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Mazda Projects \ Zanzer's 1986 B2000Zanzer's 1986 B2000
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zanzer
+1y
I'm not sure if this will be a build thread or more of a blog....because as you're about to find out, I love to type. Buckle up!!
First a little history about me and the truck:
I've always been a Ford guy and I used to build Mustangs, Broncos, and F-150's. But a few years ago I needed something that was easier on gas for my daily commute to work so I started looking for something a little smaller and a lot less hungry than my 96 F-150 4x4 running a built 351W and my modded 98 Mustang GT. The 2 rules were it had to be cheap and it had to be a Ford. I looked at the Focus but the selling prices were too high in my opinion and then I remembered the Ford Festiva. I found a 93 and bought it thinking I was buying a Ford. Nope! Turns out the Festiva is only a Festiva in the US. If you buy it in Europe you get a Mazda 121 and if you get one in Asia it's a Kia Pride. The Festiva runs a Mazda B3 1.3 engine, a Mazda E series 5 speed transmission, and was assembled by Kia in Korea. The only thing on the entire car that is Ford is the logos No biggy though, I've always known that Ford and Mazda were in bed together and I've always loved RX7's and 323 GTX's...so I was still happy.
Well, after getting the Festy and joining a great forum for the car I started finding out about all the engine swaps and potential the cars have and I started doing more Festiva stuff and less Mustang/Bronco/F-150 stuff. I got bored with being able to just pick up a catalog, order parts, and then bolting them on. When it came to the Festiva it was like the original roots of hot rodding where if you wanted to make the car go fast you had to fabricate, modify, or find parts from something else in the junkyard that would fit (99% of the time it's a combination of all 3). I love a challenge so I was hooked! Especially after taking my first ride in a B6T swapped car that was as fast as my Mustang and still gets 36mpg!
So fast forward a few years and I'm in need of a small truck to do junkyards runs due to all the engine builds and swaps I do with the Festivas these days. I first thought about getting a Ranger but I've kind of went all Mazda lately....I even bought a 2008 Mazdaspeed3 when I needed a newer car in 2011. So my next (and favorite) choice was a Mazda B series truck. A friend had one one in high school and I really liked it plus a current friend has a B2200 that I really like so I figured it was time to find one for myself.
When I got this truck I was working in New Jersey and commuting back to NC every 4-5 weeks. I found it on Craigslist during my week long Thanksgiving vacation in 2012 and went to go look at it. The kid who had it said he had bought it from an elderly gentleman that had bought the truck brand new from the dealer and driven it up until a couple of years ago when the head gasket finally checked out. The kid said he had replaced the head gasket and got the truck running again, but the truck still smoked pretty bad and he believed it had broken a ring so he decided to sell it because it was going to take more work than he wanted to put into it. Personally I think he bought it to flip and found out that it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought
So we struck a deal for $900 and I drove it the 1 hour drive down the interstate back to where I lived....with it smoking pretty bad the first few miles. But I ran her home at an average speed of 75 and everything did very well based on the history of the truck. The only things that really stood out were the gas gauge that was stuck on 1/8th of a tank, the speedometer didn't work, and the transmission sounded awful. I got it back home and parked it until my next trip home.
While back in NJ I ordered a couple of things from Rockauto I knew the truck needed (fuel sending unit and speedometer cable) and eagerly anticipated my next trip home in December. I took 2 weeks vacation for my Christmas break and decided it would be best spent working on the new B project so when I got home I dove right in. I replaced the fuel sender to get the fuel gauge working again and installed the new cable and got the speedo turning again. After that I decided to clean the engine bay and see where all the oil was coming from. I pressure washed the bay and let it dry and then fired her up to look for leaks. After a few minutes running I found that when the head gasket was replaced he didn't replace the valve cover gasket and the crank seal was also leaking. I also found that the engine had a ton of blowby and was pushing oil out the dipstick tube..but there wasn't much I could do about that at the time so I tore into it and replaced the gasket, front crank seal, and I also installed a new cam seal while I was in there just in case. I also adjusted the rockers for good measure as well and then did an oil change.
