FE3 Engine Swap!

Finally got the 91' B2200 to my shop, here's the first before pic and build pics will follow as I go with the build.

Ok, got the 2200 motor out. Time to clean up the engine bay and go find its swap motor.

Ok forum, couldn't find a good FE3 so, I thought, "Why go buy a motor for this swap when I have a freshly mild built sbc 355 sitting on the engine stand". I've been reading and reading all the possible swaps and know the 355 will swap. I need your help!!!! Is there still no one who makes of sell the swap mounts for my swap? Does anyone have step-by-step instructions and photos to assist me in my endeavor? If so, your help would be GREATLY appreciated. When my swap is completed, it will be the FIRST mazda B in my city with a Sbc swap, the local car/truck club will envy it and it will be a very prideful Mazda B. Thanks in advance!

I've done the SBC swap. It's really fun to drive.



I had another guy ask the same question as yours. Here's what I put together for him...

I hope it's what you're looking for.

Thanks SinCityLocal, this is a great help and, i will personally keep u posted on my build. What about the transmission fabs. I'm going to use a T5 from a camero if i can find one. I want to stay standard shift.

I'll put up a pic of my trans mount later.

Thanks Bro! And greatly appreciated.

I had to remove the transmission crossmember to accommodate the 700R4. Then I remembered I still needed it for the parking brake cables. So the left side was cut off and reinstalled for the cables.
So I just used the torsion crossmember. I cut the pieces to fit, and obviously had to account for the drop to the transmission mount.
No rocket science here.



I used the existing holes in the crossmember for the mount. There are no sleeves in the crossmember, so over tightening will crush it.
Fortunately, the trans mount doesn't see a lot of weight or torque, so there's no real reason to over engineer.

Thanks for the pics SinCityLocal, I've bout got the motor and trans in place to fabricate my mounts. I will also be using a 700r4. Just looking at the position of my motor over the 2.2 mount locations, it seems almost that a set of the sbc swap mounts would work also but, I'm going to fabricate my own to keep from spending $100+. You mounted the tranny nicely also, as I will do nearly the same if not the same. I removed most of the vacuum crap over the passenger fender which; makes the compartment look less cluttered and provides a better view to mock up my fabrications. Again, thanks a million. I'll keep you posted on any progress.

What happened to the T5 idea?

Make sure you push the motor back as far as possible, keeping just enough gap to make distributor adjustments. The HEI distributor is really big. If you can get a stubby water pump, you won't have to push the radiator as far forward. I couldn't use one, because I have a serpentine belt, and the don't make a reverse rotation stubby.

I highly recommend a rear swap before you put it on the road. The donor for my swap was a 1990 Formula Firebird. the rear gear ratio is 3:23, so I figured it would work okay in the truck too... since the truck is lighter than the original F-body. I got a rear from an S-10 and put the LSD diff in that. I'm currently in the middle of that, but had to put it on hold for other reasons. It's going to bring my RPMs down to the proper range for the torque and horsepower curves of my motor. The TPI motors fall on their face at or near 4500 rpms. Yours will wind up a little more, so you could probably go 3:73 if you wanted to.

We can talk about that later though.