Teeson's Probege Build Thread

[Teeson]

So I figured I'm far enough along to warrant a build thread, or as I prefer another "protege KL swap support thread".

Heres what I got so far:
02 pro5, already has coilovers, wheels, awesome stereo, and the cruise control and A/C deleted:

KL engine from a 96 OBD2 ford probe, hence "Probege"
also tranny, wiring, mounts, radiator.. I had a donor car, I think I grabbed everything I need:

ordered a clutch:

exhaust:

LSD:

and or few more things left to buy.

My goal is to break 14 seconds in the 1/4, hence the overkill clutch.
I also have FD RX7 wheels that I plan to race with, and a buddy who is a welder by trade to help me with the exhaust. We plan to run a very quiet stock system and have a electronic dump right after the header for the track.

I have a good grasp on what this swap entails, but as always its the little things that kill you in the end lol.
To my knowledge I'm the first person to do this swap with a Probe engine/harness and the first in BC Canada. (please do tell me if I'm wrong) That also means aircare. I'll have about 3 years to figure out what I'm going to do about it, but the plan so far is to make the probe engine OBD2 compliant then have the protege ECU out of the picture. Because of this I'm gonna try and post specific wiring information. More research and testing to come however.

please feel free to comment, and contribute. I'm very good at checking the forums but horrible at taking pictures when doing stuff, so I need to know that at least somebody's interested in watching what i'm doing lol.

anyway, enough talk.
today I got the tranny off the motor and started degreasing everything, sheesh this stuff takes a lot of time to get off. My idea is to paint everything visible flat black, then the engine bay in POR15. Also the trans wasn't yet drained so I got a nice surprise when I pulled them apart... plan is to teardown trans and install LSD tomorrow night using this:
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-Teardown-amp-Rebuild-w-LSD-amp-5th-Gear-Swap

 

[UncleShrek]

damn its bad ass. i like the headlights

 

[Teeson]

So tore down the transmission last night, had a unexpected surprise or two.

first off I don't want to put motor oil back in, that seems to cause a rather dirty mess which i get to clean.

also can anyone tell what this is? I pulled the magnetic drain plug out and it was on it. Looks like it's been there a bit.. so i can only hope its not important...

My dad loves the mess

anywho, I ran out of break clean so I will continue the hunt/rebuild tonight!

 

[Teeson]

Holy cow it actually went back together. Now I just have to cross my fingers it doesn't blow up...

Still didn't figure out where that chunk-o-metal came from. I think thats bad, but as per the usual I'll find out the hard way

@UncleShrek Thanx mang, I seem to get a lot of compliments on those. I still like your wheels btw

 

[Teeson]

Had a full 2 days to sleep and work on the engine... I've gotten a decent amount of stuff apart.
intake cover off, valve cover's off, timing belt cover apart, clean clean clean.

I've had a bit of a debate over what engine this actually is, I was told the donor car was a swapped car but the kid I bought it off seems to be full of it. He also said the engine only had 50k on it, I'm seeing a lot of wear on these parts for that little...
anyway the KL01 stamp proves its a DE, which I'm happy about cuz that means I can get away with buying lower grade fuel

I also pulled a rookie move and didn't loosen the 17mm bolts on the accessory belts, and stripped one and sheared the mount of the other bolt that do the tensioning... I mixed and match them and now I only have to buy one tensioner!

then I get to this nightmare:

So I finally got the Pilot bearing in, with help from my dad who's a mechanic, and went to mount the rest. Flywheel, easy. Clutch no problem on the included clutch alignment tool. Then I go to put on the pressure plate, aaand it don't wana fit! so I get a drill and take off the paint, thinking it may be a really tight fit. I know it's supposed to be tight but I had to use a dead blow hammer, not a good sign. Then I test thread the bolts, seem fine, put them all on, then start tightening. Got harder and harder so I pulled the bolts out. I'm thinking that it wasn't threading easily because the flywheel was such a tight fit to the pressure plate. Instead the thread pitch is a different on the flywheel, I'm using the stock bolts! So a little cursing later I sent XTD and email for an explanation. I googled it and it turns out they use bolts from a Honda Civic! WHY?!?!? nothing in the instructions, no included bolts... arrg! I'm gonna wait for their reply, If they aren't going to replace anything then I guess I'll tap them and get ARP civic bolts. Which better work on chromoly! is anyone even listening? ima go clubin baby seals! lolz naw

