I found this little Mazda on Facebook. Its been living on a farm, working way to hard. He gave up his heart to that farm. I believe he has always really wanted to be a Minitruck.
Well… I thought it would be best to really inspect his heart and decided if it could be saved. Turns out that was a waste of time for this little guy. He worked so hard he lost the number 3 piston. Wasn’t anything left of it. The connecting rod was found behind the exhaust manifold outside the engine block.
Strangely this little guy wan’t ready to retire. This one actually ran. Had a terrible shudder that you might call a miss but if you do, it would have been the most intense miss I have ever seen. Happens when they are out of balance.
My plan is to get a V8 in him and get him a lot closer to the ground. At first, I had a hard time deciding what engine to go with. I thought about a 4.3 V6, 4.8 Ford V8, GM 5.0 and Gm 5.7. After researching what would fit… “research” yea right, not on a B2200. It seems these were gone before the internet came about. Because of the lack of information out there, I decided to go with what I know. Small Block Chevy.
I originally bought a 350 but when I got it apart the block was full of water.
Decided that engine wasn’t any good. I gave it back to my friend and got a 327 for him. Personally I am not a fan of the 327. Never have been. The price was ok and it was in town and I wanted to get this truck going.
Whats it take to bolt a Small Block Chevy into a Mazda B2200?
Well actually.. it isn’t that hard. Cut out all the Mazda stuff and install Chevy stuff.
For a radiator, I went with one from a 1973 Nova. Why? Cause I have a 1973 Nova in pieces and it just happened to fit perfectly.
I don’t have any good pictures of the transmission mount. It was so easy is wasn’t worth taking pictures of. I took out the factory Mazda one and drilled the bolt holes out so they are now oval shaped. About a 1/4 inch on each one. This allowed a stock TH350 transmission mount to be used. Thats it… everything fell into place perfectly. I then used that crossmember to place the engine. I had to beat the trans tunnel a little, nothing a big hammer couldn’t handle.
At his point I have a blocked picked out. I have the radiator mounted, the tranny in and the motor mounts in place. I think thats enough for this post. Stay tuned for the next post.
