KL swappin' Protege5

inspect power steering system, diagnose why pump whines
- looked at it - it is either the fitting to the pump on the pressure side, or the suction side of things. I don't care overly right now, so I'm just gonna send it!

weld up shift shaft
- done, and painted. No pictures because am pleb. Shortened the shaft by around 2.5" to put the shifter back in a relatively neutral position. This is with the shift linkage changed to interface with the stock Protege linkage. I know the MX3 linkage bolts up slightly differently.

inspect the jackshaft
- Not done, but hard(er) launches have been performed to no ill effects.

front strut tower bar
- No updates here.

New issue
- hood release cable has failed. I suspect it was compromised as a result of the fender bender it was in previously. Going to have to pull a cable tomorrow afternoon (or Saturday) to get things operational again. I fabricobbled a ziptie fix together for the interim and am running sans grill.
 
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More driving.

Oil change, transmission fluid change, and MAYBE an attempt at fixing the power steering pump might happen over this extended "ShUtDoWn..."

I'm also thinking I've borked my Aeroforce gauge as the two analog senders I have no longer seem to want to input much meaningful values to the gauge. Hoping that's not the case, but if it is, I guess that's life. 5V reference for both the oil pressure and temp gauge, and I have the circuits wired up correctly...

Also also, I want to start putting the rest of the interior back in, but want to give it a good cleaning before that all happens.
 
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Raider said:
Badass Build, man!
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Thanks a lot! I hope it's at least decent reading material and a good starter for anyone else wondering the feasibility of this swap. In all, I wouldn't be shocked if someone couldn't put a swap together over a week given all the parts are stockpiled.

I will say, if I did it all over, I'd have kept all of the sensors for the motor (mainly rear O2s, EGR) and slowly pared back the harness. I'm likely to be getting low 20s with this swap as a result of no EGR and it's a bit poopy. I don't super mind though because it's being relegated to a weekend toy rather than a daily driver.

The funny/best thing is, my mate with a 323 (no GTX, '90 323 FWD) wants to KL swap instead of throwing the BP from our Escort GT into it now... I've ruined him. And my sanity as likely I'll get stuck in with that swap too lol. The nice thing with that swap is being able to go standalone right off the rip, rather than doing what I've got going on. And I have a harness pinout if we start with a '99-00 Milly harness as the base. MSPNP has a nifty PNP ECU option for the Probes/MX6es that I may pickup in the future.

I've been reading about the "ideal" N/A build and it looks like:

  • Ported KLDE heads to match KLZE straight neck intake with correct VRIS points
    (alternate is leave the heads alone and go KLG4 intake with correct VRIS points)
  • KLZE pistons or match aftermarket pistons with higher compression ratio
  • KLZE cams, or copies of those bad boys
    while the cams are out, DE retainers+springs, as the ZE retainers+springs have a failure rate >0
  • Throw an aftermarket fleebay header at it
  • Milly S rods (direct replacement)
  • KLG4 crank, as it's supposed to be 10# less rotational mass
    obviously this is subjective, I went the lightweight flywheel route to shave rotational mass and don't see a need to go further
 
shellspeed said:
Finally signed up just to follow your progress! I’m the one that mentioned a build thread on the Facebook group
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Booyah! Welcome and make yourself at home. Admittedly, I am running out of super large updates. But I have made it a goal before the end of this shutdown to digitise my notes/diagrams, so keep an eye out for that!

Chef said:
Kiefer, you’re beautiful and I miss your face.
(And your swap project is awesome!)
Click to expand...

AAAAAAAAAron!

I miss you too and am only majorly sad that I couldn't make it out to NATORGiving this year :( I plan to make it out next year because bump missing Mazda Fam activities for boring old work!

Hope you guys are staying safe and doing well! How are the kids enjoying (or wreaking havoc) this?!
 
Updated post #2 with PDFed pinout diagram. Second wall of green text highlights what's been noted on the diagrams.

I got bored and decided to prep the wideband gauge location. It's pretty well mounted in the vent with the supplied clamp.

I've got to sort out the issue I'm having with the Aeroforce too. It will read data for a minute or so before shutting off. I have been told that there should be no issue with the interchange between the Milly and Pro5, so the issue is (unfortunately) on my end. I can read data no problem through Torque Pro, so it may be that I'm asking the Aeroforce to read data it's incapable of reading.

I also knackered the stock front strut tower bar trying to be stealthy with how I took it apart. I believe that if I flip the bar so that the hump is above the manifold, I should be able to get the bar to clear the VRIS solenoids and hump in the manifold! I'll try and snag a stock bar from the junkyard when I get the chance.

IMG_20200328_210155.jpg IMG_20200328_210215.jpg IMG_20200328_210228.jpg
 
A disregard to the fact that some materials can't be reefed on like others leads to broken things... Replaced with OEM banjo bolt, as the main thing I required was (joy-of-joys) the banjo-AN adapter. Tightened down and so far no leaks at the pump. Going to have to hawk the fitting at the rack to make sure that doesn't leak.

IMG_20200413_144821.jpg

Also, I hate leaves and the fact that they can hide in places I don't often check...

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The bottom third of the pile was damp -_-
 
I ended up reverting back to the OEM pressure-side power steering line, so now the only non-OEM aspect of the power steering system in terms of lines is where the suction line from the OEM reservoir transitions to a 3/4" I.D. heater hose... I fixed the leak at the pump on the PTFE AN setup, but there was still a leak where the blue adapter met the rack. If I'm honest, the line likely will stay this way unless I begin to experience issues with it.

