My KLZE Festiva Build Thread

[Damkid]

I've had a spare G series tranny for a while and the other day i picked up this probe GT tranny, i've always been intrigued by the BG V6 swap in the 90-94 323's

So the idea occured to me if there basically the same tranny (internally) except for different bell housings, then i "should" be able to swap the differentials making the probe tanny able to accept the 323/capri axles, which "should" make a V6 swap relatively simple

so i tore down the two trannies today to compare and here's what i found

The 323 tranny with the 5th gear cover off


now with the case separated


And a bare empty tranny


The probe tranny with the case separated


bare empty probe tranny with all the parts spread over the bench


And here's the part i was looking to find out, the differentials side-by-side, the 323 is on the left


You can see the probe's ring gear is thicker but it's not taller that the 323's but as far as i can tell thats the only difference in the differentials other than the spline count



The only difference i've spotted so far with the gear sets so far is the gear that drives the differential is thicker on the probe tranny

The 323 gear:


Probe gear:


I set the 323 differential in the probe housing and it fits like it belongs, so when i re-assemble the tranny i'll use the 323 diff in the probe tranny so it'll be ready to swap into a festiva :evil4:

[jmye1524]

Nice.........and great pictures.

[Damkid]

Thanks

[Festiva_Fred]

Cool.

[Damkid]

Now i just need a sweet and unsuspecting festiva to take on the swap

[Festiva_Fred]

^ I have a extra shell you could have if you want it :lol: just kidding.. but I really don't know what I'm doing with it yet...

[pr0nst4r]

How are the 323 axles going to hold up to that kind of power/abuse? This interests me greatly. I probably won't lead the way, but I'll be bonkers if I don't at least follow.

[Damkid]

^ I have a extra shell you could have if you want it :lol: just kidding.. but I really don't know what I'm doing with it yet...

Thanks anyway fred, but at the moment i don't have the room to start this swap, hopefully in the spring

How are the 323 axles going to hold up to that kind of power/abuse? This interests me greatly. I probably won't lead the way, but I'll be bonkers if I don't at least follow.

Considering i've seen the 323 axles used on a BPT which makes about 180hp and the KL-DE makes about 180hp they should hold up just fine

[pr0nst4r]

What would you suggest for a boosted KL-DE application? Basically, if I do this, my goal is 225-250hp. More if I can get away with it and still be really reliable. I'll be taking my time though. Probably build over a year or more.

I really need to go digging around on performanceprobe, clubprotege, and find a 323 forum of sorts...

[Damkid]

there was a 300whp BPT festiva on here a while back, and i beleive he used the 323 axles as well

The tires will lose traction before you'll break an axle

[pr0nst4r]

Interesting information. I think there may be quite a bit of merit to this here idea.

Now here's another question that you may or may not know the answer to. If the KL-DE will shoehorn in there, what's to stop one from shoehorning the 2.5L Duratec found in the SVT Contours?

Would it just not be worth it?

[Damkid]

Interesting information. I think there may be quite a bit of merit to this here idea.

Now here's another question that you may or may not know the answer to. If the KL-DE will shoehorn in there, what's to stop one from shoehorning the 2.5L Duratec found in the SVT Contours?

Would it just not be worth it?

i don't know enough about the contours but i'm assuming they use a whole different tranny and would take a lot more work than a KL-DE swap, what i would rather do is find a KL-ZE (which is the JDM version) which has about 200hp or so and swap that in

[pr0nst4r]

They do use an entirely different transmission. I can't remember the code right now, but it's not anything that would mate. You would have to adapt the Contours hubs etc. I don't think it makes much more power than the KL-DE either.

I'm reading on performanceprobe right now (wading through it is more like it), but besides compression, what are the differences between the DE and ZE? Since I'm planning on running boost with it as well, I would be at an early advantage with the DE, would I not. Then I could just build a lower compression block when I'm ready to really put some PSI to it. I'm guessing the heads have different flow geometry too?

[Damkid]

They do use an entirely different transmission. I can't remember the code right now, but it's not anything that would mate. You would have to adapt the Contours hubs etc. I don't think it makes much more power than the KL-DE either.

I'm reading on performanceprobe right now (wading through it is more like it), but besides compression, what are the differences between the DE and ZE? Since I'm planning on running boost with it as well, I would be at an early advantage with the DE, would I not. Then I could just build a lower compression block when I'm ready to really put some PSI to it. I'm guessing the heads have different flow geometry too?

I'm not too sure on the internal differences between the DE and ZE except the HP numbers and i beleive the intakes are slightly different

[pr0nst4r]

I'll pull some info from performanceprobe and post it up for both our benefits and anyone else who is reading this.