My 2002 KLZE Protege 5, kl to kj swap thread

[DuRWooD]

That car was easy to break in to, should be able to steal one with a Jeep key

[Mazda_Powered]

ahh noo! the focus is down! that sucks man, glad your brother's ok tho lol...or at least it didn't sound like he got messed up.

[Damkid]

Ya my brothers just fine, i thik he only got a small scratch on his hand from a piece of glass lol

Anyway here's tonights progress


Trimmed out most of the un-used stock harness so i have a nice clean looking engine bay when the swap is completed







All the cut wiring







Then i got the 5 speed tranny bolted to the KJ starting with the clutch..... like my clutch alignment tool? haha







Then the tranny on the KJ









Next time i make it out to the garage i'll be starting to strip the KJ harness and getting it prepped for the install, and i'm also hoping to get the KJ in the engine bay for it's first test fit

[DuRWooD]

Are you using the MX6 transmission that came with the car? I'd say, especially if it's an MX3 final drive, you'd want to swap out 5th to keep the revs down with that SC. It would be easy to do since you have it out of the car.

[Damkid]

Yup i'm re-using the MX6 trans, i figure i'm not trying to build a race car so i don't need the 4.38 final drive lol

[Mazda_Powered]

haha 4.38 final...looking good man! that's a CRAP load of wiring you pulled out! haha. Let me know if you need some help sometime, I THINK I have enough gas to make a round trip lol...I think..

[Damkid]

Well i'm hoping to drop the KJ into the protege tomorrow night for it's first test fit

so tomorrow's to-do list is, hack-up the KJ harness, test fit the KJ

[Damkid]

So today i trimmed the transmission to clear the coolant lines,
-labelled the rest of the KJ harnes and removed it from the engine
-cut out the KL Y-pipe
And got the KJ into the protege for its first test fit










And here's my hood clearance.... may need to trim the hood bracing a bit

[DuRWooD]

Awesome Chris! As I was scrolling down, I said to my buddy, "I don't think the hood is going to close". The next picture was the hood closed, lol. Great progress so far man.

[Damkid]

Thanks man, for a bit i wasn't even sure if the hood was gunna close haha hell i had to remove the rear intercooler just to get it passed the master cylinder lol

I forgot to mention, the rear tranny mount does not bolt up, the rear exhaust manifold hits the steering rack and is keeping the rear tranny mount about 1/4" away from bolting up, so chances are i'll try switching the manifolds for the KL ones so i don't run into any issues there

[FE3-323]

i was wondering about the clutch. i haven't been following this. but it sure is neat. i would like to see more about the halfshaft/what your gonna do there

definitely an awesome swap tho

[Damkid]

Thanks Ryan, as for the halfshaft, i think i am able to re-use the millenia halfshaft with the swap, but i threw the axles in the millenia when i scrapped it *facepalm* so i may look into getting another one to experiment with

[Mazda_Powered]

awesome man!!!! that's definitely going to work!!! lol

[Damkid]

Thanks buddy, next time i get out to the garage, i'll pull the KJ, swap the manifold and hopefully by then i'll have the wiring ready to go and when the KJ gets back in the P5, hopefully i'd be able to try starting it but we'll see how it goes lol

[progt91]

looking like its coming along pretty good. should be a fun toy