The next issue to address was the noisy transmission. It had a nasty noise in neutral and growled like a granny low 4 speed in every gear but 4th which didn't bode well, but I was really optimistic and was hoping it was either a trashed throwout bearing (remember, I said I was being optimistic LOL) or a really bad pilot bearing. I took the transmission out and found that it needed a new clutch and the pilot bearing was trashed...so I thought "yes! that's the noise!" But then I gave the input shaft a wiggle and found that my optimism grained away pretty fast because it had a good bit of slop to it. There wasn't much I could do at that point since I had to be back in NJ by the first of the year so I installed a new rear main seal and then a new flywheel, clutch, TO bearing, and pilot bearing. I also serviced the transmission and found that the fluid looked like it was still the factory gear oil (it looked BAD) and while I was at it I serviced the rear differential too. When I fired the truck up after the repairs it still had the noise and after looking at a diagram I understood why it was every gear but 4th...main shaft bearings I went back to NJ and thought about my options.
Over the next few months I drove the truck some when I would come home and although it smoked like a chimney and sounded pretty rough it still ran and drove great! Then around March of this year I decided I had had enough of living in New Jersey and decided it was time to move back to NC. After I got moved back I was back into building Festivas pretty fast and the engine builds started coming in so I decided it was time to start restoring the B to some of it's previous glory since I would be doing a lot of junkyard trips to find core engines to rebuild, transmissions for swaps, and suspension parts for upgrades and modifications. I also used some of my "Festy logic" and decided while I was at it I would install a 2.2 engine instead of the 2.0 since it's a direct bolt in. A popular Festiva swap is to replace the stock 1.3 SOHC with a 1.6 SOHC from a Mazda 323 or Mercury Tracer since it's almost a direct replacement and gets you 19 more HP
And this brings us to the last couple of weeks of activity. I started looking for a good usable core engine to rebuild and a transmission to replace my noisy one. A friend found one at the local LKQ and we went and pulled it. I got it home and started tearing into it to inspect everything and see what I had to work with. Everything looked great until I got the head off and found that the water passages in the head were extremely corroded and actually had material missing, so decking the head would only make the problem worse. Then when I got to the block I found that the pistons had a ton of side play and a pretty deep ridge around the tops of the cylinders. Next I found that there was deep pitting around the outside of the fire ring for the head gasket probably due to seepage from the coolant port issue in the head. The pits were deep and it would take A LOT of decking to remove them so I decided to return the engine back to LKQ and try to find something better. They had one more B2000 and B2200 at LKQ, but I also found a B2200 at the local Pull A Part with a really minty fresh transmission in it and I decided to go pull it instead.
The following week I returned the first B2200 engine to LKQ and headed over to PAP to pull that one. We got the engine out and I thought it would be a good idea to pull the head on the spot to check it and the block before taking it home. I pulled the valve cover and the inside of the engine was beautiful. It was still nice and silver and clean, but I did see the oil was a milky color indicating a blown head gasket. I spun the engine over 720
First a little history about me and the truck:
I've always been a Ford guy and I used to build Mustangs, Broncos, and F-150's. But a few years ago I needed something that was easier on gas for my daily commute to work so I started looking for something a little smaller and a lot less hungry than my 96 F-150 4x4 running a built 351W and my modded 98 Mustang GT. The 2 rules were it had to be cheap and it had to be a Ford. I looked at the Focus but the selling prices were too high in my opinion and then I remembered the Ford Festiva. I found a 93 and bought it thinking I was buying a Ford. Nope! Turns out the Festiva is only a Festiva in the US. If you buy it in Europe you get a Mazda 121 and if you get one in Asia it's a Kia Pride. The Festiva runs a Mazda B3 1.3 engine, a Mazda E series 5 speed transmission, and was assembled by Kia in Korea. The only thing on the entire car that is Ford is the logos No biggy though, I've always known that Ford and Mazda were in bed together and I've always loved RX7's and 323 GTX's...so I was still happy.
Well, after getting the Festy and joining a great forum for the car I started finding out about all the engine swaps and potential the cars have and I started doing more Festiva stuff and less Mustang/Bronco/F-150 stuff. I got bored with being able to just pick up a catalog, order parts, and then bolting them on. When it came to the Festiva it was like the original roots of hot rodding where if you wanted to make the car go fast you had to fabricate, modify, or find parts from something else in the junkyard that would fit (99% of the time it's a combination of all 3). I love a challenge so I was hooked! Especially after taking my first ride in a B6T swapped car that was as fast as my Mustang and still gets 36mpg!
