ha. saw the title and knew it had to be you sac
. your best bet is to call the lsd mfr. Ur prob gonna be the first ever to attempt it. I wouldn't assume an ms3 would fit as we're talking about an hp difference of over 100. I would bet the ms3 tranny is gonna have beefier gears and synchro, effecting the physical layout and space constraints for the diff. Buuut, if u wanna experiment, find a wrecked ms3 and pull the oem diff out. I'd imagine it would be a much cheaper mistake?
Yeah, I was planning on having to do that since (calling the diff suppliers). I also got a membership to Mazda's company motorsport
(Mazdaspeed Motorsport) organization, and one of the things that they offer is technical assistance to members. I have no clue what the tech assistance is like, but I'm going to call them probably next week and find out.
The only thing I've confirmed (through various published info on the web from diff suppliers and msm) is that the same diff PN fits a large variety of mazda transmissions (the "G-type" transmission). This includes both the speed- and non-speed version of the 3, first gen. I've found no info on the second gen - I'm not sure if that is because they don't fit, or because suppliers haven't updated their application lists online for the second gen. (and no version of the mz5 is listed anywhere.)
So that is a step in the right direction - that at least for the first-gen 3, the same aftermarket LSD can be used in either car.
The next step that would give me more confidence is to confirm that the 6MT on the 2.5L mz5 is still what mazda refers to as its G-type transmission.
Well, would be best to buy whole front end. This way have every part to compare. Often you can get the whole car from the auction for $2000 and sell the rest of the parts out.
Talk to the local junk yard, some will buy a car + some fee for you rather the selling parts back, just need to deal. I'm sure lsd alone will be as much as the whole junker.
Unfortunately $2000 isn't going to come close to getting a wrecked MS3, from what I've seen. The couple that I found in TX at salvage auctions were in the $5k to $7k range. I investigated that option at length when I was considering how to add power to the 5 (doing a true full swap of an ms3).
The prices I've found for transmissions in good condition is about $800-$1000, damaged ones (case damage) is about $400-ish. At this point, while there is still research that can be done, I'm not willing to risk $400 and the time and effort. If I can't get any more information, $400 isn't that big an investment to get an answer. I think if I could find a transmission in the $200-$250 range, I'd just jump on it and try it out.