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The blue adapter likely didn't butt up against the rack fitting like the OEM style fitting does. This is the only fitting of this size that I could find on Summit (given my hasty search for a solution at the time).

IMG_20200413_185055.jpg IMG_20200413_185100.jpg IMG_20200413_185111.jpg
The charcoal canister bracket was slightly modified so that I could tuck the hose behind it, and I took the P-clamp and fastened it to a loose stud on the firewall.

Started the car after bleeding the system and haven't had any issues yet.
 
Damn engine wedged in there so well it almost looks stock.
 
Mauro_Penguin said:
Damn engine wedged in there so well it almost looks stock.
Click to expand...
That was the goal, so I'm happy that, at least to one person it's been accomplished!

The greatest bit, to me, is that it's all reversable. I haven't cut anything on the OEM body harness that would prevent me from taking an FSDE loom and slapping that bad boy back in.

I need to get the frame straightened this summer. That will be the deciding factor on if I keep this chassis or find another, cleaner shell. This one's better in many areas than my second P5 was, but there's a few spots that are worse. It was hit in the pass front I believe back in '12, and the core support was fixed in a less-than-acceptable manner to me. Won't affect autocross, but bothers me knowing it could be done better.

Before I scrapped the last P5, I drilled out the old core support, so I've just got to find a shop local to me that'll slap that bad boy on and call it good from there!
 
Good news:

I have news

Bad news:

valve stem seals (I replaced) may be no good.

oil smell under deccel from high RPM and under WOT accel.

I will try to throw together a catch can and see what to do next.

Try to run a compression test and see how that turns out. Have not run a leakdown test before so I could also try and go that route.

If those point to the valve seals, I may try to source a set of DE heads to rebuild and then slap them on.

If not, and it points to rings, then I may try and locate an imported ZE to clean up or another DE and a set of high comp pistons. I know cams would be the next thing on the list to approach ZE power levels. Heads I'm not too fussed about I don't think.
 
Adding insult to injury, I made it to KY and back to MI sans issues, but I noticed that the coolant temp gauge was reading higher than "centered" (though I know most gauges are dummy gauges at best) when at operating temperature after I finally installed the sensor to my wideband gauge (I needed a bung welded so took the center section to a local shop and they got it squared away)


Looking on Torque Pro, the ECU reported temperature was a-okay, so that had me puzzled. If I have:
- key on engine off, the gauge at the same reported temperature reads "normal"

- key on engine on, the gauge at the same reported temperature begins to climb, with the "amount" of climb increasing as I put more electrical load on the system.

In my quest to narrow down the reason, I peeled back some loom and didn't see anything untowards. However I did kill the engine again, so the wiring is still a sore spot inside the car.

I am going to a junkyard today to hopefully pull another harness, this time I'll be keeping it as simple as I can when wiring it in. My hope is to have the car drivable reliably before Tuesday as I'm heading to IL for a work assignment then.


The main thing I'm going to have to watch is making sure the ECU grounds are good, and that the circuits that get tied into the "sensor ground" circuits are also solidly made.


The good news in all of this"

Got 27MPG round trip on the highway - if the motor is tired, that's a respectable value IMO.

I hope to have updates soon enough.
 
Turned a junkyard harness into something respectable this evening. Working on an even simpler wiring diagram to go along with the new harness.

IMG_20200503_150054.jpg IMG_20200503_225956.jpg
 
From a scrambled mess to something hopefully functional.

Ashamed to say I caught a mis-positioned wire already. Here's to hoping that's the only one.

I plan to chuck it in this Friday and see what happens. I have functionally changed nothing about this harness from the last one. Removed one circuit going to the ECU. The KL loom had one 12V+ switched circuit powering the solenoids and ECU, and a second 12V+ switched circuit powering the fuel injectors.

My last harness I split the ECU power from the solenoids, and see no reason to on this go around.

Also the connections to the DIAG box under the hood were made in the last branch going to the box, rather than inside the car. I figure that branch won't be moved around too much provided the swap goes according to plan.

One thing I will do to the old harness once I pull it apart is to clean up any connections and put the harness inside a loom, rather than Tessa tape it directly. I hope that the harness being tightly wrapped isn't the cause of the issues, but if it is, I will be able to begrudgingly say, "third time's the charm?"

IMG_20200504_105534.jpg IMG_20200504_221523.jpg IMG_20200505_203603.jpg
 
Good news:

Harness passed the wiggle test. Car no longer dies with the ECU shaken like it owes me money.

Double good news:

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A forum member on the sister forum sold me his old MX-6 RSB which came in while I was out of state for work. Happy to have had time to throw it in. I'm waiting to seal the hatch up (leaks through the taillight bolts) before considering reinstalling the trunk plastics. I don't mind the bare look, as the essentials are still there.

Oil catch can is on the list of things to be installed come the next time I'm in town.
 
Got UOA results back. After 1800 miles, the test suggested detonation or worn pistons/rings/cylinders.

Not too shocked or upset.

Just picked up a new daily, so this will be put on the backburner after a leakdown test and compression test can be done to pinpoint the issues.

IMG_20200610_175135.jpg

This certainly won't be the end of this build, as I enjoy the POS too much to want to flog it off to someone else!

"We can rebuild him; we have the technology!!!"
 
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