2003 Mazda Protege5

so this is now my second thread. first one was for help with my alternator. Which I did in the worst possible way and broke my tranny. it was obviously weak anyways so here I am planning what to do next... so here lies my status. I either want to replace stock but really want to gain so thinking of getting a mazdaspeed tranny so i gain LSD. i do not know if this is possible so maybe some pros can give me insight...

in my previous thread i had mentioned swapping motor for a turbo bp, but was quickly turned to the na v6.... only problem is no wreckers with in 200 km have 1. except 1 and the want $1000 and motor ticks n needs sensors... not happening as after motor trans mounts ecu n wiring id be at cost of motor from protege garage with 0 clicks and forged.

now im hooked on the v6 though... i also like idea of supercharger or turbo... oh what should i do. please help me make some decisions.

stock used tranny was quoted at $400 with a 90 day warranty...

what are some good swap ideas? what will i need parts wise? what modifications are required? and is there anywhere known in ontario canada i can buy/ get price from. also if i keep stock can i swap in any mazda speed part i want (other than turbo obvs as it requires ecu at bare minimum)?

thanks all and feel free to leave any helpful info, links or tips and tricks for me as well. this car is going to have a long life and eventually get all the bells and whistles

What's your budget?

my budget to start is pretty low. but is going to significantly increase. basically i drive a huge durango n its costing min 500 a mo gas and 300 insurance. one mazdas driveable ill be saving close to 400 a month lol. budget right now nor more than 1k

mod the car for what you want, someone else's ideas aren't the way to go...
...but yea the KL swap is pretty cool.
It sounds like the p5 is your daily driver? Putting a turbo or supercharger/engine swaps will put your car out of it for a long time- probably not a good idea for a DD.
If the transmission needs replaced you can put an MSP transmission in there, the MSP used the same engine (2.0 FSDE... just with a different windage tray so the turbo oil-return line could bolt up to it) so that would make sense. That's a reasonable mod, something's broke so fix it with something a little better- that's what i've been doing with my car (of course... i haven't really done much), mostly with just little mods. Or like no mods at all with lots of ideas for mods.

I'm sure someone already told you, but out cars don't make a lot of power without a lot of money, and even then reliability becomes a huge issue (piston connecting rods snap... the OEM LSD fails...and then your rear quarter panels rust). I actually think the FS-DE is plenty fun after 4000RPM (not so much fun with an automatic transaxle)

suspension mods are where it's at yo- not fast in a strait line but still fun to drive. You can get the struts/springs off an MSP for relatively cheap (they do fit on the p5, the sedan and the wagon share a lot of parts. i got my set up for around $500 and i love it) and your car will be way more fun to drive. You can also upgrade your sway bars to the MSP/racing beat bars. AWR and progress also make rear anti-sway bars for our cars. They'll fit on the p5, but the MSP and the p5/regular sedan rear subframes are different. The MSP rear subframe has an extra bit of metal welded on where the sway bar mounting brackets mount up to it so the larger brackets fit on the subframe. (larger bar, larger brackets)
Since the p5 doesn't have the extra support/mounting surface on the subframe, you can buy a pair of adapters from AWR to go in their place. The AWR brackets bolt up to your subframe in place of your sway bar brackets, and then you bolt your new sway bar on the AWR brackets.
You can also look for a clunk-fix kit. The clunk fix changes the sway bar mounting points by moving them out away from the middle of the subframe and more towards the wheels. The idea is that by moving the mounting points towards the outside of the car, the sway bar will want to twist more like a sway bar is supposed to, rather than bend up and down a bit due to the more inboard mounting location. Someone on the forums had a good analogy- they said to think of your arm as the sway bar, with your shoulder as the mounting point on the subframe. Hold it out and bend your elbow so that your arm makes a 90-degree angle, then push up on your hand- you move your arm clockwise a little, as well as pushing your whole arm up. By moving the mounting points outwards, the sway bar will want to twist instead of move up and down. Your bar should theoretically perform better, and not ruin your bushings every 30,000 miles.

...the racing beat bar needs new bushings fairly often, and they need to be greased a lot to avoid squeaking. And you'll need new sway bar end-links regardless of what sway bar you have on the car.

You can also get a nice cat-back exhaust for the car. Racing beat, corksport, magnaflow... and some other manufacturers that i can't remember make stuff for our cars. If you order a cat-back exhaust, you need to get one for the p5- the sedan has a little longer exhaust tip. I believe, for the p5, the tip needs to be around 5 inches shorter than the regular sedan muffler tip, or at least some aspect of the exhaust needs to be a little shorter. If you're not concerned with having a catalytic converter (at least the first cat), you can get a nice exhaust header. I know there's the OBX 4-1 style header that a lot of people have, and there's a different 4-2-1 header that's made for the 626 that can be modified to fit the protege.

so uhh...
Struts/springs, upgraded sway bars and associated hardware, cat-back exhaust, header, and you should be happy or at least that's a good place to start without spending a ton of money

ya. car currently is not DD but hopefully sometime soon will be. aiming for feburary... and for me honestly motor swap or tranny swap would take same time. motor swap might be a cuple hrs more for wiring but if it gets me a significant gain itd be well worth it. inquired about a supercharged 2.5 V6 today i founf on kijiji will see how this goes.

anyone wants to chat add to skype dugas.mike

Msp trans is the same except the LSD that breaks, if you're looking at putting more power to it get an mfactory, their good for 1,000 hp

how much is this m factory you speak of and where do you buy?

theres lots of overtime available at work right now so if i can get my hands on a couple days im thinking the kl swap is gonna be best... does anyone know what kl series will fit in this car? klze is 200 hp so im thinking this is a good platform. but ive seen quite a few milennia motors for sale as well and quite a few supercharged ones. also is the a turbo kl series?