/end rant

 

[Teeson]

Busy week for me, I got a whack of parts:

the flywheel chase tapped, trying to locate some high grade bolts for it.. XTD was wrong BTW, I emailed them asking for the thread pitch, all he could tell me was that its the same as stock (stock = 8x1.00mm) actually its 8x1.25mm, FYI
Had to clean up my workspace somewhat, also have a rain check for a engine stand that was on sale for $50!

Also started my wiring charts, I'll post them up when I'm done, or closer to it. I'm finding all the protege wires that need to be connected with the probe ECU and any other connections that need to be made, then spelling it out so a child could do it

And (yes there's more ) have a buddy who's able to make me a tranny saver bracket for just the cost of materials! So i'm trying to make a template, if anyone has installed on before and has some fitment advice, please lemme know

 

[Teeson]

Big day of research! I took all my probe wiring to work, as we had a slow day. Me and my boss (who is now very interested in my swap lol) spent a bit in the afternoon eliminating wires in the probe harness. We figure there's like 5 wires to hook up when the swap happens. I may even order a harness to make it go even quicker on the day. So i'll post my entire swap guide, except the probe interior plugs (blue ones) pin out, as I'm still making that one. Man starting with a working donor car was a good idea, none of this guessing with mixing engines and harness'.

Notes:

- Keep Alive : Blue/Red (pin 11) – This is probably Ignition, as the Protg doesn’t have anything similar to this.
- I’m confident that simply switching which ECU controls the Fuel pump will work, if not just ground all three of them.
- 12V power can be tapped off the protg’s ECU power, the Probe has 2 12V const. wires, and the Protg has 1. The Probe’s wires are a fairly complex circuit, I think they also power a sensor or something.
- The Protg Harness can be almost completely eliminated from the get-go. As far as I can tell it runs the engine, coolant temp sensor, fans, A/c (deleted), and possibly cruise control (deleted).
- The Probe’s trans comes with a speedo ring gear, you can choose to leave the ABS module running that, or have the probe ECU output going to the speedo. This will more depend on what tires you run.
- I have disconnected the ECU completely, the car still starts (or turns over), the only things that aren’t working: Tach, Speedo, and Coolant Temp. everything else keeps going, the battery light and MIL didn’t even come on.
- the OBD2 will take some scary trial and error. And research. The protg appears to use K line serial communication (pin 7 on OBD2 plug), I’m unsure if it uses 2 pins (I think It also uses Pin 2) since OBD2 got an update it ’02. I also don’t yet know what wire the Probe uses, and I don’t have a OBD2 plug from the donor car… cue google.


Mechanical:

Axels: Stock P5
Radiator: stock P5 with custom hoses OR Probe rad custom mounts
Heater Core: use stock lines
Intake: Custom with the K&N
Throttle Cable: Unhook and pull, should reach to throttle body
Engine mounts: use P5 outer, Probe inners. Swap Passenger mount studs
Fuel lines: stock P5 slip on with force 5/16 line. Feed = banjo bolt
Exhaust: Custom
Power Steering: P5 High pressure bolts on, low pressure custom. Measure both, remove and thread check KL side. 5/8 tubing

A bit stuck on the power steering lines at the moment, mostly due to lack of concrete information... It seems everyone has their own way to do it. Some connect it at the steering rack, some at the pump, even both. I think lewis' way (both at the pump) is best, but I'm going have trouble getting the correct lines. I'll take the digital caliper to them and I have the pump removed from the KL, between the 2 I out to figure it out..

I'll also try and post up a pic of my tranny saver template, you can all tell if I'm going to have fitment issues...

 

[AzteCypher]

Pretty cool build man. If and when my 1.6L gives up the ghost I'm thinking of of dropping in a KL with ITBs.

