Project: Lil Red (Bagged & V8 88' B2200)

Congratulations man, sounds good too!

Thanks! I am loving the sound of the exhaust! Can't wait to drive it now!

There are still a lot of loose ends to tie before it's street worthy, but getting closer.

Install water pump and serpentine belt
Install radiator and hoses
Bleed clutch slave cylinder
Install front bumper and grill
Mount hood latch and relocate it on underside of hood.
Cut bed floor out and mount bed
Flare bedsides so rear wheels don't rub
Weld sheet metal in cab floor to close up the hole for the driveshaft tunnel
Install electric fans.

I got the new water pump installed, as well as the serpentine belt and radiator again.


Test fit of the grill. So far so good. As long as I can fit 1 or 2 electric fans behind it, we are good to go!


Some things to note:
The oil pressure light is on in the dash. I need to troubleshoot why. I used the stock sensor that came with the block. The sensor could be bad. It also could be wired to the dash cluster wrong. I ordered a new sensor from Rock Auto and they had two different options... one for a light and one for a gauge. Maybe the sensor there is in there now is for a gauge and not a dumby light. I had installed a new oil sump pickup before I installed the new oil pan, so there is no reason why it shouldn't be pumping.

The coolant system is supposed to hold 14 qts (about 4 gallons). I can only fit 1 gallon in. The system needs burped, by running it with the rad cap off and letting the thermostat open so the coolant makes it's way through the engine and heater core. I obviously don't want to run it long until I figure out if I am getting oil pressure.

The timing still needs fine tuned and set with a timing light.

I ordered a new clutch master cylinder because the stock Mazda one is only .625" and I needed a .75" one to mate with the new slave cylinder so it has the appropriate stroke.

I put two fans between the grille and the radiator as pushers, but ultimately needed to move the radiator further forward and put the fans on the back side of the radiator.

You have been warned.

the oil sending unit is set up for resistance or something. it has a "window" of pressure where its happy. too low or possibly too high pressure and the light will come on. chances are that the engine is running more oil pressure than a stock bseries and that might be why the light is on. i would ditch it and run an aftermarket gauge. itll be more accurate and money well spent to insure your engine is running right. if you dont like the look of another gauge you can always hide it in the glove box or hell buy a cheaper mechanical gauge and install it under the hood. atleast you can get an idea of what its doing till you get the bugs worked out of it and dialed in right.

Good call on the resistance. I hadn't considered that. I am somewhat of a novice when it comes to this stuff, so I'm going to wait for my friend, who is a master mechanic to come over later this week and check things out.
You're probably right though... I will probably end up using an aftermarket gauge.

this is really coming together! makes me wish my truck had a different heart but its staying low and slow.

Awesome news guys! My new oil pressure sensor from Rock Auto came in today, so I installed it. Sure enough the light went out! So that's all it was... The old sensor was either broke or for a gauge. I love when things are easy! Wooooo!

great to hear you could use the oem sender!

Yeah really! I am excited about using the factory cluster and everything has been wired to be functional. The custom speedometer cable will be accurate, I did the firebird circuit board for the tach so that will read right, the stock fuel sender, oil and battery lights, and hopefully the temperature gauge reads accurately too.