My KLZE Ford Festiva build thread

[Damkid]

Let me start by introducing myself and give some history of my car. My name is Chris and i'm from southern Ontario, and i've had an addiction for festivas since i could drive

I've owned my current festiva, a red 1990 with a B6T/ G series transmission, for about a year and a half now and the history of my car is the previous owner, named Fred, was the second known person to succesfully complete a B6T swap into a festiva, Fred did some really cool stuff to the car, like installed a B6D head/intake onto the B6T block with a comlete standalone system etc. here's a pic



And he installed some sick suspension, plus an aspire brake swap with cross-drilled and slotted rotors



He had given up on the car and pulled the engine and all the engine management set-up and sold the car, the person who he sold it to started collecting parts to put the car back together but didn't have the time, so thats when i bought it and took over the project

Here's a few pics from the day i got it






It took me a while to get the B6T up and running again but i got it back on the road the spring and have been punishing the tires ever since, my best time with it so far at the track has been 14.5 @ 98 MPH





Now that my long introduction is done its time for the good stuff

When i first joined clubprotege, i seen the KLZE swap and fell in love and when i started researching it more and more, i just wanted to do the swap, so once i realized the stock probe transmission was a G series tranny just like my G-series i had installed in my festiva, i did more research and i soon found out the spline differences with the differentials

So a guy i work with races a probe (it runs 11's) he has a bunch of spare trannies kickin around so i got one from him, i also have a spare 323 GT tranny as well, so i could then compare the internals to see if i couldn't convert the probe tranny to a 26 spline count so it'll accept the 323/Capri axles and make a V6 swap possible into my festiva, or any BF car

So here's how it started

The 323 tranny with the 5th gear cover off


now with the case separated


And a bare empty tranny


The probe tranny with the case separated


bare empty probe tranny with all the parts spread over the bench


And here's the part i was looking to find out, the differentials side-by-side, the 323 is on the left


You can see the probe's ring gear is thicker but it's not taller that the 323's but as far as i can tell thats the only difference in the differentials other than the spline count



I did some counting and realized the gear ratio difference between the two differentials, the 323's being 3.85 final drive and the probe tranny being 4.38 final drive, so i knew i couldn't just drop the 323 diff. in the probe case and call it a day so i did more comparing

i started by seeing if just the spider gears would swap and here's some differences

Here's the two diff. pins, the longer one is the from the probe tranny, but they are the same thickness


Here are the spider gears, the top ones are from the probe tranny, note the smaller probe gear is larger than the smaller 323 gear


Because of the size differences in the spider gears, there is way way too much play when i installed the 323 gears in the probe differential, so that won't work either, so the next thing i've looked at is swapping the ring gears, i've measured the inside diameter on both ring gears and they are the same

Here is where i measured the ring gears


So i started grinding off the rivets and pounding them out


Then after a bunch of hammering with a BFH (by the way i hit my hand twice and its very swollen from it and hurts like hell) i got all the rivets out and removed the ring gear


All the rivets



And i repeated the process to the 323 diff, and here is a picture of the probe ring gear installed on the 323 diff. and the holes lined up!!!


So i ordered some grade 8 bolts to put the probe ring gear on the 323 diff

I figured while i'm this deep in the transmission i picked up a used Phantom Grip LSD with upgraded springs that i will be installing in the differential tomorrow



The only other concern i had (which i already checked out) is the distance between the diff. bearing as to if they are the same or not and as far as i can tell they are, so once i get my hybrid differential re-assembled and re-installed into my tranny i will be pulling the engine/trans from my festiva to start test fitting everything and to see how well it will work

I beleive if someone were to do some research and found two trannies that had matching final drives, it would save swapping the ring gears like i'm doing and make it a lot easier, but i like the idea of having a 4.38 final drive :D

[Chad]

Dont you have to cut part of the firewall for a BP to even fit..... how would you fit a ze? lol

[Damkid]

I've done a BP swap in a festiva and didn't have to cut the firewall, i'm expecting to with a KL but thats alright with me, i weld for a living

[white-lightning]

That is going to be one fastiva with the v6. There are two guys near me that have a bpt and b6t festiva, very cool cars.

[Damkid]

i'm hoping this will put me into the low 13's lol

Here's a couple more vids of my festiva with the B6T in it

[crazycanadian]

whats the gear ratios of the prob transmission you have? how does the main shaft and counter shaft compair to the b6t g transmission?

[nerd racing]

quick question/thought, the differential bearings could possibly be different, since the V6 has larger diameter shafts going through them. Also you may want to swap over the plastic speedo gears as well. Also the gear that mates to the final drive differential ring gear will have to be matched.

Very interesting stuff man, mad props! I want to do a 2.0L Zetec swap in my aspire, just have to get an engineering job so I can make enough money to get another aspire to work on while I drive the one I have now.

[therieldeal]

the diff bearings are 100% the same

you will have issues bolting that ring gear on, the bolt heads will interfere with 1st gear. you will probably need to buy the $200 ARP ring gear stud kit. it is sold as being "for" the quaife, but you can use it with a stock diff to.

OR you could spend $700 or so and put a 26 spline MFactory LSD in there

[DeeAOne]

i really hope hybrid axles work because im so scared to attempt that diff swapping. lol

good to see you took my advice and made a thread though.

[Turpro]

I'm definetly keeping my eyes on this thread. Good luck.

[Gforcefd]

Good work so far man. You are going to be another one of those festiva pioneers. GOOD LUCK!

[Damkid]

the diff bearings are 100% the same

you will have issues bolting that ring gear on, the bolt heads will interfere with 1st gear. you will probably need to buy the $200 ARP ring gear stud kit. it is sold as being "for" the quaife, but you can use it with a stock diff to.

OR you could spend $700 or so and put a 26 spline MFactory LSD in there

Thanks for the tip on the bolts interfering with first gear, i ordered low head bolts to hopefully clear the gears though, but the bolts are back ordered til wednesday so i can't check those clearances yet

Since i do work in a welding shop i'm sure i'll be able to securely fasten the ring gear back together one way or another

The only progress i made today was installing the phantom grip, so until i get the bolts on wednesday, i'm at a stand still

[Damkid]

quick question/thought, the differential bearings could possibly be different, since the V6 has larger diameter shafts going through them. Also you may want to swap over the plastic speedo gears as well. Also the gear that mates to the final drive differential ring gear will have to be matched.

The bearing do have a different inside diameter but i'll be using the 323 bearings anyway so they still match the axles i plan to use, and for the speedo gear, they are identical

EDIT: therieldeal is right, the diff bearings are identical, i just took a second look at them

and the gear that mates to the diff's ring gear is matched, which is why i've swapped the probe ring gear onto the 323 diff so everything matches together

[progt91]

very cool, got my eye on this.

[nerd racing]

awesome man, I can't wait to see a V6 sitting in the engine bay!