KL Swap time- wiring questions

[marshallj25]

I have a 1999 Mazda Protege ES and my 1.8L engine began smoking and losing power. I decided to do a KL swap. Since my car is well worn with 255,000 miles and has some dings in it, I don't need this to be beautiful- I just need it to work.

In order to pass inspection the engine had to be ODBII.

I went to the junkyard and pulled an engine from a 2001 626. It's a manual transmission attached to a KLG4. I got the motor mounts already and everything seems like it'll fit into place.

My main concerns are the wiring. The KL harness seems to be completely different than my FP harness. I know the harness would be different since it's a different engine, but I mean it's completely different in that it's just for the engine while my Protege harness seems to snake all over the place, goes under the dash, and runs towards the back of the car. What do I do to modify it to run to the fuse box? Has anyone done this swap before and have any notes?

I've read the other swap pages but they used OBDI KLZE engines or went with Megasquirt. I'd like to go all factory with this OBD2 setup.

I'd appreciate any help.

 

[thepope540]

I did a KL swap several years ago, but as you probably saw I megasquirted it. If you want to keep factory OBDII functionality you'll probably be happiest just swapping over to the complete 626 harness and ditching the protege harness entirely. It'll be a lot of work, but will probably save you time in the long run.

 

[marshallj25]

What parts of the harness will I need? I already have the 626 engine harness, but the plugs don't interface with the other harnesses on the Protege. On the Protege harness part of it runs under the center console and goes somewhere towards the back of the car. There's also a big black connector that connects to the one that goes under the dash leading to the instrument cluster.

 

[marshallj25]

By the way, I bought a scale because I was curious how much more the KL+manual transmission weighed than the FP + auto transmission.

The KL still had the passenger side CV joint+bracket hanging off it, but lacked a starter. The FP had no CV joints hanging off it:

I'll need to weigh the starter and the long CV joint to see how much they weigh, but it looks like the weight difference going to the KL is going to be less than 20 lbs.

 

[thepope540]

The trouble you're going to run into is that the protege harness goes everywhere and is tied into all kinds of fun things. I would seriously consider a complete wiring swap if you're keeping the OBDII port. It'll mean a pretty significant dismantling of both cars, but in the end it'll be the only way to know for sure that you have everything you need. There are some good wiring diagram resources out there, but unless you are very patient you're bound to miss something. I had about 40 hours in my harness - pulling the interior to get it out, and putting everything back together are included in that, but it was still a pretty big job.

 

[marshallj25]

The trouble you're going to run into is that the protege harness goes everywhere and is tied into all kinds of fun things. I would seriously consider a complete wiring swap if you're keeping the OBDII port.

Here's my reasoning with this:

I figure that regardless of the type of engine harness or engine in the car, it's going to have the same exact wires running into the engine harness. For instance, the ECU is never going to interface with the blinkers or taillights, but it's always going to interface with the fuel pump, AC fan, injectors, etc. I'd imagine that even though the 626 and Protege harnesses look completely different it's going to be the same functions in those wires.

The main plug that connects to the ECU fits, all the sensors for the engine fit, so all I need to worry about is the other wires which go to the fuse box and attach under the dash. I'm looking through the wiring diagrams now to find the information I need.

 

[xxxmonoxidechil]

Your main issue is the fact your using a 98+ 626 harness. Which isnt even Mazda based. Its entirely Ford, including the ECU. Which tuning wise, actually opens up other doors. But is going to be a bit more involved then one of the Mazda based setup's used from the 93=97

 

[marshallj25]

Your main issue is the fact your using a 98+ 626 harness. Which isnt even Mazda based. Its entirely Ford, including the ECU. Which tuning wise, actually opens up other doors. But is going to be a bit more involved then one of the Mazda based setup's used from the 93=97

Yeah, you're right about that.

The 626 ECU is Ford based, but so is my 1999 Protege ECU. They both say Ford on them and have an EEC-V label.

From what I've gathered about the ECUs is that they're entirely Ford hardware-wise, but run a Mazda firmware which makes it difficult to decode the data stream.

Right now I'm gathering information about what pins go where so I can solder up the harness.

 

[xxxmonoxidechil]

Thats a good thing. I had no idea the later model Protege's had swapped over to a Ford system also. I def believe you as a Ford ecu looks quite different then the older Mazda ecu's.