Mazda B2200 Owners Need your help!

[Kaseobeer]

I'm new to the site and just wanted to say this looks like a great place. I want to say hi to all and want to mention that i will offer my advice wherever possible. So without further adue, heres my question.

I want to buy a small truck, and theres a 1991 Mazda B2200 5-speed up the road from me that catches my eye. Its freshly painted candy apple red with tinted windows.

The truck has 450,???km's and the "new motor" has 230,000Km's on it.

We started it up, and it smoked pretty good for a bit. Its hasnt moved for a while and it was a cold rainy day, but moving on....

once it started it ran good, didnt seem to misfire or idle intermittetly, so after letting it run for a minute or so we took it for a drive.

It shifted good, clutch seems to be fine, but the motor seemed pretty gutless, when WOT wouldnt really REV. Is this because the motor was cold or is something wrong?

I'm guessing the valve guide seals are gone thats why it smoked on start-up. How hard are these to replace? Is it easier to just take the head off?

The truck looks to be in almost mint condition, new exhaust, and no noticeable rust or bondo work.

So, my question is, is the motor fried because it seemed slow or is this because it was cold and rainy out and the motor wasnt warmed up?

And is it worth it to get it and replace the seals?

They are asking $700 canadian does this sound like a good deal? Is it worth it to buy it and put money into it? Not considerably alot but enough to get it running rite? are seals expensive? hard to replace on these engines?

Let me know, thanks guys this is a great help. !!

[Rydnbok]

I know what you are experiencing. Or at least I think I do. I bought my 92 B2200 from a coworker for $1200 in 2000. I drove it for 2 years even though it smoked a bit. The performance was nothing to brag about, but the AC worked and Georgia gets HOT. The sensation was as if someone had shoved a spud in the tailpipe though. At WOT it seemed as though the butterfly on the carb went too far and closed over.

I was sick of the smoke and had the engine rebuilt. The truck was easily able to exceed 100 mph afterward and ran great, for another year. Then the sluggishness came back and one morning an earsplitting shreik came from under the hood when the truck was under load. I felt sure I was spinning a crank bearing so I relegated the truck to short trips and such till I could decide on what to do.

As fate would have it, I was showing a neighbor the issue and he gunned the engine while I happened to be looking under the hood. I clearly saw a stream of hot gas leaking through the exhaust gasket as the shreik came on. I immediately realized the exhaust was indeed plugged down the line. I took the pipe off from the front of the rear-most catalytic converter and still I had the shreik. When I pulled the head pipe off and looked inside the bottom of the front converter it appeared to be coated with asphalt. It was the resule of years of oil blowing through the catalyst block. While it was usually hot enough to burn away most, time took it's toll and plugged it up tight.

Since I wanted to be sure, I gutted out the forward converter with a drill and long nose pliars. Took a while, but I cleared the pipe totally and cranked the truck up. Immediately the shreik was gone and the truck has been driving like new for months. I have purchased a set of headers and an exhaust cutout to try to get some gains in fuel mileage. But basically I don't expect the truck to set any speed records. However, I towed a huge trailer from New York to Atlanta with my scrawny 4 cylinder Mazda truck even going up and down mountains. It has plenty of torque across a very wide range thanks to the long stroke design of the engine. I doubt you could modify the crank enough to get a racing engine out of it, but if you wanted to pull a boat, the Mazda will do just fine.

But check out the exhaust. If it has been smoking, even just that little puff in the morning, it will likely have a plugged converter before too long.
TJ

[Rydnbok]

I know what you are experiencing. Or at least I think I do. I bought my 92 B2200 from a coworker for $1200 in 2000. I drove it for 2 years even though it smoked a bit. The performance was nothing to brag about, but the AC worked and Georgia gets HOT. The sensation was as if someone had shoved a spud in the tailpipe though. At WOT it seemed as though the butterfly on the carb went too far and closed over.

I was sick of the smoke and had the engine rebuilt. The truck was easily able to exceed 100 mph afterward and ran great, for another year. Then the sluggishness came back and one morning an earsplitting shreik came from under the hood when the truck was under load. I felt sure I was spinning a crank bearing so I relegated the truck to short trips and such till I could decide on what to do.

As fate would have it, I was showing a neighbor the issue and he gunned the engine while I happened to be looking under the hood. I clearly saw a stream of hot gas leaking through the exhaust gasket as the shreik came on. I immediately realized the exhaust was indeed plugged down the line. I took the pipe off from the front of the rear-most catalytic converter and still I had the shreik. When I pulled the head pipe off and looked inside the bottom of the front converter it appeared to be coated with asphalt. It was the resule of years of oil blowing through the catalyst block. While it was usually hot enough to burn away most, time took it's toll and plugged it up tight.

Since I wanted to be sure, I gutted out the forward converter with a drill and long nose pliars. Took a while, but I cleared the pipe totally and cranked the truck up. Immediately the shreik was gone and the truck has been driving like new for months. I have purchased a set of headers and an exhaust cutout to try to get some gains in fuel mileage. But basically I don't expect the truck to set any speed records. However, I towed a huge trailer from New York to Atlanta with my scrawny 4 cylinder Mazda truck even going up and down mountains. It has plenty of torque across a very wide range thanks to the long stroke design of the engine. I doubt you could modify the crank enough to get a racing engine out of it, but if you wanted to pull a boat, the Mazda will do just fine.

But check out the exhaust. If it has been smoking, even just that little puff in the morning, it will likely have a plugged converter before too long.
TJ