No kl came stock turbo but its not hard to do

Klze is non USDm klde is USDm

ok would kl do better with turbo or supercharger. whats the cheapest way to do so? also will kl bolt right in or do i need custom motor mounts etc? also any links to products that will help would be greately appreciated. also what can these motors handle boost wise? i have a place to tune it as well so thats not a concern.

Check out probetalk.com for any info you need on the kl

As far as mounts go yes it goes right in, same trans and axles iirc. The hard part is wiring, your also going from obd2 to obd1 so emissions testing is something to think about if you have to deal with that in your area

it will be considered a hot rod so only needs to pass idle. wirings my aspiration as well lol. now the milennia has a V6 thats supercharged am having no luck finding any information on them. are they kls?

I think that might have been the odd ball miller cycle motor if it is I know not many were made

ya iv found about 10 of them for sale relatively cheap but dont wanna get into fabricating axels etc.....

we are thinking about doing this in my buddies pro5

The KL series 2.5L V6's are the ONLY drop in alternatives for a 3rd gen protege...and i'm saying drop in as in they use the stock mounting locations, can use the stock shifter linkage (with the right gear box)...and most accessories (AC has been a problem though, requires some custom piping it looks like)...The KL engine was in everything from 2nd gen probe GT's, to Mx6 LS's, to 626 V6s...and i believe even some other cars, but only in Japan after those mentioned...The factory gear box can also be used, but it requires switching bell housings iirc...

If you don't care about drop in...then obviously the sky is the limit...When you get into the millenia V6s and things like that, you're beyond anything close to drop in...so might as well go for something with a lot more support...you could retrofit a 'frankenmotor' (Honda K24 block/k20 head) and 6 speed RSX gear box...turbo that...and never look back...but, obviously, the cost and time required to do that...would be great enough to just look at another car...

The KL, like the FS, has two varients...with a lot of changes between them over the year...so like tweety said, look over at probetalk for anything you're interested in...

the KL DE is the us version, with 164 hp, lower compression, milder cams, and a different intake manifold...for those reasons, its easier to tune for higher boost...

the KL ZE is the JDM version, with ~200 hp, higher compression, etc...it will make MORE power with less boost, but is harder to tune due to the higher compression...

depending on the car the engine came from...the intake manifold will have a curved or straight neck from the throttle body...I think people have made either work in a protege, but one was easier to wire the throttle linkage iirc...so look into that...the best swaps paralleled 2 computers...using the factory computer for all accessories and the gauge cluster...while the specific V6 computer handled the engine and most of its harness...there ARE obd-II KL V6 computers and harnesses available...you don't have to run a OBD-I KL, its just that the JDM ZE was only ever OBD-I...so keep that in mind...

but like others mentioned...by far the trickiest part of the KL swap is the wiring...enough to break a few members...but if you have a few months and don't mind pouring over wiring diagrams for weeks...it'll fit your style fine...

I owned a 93 Probe GT before my P5...gotta say, thats one of the smoothest, best sounding, and fun engines i've found in a small car...it won't blow you away with stock power, but its still a hell of a lot of fun...

very common to do v6 swap from what i hear... but motors around here are very scarce and i am still unsure if supercharged one will work... if you do end up doing please let me know how it turned out.

So *^^&**&^&* Sick of the charging system in this car. I have replace battery twice and put 3 different alternators in car that all bench tested fine. WTH Is wrong with it. Only thing I have recently noticed we a light green wire with red stripe near the alternator that has clearly not been hooked up for quite a while. I have been unable to locate any diagrams showing this wire. I also seen the same wire in the plug to the fuse panel under the hood. Its a very high gauge wire like 14 AWG+ I am so fed up atm anyone able to shed some light on this?

I found a light green/red wire in the charging system for the ATX connector (don't ask me why you would have that wire on a MTX or why it's so large):



You might want to try this test for current drain,... You should set your multimeter to Volts first in case there is a big drain. Too much current can blow the fuse on your meter. If the voltage is small(close to zero), then turn your meter to Amps to get a current reading.

You should at least tape off that light green/red wire so there is no power drain through it.

Where is that atx plug located? Also i downloaded shop manual last night and seen that lt green/ red is also a wire for the door locks? is it possible they had it hooked up directly to alternator for some reason? I hate gerry rigged s*** the previous owner obviously should not have owned a tool box. Looks like now would be a good time to do a wire tuck... Take apart the harnesses and find out where that wire is from....