrawlerMock([])
         self.json_decoder = ScrapyJSONDecoder(crawler=crawler)
 
     def test_jsonrpc_client_call_request(self):
-        ul = urllib_stub(1)
+        ul = urllib_mock(1)
         jsonrpc_client_call('url', 'test', 'one', 2, _urllib=ul)
         req = json.loads(ul.request)
         assert 'id' in req
@@ -47,12 +47,12 @@ class JsonRpcUtilsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(req['params'], ['one', 2])
 
     def test_jsonrpc_client_call_response(self):
-        ul = urllib_stub()
+        ul = urllib_mock()
         # must return result or error
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, jsonrpc_client_call, 'url', 'test', _urllib=ul)
-        ul = urllib_stub(result={'one': 1})
+        ul = urllib_mock(result={'one': 1})
         self.assertEquals(jsonrpc_client_call('url', 'test', _urllib=ul), {'one': 1})
-        ul = urllib_stub(error={'code': 123, 'message': 'hello', 'data': 'some data'})
+        ul = urllib_mock(error={'code': 123, 'message': 'hello', 'data': 'some data'})
 
         raised = False
         try:
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_utils_serialize.py b/scrapy/tests/test_utils_serialize.py
index 0d3ee297d..108bad6f2 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_utils_serialize.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_utils_serialize.py
@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@ from scrapy.spider import BaseSpider
 from scrapy.http import Request, Response
 
 
-class ExecutionEngineStub(object):
+class _EngineMock(object):
     def __init__(self, open_spiders):
         self.open_spiders = open_spiders
 
-class ExecutionMangerStub(object):
+class CrawlerMock(object):
     def __init__(self, open_spiders):
-        self.engine = ExecutionEngineStub(open_spiders)
+        self.engine = _EngineMock(open_spiders)
 
 class BaseTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ class BaseTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.spider1 = BaseSpider('name1')
         self.spider2 = BaseSpider('name2')
         open_spiders = set([self.spider1, self.spider2])
-        manager = ExecutionMangerStub(open_spiders)
-        self.spref = SpiderReferencer(manager)
+        crawler = CrawlerMock(open_spiders)
+        self.spref = SpiderReferencer(crawler)
         self.encoder = ScrapyJSONEncoder(spref=self.spref)
         self.decoder = ScrapyJSONDecoder(spref=self.spref)
 
diff --git a/scrapy/utils/serialize.py b/scrapy/utils/serialize.py
index 73f92503e..a7faf3899 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/serialize.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/serialize.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ class SpiderReferencer(object):
     def __init__(self, crawler=None):
         if crawler is None:
             from scrapy.project import crawler
-        self.manager = crawler
+        self.crawler = crawler
 
     def get_reference_from_spider(self, spider):
         return 'spider:%x:%s' % (id(spider), spider.name)
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class SpiderReferencer(object):
         m = self.spider_ref_re.search(ref)
         if m:
             spid, spname = m.groups()
-            for spider in self.manager.engine.open_spiders:
+            for spider in self.crawler.engine.open_spiders:
                 if "%x" % id(spider) == spid or spider.name == spname:
                     return spider
             raise RuntimeError("Spider not running: %s" % ref)