I once thought of going the other way - installing the direct drive 16V five-speed into my 2.6, which has the "overdrive" five-speed.

The biggest performance impediment to my car is the gearing, which is too tall and the ratios are too widely spaced. First and second are not too bad, but it falls on its face in third. Third gear is good for about 100 MPH, but in the 16V with the same axle ratio, its only about 80. Big difference between (IIRC) 1.67 and 1.38:1.

These torque shy, peaky engines need short, close ratio gears. There was a thread today that referenced an ebay auction for a 16V five speed including clutch, driveshaft, shift linkage, and clutch controls.

Looked like just about everything you need to do the conversion.

Duke