I have kept my car in immaculate condition since I have owned it, and I love the car except for one short coming.

The transmission. It's a slushbox, and I really want the manual for autocross purposes.

Now, I know I could just go out and buy another 94 LX with a stick that's in decent shape, but it just wouldn't be the same. I want to swap in the manual transmission from a wrecked LX with a stick.

I've done my share of work on cars (rebuilds, engine swaps, and so forth), so I don't think knowledge will be too much of an issue. Price and feasibility are my main concerns.

If I throw in the manual, I'll put on a performance clutch (probably the ACT) and the Quaife LSD from Corksport. I'll also get the Ground Control coilover sleeves with the Eibach springs, the Tokico struts, and probably a camber plate to round out the suspension. For brakes, I'm gonna use the braided steel Corksport lines with stock rotors and KVR pads. Wheel/tire package, I'm thinking 15 inch Kosei K1 wrapped with Falken Azenis rubber, size 205/50 R15.

If I get around to the engine, I'm going to go all out too. Corksport head, Bullfrog bored throttle body, Genie header, Corksport cams, Protege GTR rods, and Unorthodox Racing underdrive pulley. I'll probably run a test pipe in place of the cat, and the Pacesetter cat-back. I'm trying to find anyone that makes bigger injectors, but I'm having trouble with that. Gonna go with a Megasquirt engine management system and get everything dyno tuned.

Of course I'm also going to strip out the interior. Junk all the power window and mirror parts, carpet, sound deadening, audio equipment, rear seats, spare tire, and passenger seat. I'm pretty handy with a welder, so I'd probably fab up a roll cage at that point. I'd ditch the stock steering wheel and replace it with a nice Momo wheel, and replace the stock seat with a Corbeau seat and a 4 point harness, mounted to the cage.

Of course it will all look stock from the outside, aside from the wheels, tires, and stance. No body stuff at all.

I really want to make my Protege track car that I can also drive on the street. Give everyone something to think about at the stoplight Grand Prix.





...And then I woke up and remembered that I'm a broke-*** college student.

But I acutally am pretty good with an arc welder and know my car inside and out.

 

Sounds like you have a nice goal set ahead of you, and hopefully a good outcome, good luck

 

So what was your question??
Unless you're shooting for upward of 400WHP the 323 GTR rods are unnecessary.

 

It's real easy to do the manual swap, I've done it on a '93 DX and a '90 LX. All u need is the following:
1.) manual flywheel
2.) clutch kit
3.) through out bearing
4.) tranny
5.) shifter and shift linkages
6.) front, rear, and driver side tranny mounts
7.) pedal assembly bracket (the auto pedal assembly bracket on the LX holds the brake pedal and cruise control module, the manual holds the clutch and brake pedals)
8.) clutch master cylinder (a metal platte covers the hole for this on the auto models which must be removed)
9.) clutch slave cylinder and hydraulic lines
10.) brake master cylinder resivoure

I got all of these parts from a local junk yard for less than $100. The really nice thing about doing the swap on these cars is that you can use a tranny off a Mazda 323, protege LX or DX, or Escort GT with the mazda 1.8. You just have to make sure the flywheel and clutch kit match the tranny you choose (the intermediate shaft diameter on the trannies are different) also the gear ratios are slightly different, the 323 tranny is a blast to drive with but you'll be doing 3,000 rpm at 60 mph in 5th gear.

It took me less than 2 days to do the full swap myself with a cherry picker. You can choose to keep the engine in the car and just drop the tranny out the bottom/driver side of the engine bay but it's much easier to just pull the whole engine/tranny assembly out.