 

[Teeson]

Pretty cool build man. If and when my 1.6L gives up the ghost I'm thinking of of dropping in a KL with ITBs.

thanx man, I think this swap is fairly straight forward, at least with a 2.0 I'd love to do ITB's but 1. no on makes a set to fit B. no hood that fits. Don't let that stop you though! 250whp is possible

 

[repthemazdas]

s**** looking good! sub

 

[Teeson]

well got a little bit done on my "weekend", got the to be painted parts stripped down and masked. Gonna have to wait for some warmer weather though, it's about 3 degrees (Celsius, eh) and the paint wants about 15..

But! that didn't stop me from trying it on a less seen part, ala transmission:

Camera didn't exactly do the colour justice this is without a flash too.. its even less glossy than it looks:
OOO! and one less thing to worry about:

Passenger motor mount studs are threaded all the way down, and they're the right size.
I may take my painting to work (heated bay for the wiiiiinnn), but I'm gonna see how busy we are first.
I'm also occupied pinning out this plug:

It is the plug on top of the fusebox, is called the engine harness. I may even be able to grab all the critical connections, just have to make sure I know what there are. If anyone's already done this, please save me some time lol...

 

[BRIAN_MP5T]

This looks like a part off the shift gate..

You can see it on the lower right of this picture.

It is a spring loaded lever...

 

[repthemazdas]

s*** looks good man!

 

[Teeson]

any idea what that controls? I ran it through the pattern when it was apart it seemed ok, I didn't feel anything jagged or broken.. The donor car drove fine, mind you it was only put in 1st and reverse.

could it be the thing that prevents you from putting it in reverse when your 5th?

 

[BRIAN_MP5T]

It might be the reverse lights...

 

[Teeson]

ooo i hope not.. then I have to make a sensor at the gate.. or something...

 

[jbrewer4639]

good job on a very detailed thread subb.

 

[Teeson]

wow it's been a while, and I honestly haven't got too much done..

I have a date set for the swap, I recently got a hour cut at work which is a blessing in disguise because now I don't have to ask for time off work to get this thing done. I'll have 4 days in the last week of march to get 'er done.

So that gives me 2 weeks to have the car and engine ready to go.
Aircare is passed (too easy) gave me a good chance to observe how they test emissions. They pull all the information off the insurance paper I gave him, check the VIN on the car twice (window one only) and plug it in. Basic KOEO and KOER tests and it passed.
This means that if I keep the Probe's OBD2 system intact, it shouldn't fault whatsoever. And I found out that both the Probe and the Protege use the same K line communication with scanners, yet another point proving how little ford developed the motor.

Got the timing cover back together

Sanded down my Ford logo on the valve covers, after paint. Found out the hard way that the engine paint hasn't cured yet, will be touching up tomorrow.

Also have the Intake manifold and the throttle body painted, heated bay at work ftw!

got an engine stand for $50! on sale, and splitting the cost with my dad so its like 25!
Thermostat in, water pump, timing belt kit done and as soon as the valve cover's touched up and dried ima put them back on. Dealership charged me $150 for the valve and bolt gaskets! re-donk-u-las! I hope I don't have to go to them for the injector seals...

AAAnnnnndd! That plug I was trying to pinout?! well I don't have it done exactly, but it has 12V, ignition, start signal, and I believe the fuel pump signal. This is sooo simple! (famous last words) that plug contains almost all the essential wires that need to be connected. The only others are grounds, which the harness contains.
The none essentials (tach, coolant gauge, MIL, battery light, and reverse) are pretty much best grabbed at the protege's ECU.
My plan is to hook up the engine harness before I drop in the engine, the harness actually splits in 2, and when the FSDE is out run the body side of the harness to zee appropriate locationz.. solder whats needed, plug it all in when we drop in the engine, boom! done. cake.

Tomorrow I have to go out and find a new power steering pump belt's tensioner bracket that I broke.. and then continue reassembly.

 

[82735]

You sir, have one sweet ride. Cant wait to see you get it all together. BTW Which coilovers do you have?

Sub!

 

[Teeson]

Why thank you.
And BC racing coilovers