So fast forward a few years and I'm in need of a small truck to do junkyards runs due to all the engine builds and swaps I do with the Festivas these days. I first thought about getting a Ranger but I've kind of went all Mazda lately....I even bought a 2008 Mazdaspeed3 when I needed a newer car in 2011. So my next (and favorite) choice was a Mazda B series truck. A friend had one one in high school and I really liked it plus a current friend has a B2200 that I really like so I figured it was time to find one for myself.
When I got this truck I was working in New Jersey and commuting back to NC every 4-5 weeks. I found it on Craigslist during my week long Thanksgiving vacation in 2012 and went to go look at it. The kid who had it said he had bought it from an elderly gentleman that had bought the truck brand new from the dealer and driven it up until a couple of years ago when the head gasket finally checked out. The kid said he had replaced the head gasket and got the truck running again, but the truck still smoked pretty bad and he believed it had broken a ring so he decided to sell it because it was going to take more work than he wanted to put into it. Personally I think he bought it to flip and found out that it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought
So we struck a deal for $900 and I drove it the 1 hour drive down the interstate back to where I lived....with it smoking pretty bad the first few miles. But I ran her home at an average speed of 75 and everything did very well based on the history of the truck. The only things that really stood out were the gas gauge that was stuck on 1/8th of a tank, the speedometer didn't work, and the transmission sounded awful. I got it back home and parked it until my next trip home.
While back in NJ I ordered a couple of things from Rockauto I knew the truck needed (fuel sending unit and speedometer cable) and eagerly anticipated my next trip home in December. I took 2 weeks vacation for my Christmas break and decided it would be best spent working on the new B project so when I got home I dove right in. I replaced the fuel sender to get the fuel gauge working again and installed the new cable and got the speedo turning again. After that I decided to clean the engine bay and see where all the oil was coming from. I pressure washed the bay and let it dry and then fired her up to look for leaks. After a few minutes running I found that when the head gasket was replaced he didn't replace the valve cover gasket and the crank seal was also leaking. I also found that the engine had a ton of blowby and was pushing oil out the dipstick tube..but there wasn't much I could do about that at the time so I tore into it and replaced the gasket, front crank seal, and I also installed a new cam seal while I was in there just in case. I also adjusted the rockers for good measure as well and then did an oil change.
The next issue to address was the noisy transmission. It had a nasty noise in neutral and growled like a granny low 4 speed in every gear but 4th which didn't bode well, but I was really optimistic and was hoping it was either a trashed throwout bearing (remember, I said I was being optimistic LOL) or a really bad pilot bearing. I took the transmission out and found that it needed a new clutch and the pilot bearing was trashed...so I thought "yes! that's the noise!" But then I gave the input shaft a wiggle and found that my optimism grained away pretty fast because it had a good bit of slop to it. There wasn't much I could do at that point since I had to be back in NJ by the first of the year so I installed a new rear main seal and then a new flywheel, clutch, TO bearing, and pilot bearing. I also serviced the transmission and found that the fluid looked like it was still the factory gear oil (it looked BAD) and while I was at it I serviced the rear differential too. When I fired the truck up after the repairs it still had the noise and after looking at a diagram I understood why it was every gear but 4th...main shaft bearings I went back to NJ and thought about my options.
