What do i have to look out for while swaping a 88 Mazda b2200 carbrated engine with a fuel injected engine of the same year?

Answer 1

Well, the answer to that question really depends on how much time and money you want to spend - nearly anything is possible. I would say on the conservative end, the 2.0L, 2.2L, and 2.6L engines from 1986 to 1993 models are all very similar and would be relatively easy to swap depending on additional items like the computer for the later fuel injected engines and I think the 2.6L exhaust is on opposite side from the 2.0L and 2.2L. Nearly any 4 cylinder or V6 with a matching rear wheel drive tranny would be a viable choice also. I've heard some ford engines are "almost" bolt-in. On the extreme end, I have seen small and big block Chevy V8 conversions, but don't know all that would be involved.

Personally, I once owned a 1987 B2000, and swapped in a Buick 3.8L V6 from a rear wheel drive Pontiac Sunbird. The Mazda engine mounts were cut and spread to match the bolt holes on the V6 block, and B2000 tranny cross member was lowered and it all bolted right in. The B2000 drive shaft had to be modified to mate up to the tranny from the sunbird (a 5 speed with overdrive by the way). Be sure you find a drive line shop that knows what they're doing or you'll get really bad vibrations, and remember measure 5 times and cut once - it's fairly cheap to cut a drive shaft shorter, but quite another to make it longer. The radiator from the sunbird was fitted in the B2000. The big problem was the hydraulic slave from the B2000 clutch didn't have enough travel to work the clutch on the Buick 3.8L, and there was no place under the B2000 dash to mount the clutch cable from the sunbird. I ended up swapping in a THM250 auto tranny which required a tranny cooler in the radiator and aftermarket shifter mounted inside. The auto tranny was a tight fit under the B2000 and rubbed on the bottom of the floor. Other thing was finding a low profile air filter to fit under the stock hood as I had a edlbrock hi-rise intake and 4 barrel carb. The stock 2 barrel and air filter from the Sunbird did fit under the stock B2000 hood though. The rest is small details that you can work out if that's the direction you want to go...