My Other B2600i 2WD Truck

I'm still wondering, what to tell the guys at the machine shop about my block, pistons, crank. Just take it over there, and tell them to make it like "new" again? What verbiage should I use. I'm not a mechanic so I'm a little out of the loop on what to tell them. I want the B2600i Engine to be like new again and the balance shafts, crank, block. Want it all clean, shiny new, so when I put it back together, I should have no issues for another 160,000+ miles. I don't think I could handle doing this again. I'd rather rebuild a 350 V8 easier and more what I feel comfortable with. -- Thanks for help on "words for the shop" -- DadandSonEyes - Raleigh, NC

What do I use to clean the aluminum throttle body and intake. ??? What works best?? My son and I want this truck as original and new as possible. It is all original. Even seats. Interior. Carpet. Floor mats. But does need some new seats or apolstry. Where do we find that stuff? Junk yards seam to have torn uP seats too.

Just ask the machine shop to measure everything and let you know what they recommend you do..........but I can tell you they're going to say it needs to be completely gone through, because that's what THEY want to do. Just make sure you get an estimate BEFORE they do anything to it.......you can dismantle it all and take it in to them all at one time.
When you take the engine apart, make sure the rods are numbered 1 through 4, they should be from the factory....Mazda marked everything or it was cast into the part. When you pull a piston out, re-assemble the cap to the rod as it came off, and keep the old bearing in it also, this way they can measure it all if they want to......the main bearings, toss each one in a ZipLock baggy and number them 1 through 5 or place them back in their locations, screw them back onto their respective journals and tighten them snug. Don't try to remove the pistons from the rods, the machine shop will do that.
If you want this engine as good as you can get it, then do a complete rebuild on it, which means boring the cylinders, buying new pistons, a new oil pump, so on and so forth.......just be ready for a hefty bill of around $1800.00 or more.
I'm going to try to list everything I have bought and what I paid for it in this thread on my engine here......hopefully during this weekend, but we'll see.
The oil pump alone is going to be in the $300.00 range as it includes the whole front timing chain cover also.

Here's my new Melling pump I bought from Amazon but it came from Northern Auto Parts.





Made by Top Line it appears.



I will have to grind on it before it ever goes on the engine though........sometimes when you buy aftermarket parts, they aren't machined like the Mazda ones were.
Here the harmonic balancer will hit this area where it isn't machined far enough. A guy on MazdaTruckin had this same problem on his new aftermarket pump.
I paid $253.00 for this one, shipped.





Bottom line, don't worry about 'not being in the know' or what kind of verbiage to use, just let them know you want it done right and to please give you an estimate on what it will cost to get it there.......most guys that do this stuff are pretty easy going, around here anyway.

For cleaning the aluminum parts (and steel for that matter) I use a degreasing cleaner like Purple Power (I use a purple cleaner I get from Sam's Club) and then I follow that with a good cleaning using a 50/50 mix of Simple Green and water, and I use old tooth brushes and other nylon type brushes of different shapes and sizes when cleaning the parts........rinse with water and dry with a towel and compressed air. The Simple Green really gets the aluminum to sparkle some, and it feels squeaky clean also........but if the aluminum is oxidized some, then you won't get it sparkling unless you bead blast it, and I wouldn't do that.....it'll just get nasty again soon enough!

I see you are working on Will's old truck. How is the ECU from that one holding up in yours?

She still purring!
I drive it every day and love it!

Thanks Axel Breaker Earl for all the words and help!

My son and I will need to measure the cylinder walls to be sure they even need "boring". I was also told that if you "bore them" you have to get bigger rings, or even, larger pistons.

We would trust the shop to measure our cylinders and they would already have the books to know what the tolerences are and maybe just "hone" them a little to clean them up, not bore them out larger? We were hoping just to maybe get the machine shop to hone them, get new rings, clean up the block, etc. I don't have to get new bearings for the CRANK or PISTON RODS on the CRANK? I thought with 161,000 miles I should REPLACE the bearings on the piston rods, MAIN CRANK Bearings and also replace the BALANCE SHAFT Bearings(I'd rather have machine shop do all this stuff). But $1800.00 phe that is way way to much to spend.

Pistons seem to have a nice tight fit in the cylinder walls.... maybe they could give me a price to just "clean up the block, measure the walls, etc "... if within tolerences, don't want to spend all that money.

With 161,000 miles on the block, I wonder how much life my CRANK and ROD Bearings have left in them ?

I believe this is the original engine and original miles.

Yes, if the block is bored any, even just .010" you want to get new pistons and rings.......don't let anyone tell you "We can bore it out ten thousandths and put in oversize rings and you'll be like brand new again!" ALWAYS buy new pistons if the block is bored!

Yes, you want to get new crank and rod bearings for sure.

I only was saying that if the block is "hot tanked" or professionally cleaned, then your gonna have to have new balance shaft bearings put in it also......and you want the machine shop to do that. Those are very similar to a conventional V8's "cam bearings" in the fact that you need some special tools to install them, and that when the block is hot tanked, the caustic solutions they use will eat those soft bearings up so they usually remove them prior to hot tanking the block, and put new ones in after they've cleaned the block up.

You can re-use the original pistons and just install new standard sized rings IF the block doesn't need to be bored. That is what I'm doing to the G6 engine I am building right now........let your machine shop measure your bores and your pistons, and if you have less than .005" (five thousandths) piston to wall clearance then you can usually not have to bore these Mazda blocks.......they are some very good iron I think!

I just looked at the factory service manual and it lists .006" as the maximum that your piston to cylinder wall clearance should be, if it is over .006" then it say's to bore the block and install new oversize pistons.

Another thing to keep in mind....if the cylinders have deep vertical scratches in them, like if some trash got in the cylinder and scored the cyl. wall, then you are probably going to need to bore and re-piston the engine........let the machine shop look at it and see what they say anyway.......and let us know what they say, and we can go from there.