Over the next few months I drove the truck some when I would come home and although it smoked like a chimney and sounded pretty rough it still ran and drove great! Then around March of this year I decided I had had enough of living in New Jersey and decided it was time to move back to NC. After I got moved back I was back into building Festivas pretty fast and the engine builds started coming in so I decided it was time to start restoring the B to some of it's previous glory since I would be doing a lot of junkyard trips to find core engines to rebuild, transmissions for swaps, and suspension parts for upgrades and modifications. I also used some of my "Festy logic" and decided while I was at it I would install a 2.2 engine instead of the 2.0 since it's a direct bolt in. A popular Festiva swap is to replace the stock 1.3 SOHC with a 1.6 SOHC from a Mazda 323 or Mercury Tracer since it's almost a direct replacement and gets you 19 more HP
And this brings us to the last couple of weeks of activity. I started looking for a good usable core engine to rebuild and a transmission to replace my noisy one. A friend found one at the local LKQ and we went and pulled it. I got it home and started tearing into it to inspect everything and see what I had to work with. Everything looked great until I got the head off and found that the water passages in the head were extremely corroded and actually had material missing, so decking the head would only make the problem worse. Then when I got to the block I found that the pistons had a ton of side play and a pretty deep ridge around the tops of the cylinders. Next I found that there was deep pitting around the outside of the fire ring for the head gasket probably due to seepage from the coolant port issue in the head. The pits were deep and it would take A LOT of decking to remove them so I decided to return the engine back to LKQ and try to find something better. They had one more B2000 and B2200 at LKQ, but I also found a B2200 at the local Pull A Part with a really minty fresh transmission in it and I decided to go pull it instead.
The following week I returned the first B2200 engine to LKQ and headed over to PAP to pull that one. We got the engine out and I thought it would be a good idea to pull the head on the spot to check it and the block before taking it home. I pulled the valve cover and the inside of the engine was beautiful. It was still nice and silver and clean, but I did see the oil was a milky color indicating a blown head gasket. I spun the engine over 720
zanzer
+1y
Here she is "as delivered" the day I drove it home. It's hard to tell from the really bad pic but the truck is absolutely nasty and looked like it had been sitting under trees for a very long time. The top of the hood and cab were almost black with mold and residue.
And here's why I affectionately call the truck "Smokey" This wasn't really that bad when I took this pic because there was a constant breeze blowing. Some days it looks like the truck is doing a pro mod burnout and I'm surprised one of the neighbors hasn't called the fire department on me while warming the truck up.
A couple of "before" pics prior to pressure washing the engine bay.
Here's an example of some of the crud that was on the truck when I got it.
An "after" pic of the cleaned engine bay. I plan on doing a more thorough job when the engine is out for the swap.
Here's some of the oil on the side of the block from all the blowby. This truck uses 2 gallons of oil every 1000 miles. It burns half of it and blows out the other half. Still runs pretty good though!
The grill with all the paint rotted away and down to the bare plastic. I kind of like the way it somewhat matches the paint color of the truck so I may not paint the new one back argent
I also installed a tach cluster with mileage corrected for the trucks mileage. We do the exact same thing to Festivas! LOL
I didn't take any pics of the first engine I got from LKQ since it was in pretty bad shape but I did take pics of the short block I pulled from PAP. Here it is still connected to the transmission on the back of the B. Also notice the 3 factory chrome rims in the background
A shot of the deck at #1 cylinder after a little cleaning. I'm thinking (hoping) the pits will deck out. I also plan on boring it .020" so if it bumps the compression up to 9:1 or so I'll be good with that.
A shot of one of the mains. It's hard to tell from the glare in the pic but all the journals looked pretty good so luckily I don't think they ran it long with coolant in the oil. Everything should polish out pretty well.
That's it for now but stay tuned!
And here's why I affectionately call the truck "Smokey" This wasn't really that bad when I took this pic because there was a constant breeze blowing. Some days it looks like the truck is doing a pro mod burnout and I'm surprised one of the neighbors hasn't called the fire department on me while warming the truck up.
A couple of "before" pics prior to pressure washing the engine bay.
Here's an example of some of the crud that was on the truck when I got it.
An "after" pic of the cleaned engine bay. I plan on doing a more thorough job when the engine is out for the swap.
Here's some of the oil on the side of the block from all the blowby. This truck uses 2 gallons of oil every 1000 miles. It burns half of it and blows out the other half. Still runs pretty good though!
The grill with all the paint rotted away and down to the bare plastic. I kind of like the way it somewhat matches the paint color of the truck so I may not paint the new one back argent
I also installed a tach cluster with mileage corrected for the trucks mileage. We do the exact same thing to Festivas! LOL
I didn't take any pics of the first engine I got from LKQ since it was in pretty bad shape but I did take pics of the short block I pulled from PAP. Here it is still connected to the transmission on the back of the B. Also notice the 3 factory chrome rims in the background
A shot of the deck at #1 cylinder after a little cleaning. I'm thinking (hoping) the pits will deck out. I also plan on boring it .020" so if it bumps the compression up to 9:1 or so I'll be good with that.
