Late update. I had to use the Protege for work one morning, and the car ran hot for a while without me realizing it, til it was too late. Engine is not happy. Not sure what caused the car to overheat (haven't had time to really look into it).
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Foofighter- KL swapped Protege
Collapse
X
-
Ok got a free moment at work and Ryan unlocked my account, so here we go.
Found a crappy MX3 with a good-running KLZE swap.
20170407_194407 by concealer404, on Flickr
What a mess. Running a JDM ecu, but still had all the emissions hooked up (Millenia intake manifold), and a/c, ps, and cc. Gross. Also apparently leaked like a sieve.
20170423_193945 by concealer404, on Flickr
Yoink.
20170430_181810 by concealer404, on Flickr
Comment
-
Cleaning up gross motor, finding some cool stuff.
Looky here.
20170520_200051 by concealer404, on Flickr
New timing set, King6fab tensioner, all leaking gaskets replaced. (crank seal leaking badly.)
20170529_163418 by concealer404, on Flickr
New VC gaskets and gromets.
20170529_191401 by concealer404, on Flickr
Mostly together.
20170529_191510 by concealer404, on Flickr
OF course, forget that you need to chop the shelf under the crank timing belt pulley to run the PS delete tensioner pulley.
20170529_193334 by concealer404, on Flickr
New header bolts/nuts from Fastenal, cleaned up and painted alt thrubolt bracket.
20170603_172858 by concealer404, on Flickr
Success. Also: new oem crank bolt.
20170603_174916 by concealer404, on Flickr
Comment
-
Apparently don't have pics, but shortly afterwards, stuck MFactory diff equipped MX3 trans on, with a Fidanza flywheel and South Bend kevlar clutch sandwiched in.
Our transplant patient shows up.
20170515_210323 by concealer404, on Flickr
Reasonably tidy-looking KL swap on the surface showing none of the horrors that we'll find later.
20170520_170238 by concealer404, on Flickr
20170617_161709 by concealer404, on Flickr
Moving forward.
20170617_171456 by concealer404, on Flickr
And out.
20170625_131356 by concealer404, on Flickr
And cleaned. Control arms and steering rack removed, MX3 depowered rack fitted. Need to sort out straps. Turns out Protege and Escort straps are different.
20170625_153201 by concealer404, on Flickr
That's about where we're at today. Sins of previous work and other things to follow.
Comment
-
Dumb stuff attributed to Auto-Motion in Louisville and/or whomever originally swapped his original donor KL powered MX3.
This is NOT how you do an adjustable coilover conversion. If you're doing it like this, you're doing it wrong.
20170617_192420 by concealer404, on Flickr
Spring isolator clearly doing great work.
20170617_193213 by concealer404, on Flickr
Brake hose not attached to strut properly. Instead zip-tied so tight that it was cutting into the line. No reason for this other than being lazy.
20170617_193749 by concealer404, on Flickr
Lost a strut bolt? No worries, put any old bolt in there. Doesn't matter if the diameter is too small, affecting camber, or if it's not remotely resembling design of stock hardware.
20170617_194556 by concealer404, on Flickr
Just leave the emissions crap banging around loose in the engine bay. That's fine. Also: we don't need no stinking timing covers.
20170617_170717 by concealer404, on Flickr
Could not find an explanation for this.
20170617_173326 by concealer404, on Flickr
Hard to capture in pictures, but these fuel lines were crimped easily 80% closed. Takes talent. These are very thick walled.
20170617_171952 by concealer404, on Flickr
Idiotic shop committed two sins, here. 1) no washers under these nuts. Rear of this xmember was not attached to the car because the diameter is bigger than that of the nut. Results in crossmember being held up by the transmission, not the transmission being supported by the crossmember. I can only imagine how awful this had to have felt while driving. 2) mount thru-bolt stuck in backwards, resulting in a lot of swearing on my part.
20170625_121930 by concealer404, on Flickr
This one is going to take some explaining. Car came to me because it overheated and presumably blew a head gasket. I believe i found out why. KL powered cars have a radiator with no direct fill, they have a small tank with a vented radiator cap on them that goes to the overflow/expansion tank. This car is using a Neon radiator, fill as usual at the water pipe between cylinder heads. But... that's it. Utilizing the oem Protege overflow/expansion tank. This picture shows the fitting on top of the tstat housing that the shop had run directly to the overflow/expansion tank. Obviously, there's no cap there soooo.... any time there was coolant behind the tstat (always, as long as there was actually coolant), it would just get pushed directly into the overflow, until the system ran dry. Awesome, right?
20170617_192743 by concealer404, on Flickr
In the interest of being frugal and simple in this build, i'm recommending to Bobby that he have the filler neck between the cylinder heads drilled/tapped/welded for a nipple to run to the overflow tank, and use a vented radiator cap up there. I've seen it done a time or two, and it seems like the most straightforward solution at the moment. I'm not particularly interested in trying to mount/run hoses to and from an oem MX6/Probe/626/MX3 tank while using a Neon radiator, and i don't think he's particularly interested in spending the coin at the moment for the Escort's old setup. (which would also be a pain in the butt to try to fit behind the grill and stay looking OEM like he desires.) Input is welcomed.
Comment
Comment