A shot of one of the mains. It's hard to tell from the glare in the pic but all the journals looked pretty good so luckily I don't think they ran it long with coolant in the oil. Everything should polish out pretty well.
That's it for now but stay tuned!
mymmeryloss
+1y
Im not gonna lie. I didnt read all of it but i looked at the pictures.
You should change your name to Playboy
You should change your name to Playboy
zanzer
+1y
Sorry, I know it's a long one. But I've had the truck for almost a year now so I was trying to document everything from the beginning until now. All the updates after this should be much shorter.
LOL I have a couple of friends who are trying to talk me into writing a book and/or a screenplay. Wonder why?
LOL I have a couple of friends who are trying to talk me into writing a book and/or a screenplay. Wonder why?
Cusser
+1y
Yeah, just like Playboy: had to look at the photos more than once. We never claim here that we "only" read the text here.
Off topic, but Mrs. Cusser does not object to my Playboy subscription. But she made me stop getting the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar about 15 years ago as my kids got older, so the framed swimsuit posters in the garage are all from that era.
Yeah, just like Playboy: had to look at the photos more than once. We never claim here that we "only" read the text here.
Off topic, but Mrs. Cusser does not object to my Playboy subscription. But she made me stop getting the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar about 15 years ago as my kids got older, so the framed swimsuit posters in the garage are all from that era.
charlesskelter
+1y
Nice... That was quite a read. Wish I had a second motor to build. Every seal in my motor leaks. Such an annoyance.
zanzer
+1y
^^ Want me to keep an eye out for you a spare? I'm still looking for a few things and I know of a few old school yards out in the boonies that I hit up every now and then.
Do you want a 2.0 or 2.2?
If your engine runs well and it's just sealing issues that isn't hard to fix except for the rear main and pan gasket. You can have the engine out in no time and then put it on a stand and go at it
Do you want a 2.0 or 2.2?
If your engine runs well and it's just sealing issues that isn't hard to fix except for the rear main and pan gasket. You can have the engine out in no time and then put it on a stand and go at it
zanzer
+1y
Not a problem
Sorry for the blurry pics. I promise a new camera is coming soon!
Here's a pic of the heads I scored yesterday.
Some shots of the "good" one. The coolant passages aren't perfect, but they're acceptable if I can't find anything better. I also noticed that it didn't have a valve job done when the other work was performed so I'll be disassembling it and doing that at some point.
Unfortunately it turns out that both of the "freebie" heads have cracks in them Oh well, at least I have some spare valvetrain components now.
And with some closer inspection I found these little guys
I also figured out why my passenger side mirror was all wonky.
I had to fab a Miata brake booster adapter for one of the Festiva guys tonight, so while I had the welder out I fixed the mirror too. Pics tomorrow
Not a problem
Sorry for the blurry pics. I promise a new camera is coming soon!
Here's a pic of the heads I scored yesterday.
Some shots of the "good" one. The coolant passages aren't perfect, but they're acceptable if I can't find anything better. I also noticed that it didn't have a valve job done when the other work was performed so I'll be disassembling it and doing that at some point.
Unfortunately it turns out that both of the "freebie" heads have cracks in them Oh well, at least I have some spare valvetrain components now.
And with some closer inspection I found these little guys
I also figured out why my passenger side mirror was all wonky.
I had to fab a Miata brake booster adapter for one of the Festiva guys tonight, so while I had the welder out I fixed the mirror too. Pics tomorrow
zanzer
+1y
Ok, I lied...no updates today.
Today was basically a stream of interruptions. All I got done to the truck was the mirrors removed, one cleaned, and one welded. I'm thinking of hitting LKQ one last time in the morning.
But in other news of the day...I may be trading my 94 Katana for a 97 TL1000S
Today was basically a stream of interruptions. All I got done to the truck was the mirrors removed, one cleaned, and one welded. I'm thinking of hitting LKQ one last time in the morning.
But in other news of the day...I may be trading my 94 Katana for a 97 TL1000S