Friend bought this cool little truck and wants me to do 13b swap in it..so let the fun begin!or should I say drama haha...

Truck pics when purchased from Arizona







And here it is sitting in my yard ready for action

 

Motor is already built.its a s4 turbo 4port block,streetport,s4 n/a rotating assembly with all new seals and springs.he wants to run it all motor but we did modify the front cover for a turbo oil return line in case he decides to go turbo in the future.going to use a fc rx7 stock Ecu.here some pics of the motor during the build.



Clearancing and fitting side seals to .001





And random pics of measuring end play and pressure testing coolant seals

 

Will be using a turbo II transmission.tomorrow going to shorten the shifter housing about 5".
I will post more pics as I go.

 

Cool project!

 

looking nice

 

We pulled the motor out yesterday.gotta plasma cut the old piston mounts of that crossmember..





Looks more narrow than a repu and measured and confirmed it's actually right around 3" narrow.so probably need to fab up a header for it.

 

Neat little truck, good color too. Nice work on the motor. Wouldn't a rotary bellhousing fit onto the B1600 ribcase?

 

^drivefast I was hoping it was a ribcase trans because I have seen you can swap out the bellhousing but it's not,it is a 4speed non removable bellhousing .we are trying to make this truck as much possible like a repu,we already installed repu front disk brakes on it and even the brake booster which I didn't take pictures of

I managed to plasma cut the piston mounts of today and will grind them down a bit another day.

 

Sweet project!

 

please don't scrap that piston engine...I think that is similar if not the same as the 1.6 that came in the very early 626's. Many parts on there I need

 

^ what you need?
The head was rebuilt and new timing chain and guides put on.but never ran right.so it's why we got the rotary transplant going on lol..

 

Intake and exhaust manifold as well as cylinder head and valve cover and carb. Let me know.

 

Alright let me hit up my friend and see what he wants to do.

 

Shortened the transmission remote shifter by 5 1/4" here's before and after pics

 

wow looking real good , great job and I'm liking that pick up !

 

I assembled a engine together with no internals to use as a mock up while doing the engine and trans mounts
I got a hold of an rx3 crossmember and modified a bit so it fit the truck.worked out pretty good I think.



But damn it's going to be some tight space for the header.

 

the usual trick with rx3/rx4 cross member in the oz cars
( when fitting a turbo manifold to clear steering )

is to take about 75 mm off one side of the rx4 crossmember , and weld it to the other end
then redrill the cut side and remount
( unsure if you welded that one in.. in the rx2,3,4 they mount to sway bar holes )

this will shift the motor over like the rx7 s1/2/3 does and provide room for the extractors

 

^yea we welded it to the frame rails.it is shifted over a bit more to drivers side so it gives me more room for the header.

 

I was able to fab up the transmission mount but after doing that it turns out motor was sitting a little high up front so I cut the engine bracket and dropped it about an 1" and it sits level now with good clearance to trucks crossmember.





Just got to weld it up and reinforce it a bit.

 

Thanks for ideas Dave and Bumpstart. Good topic.

 

That truck looks sweet- never knew they had a piston version. I know Ford had the Currier but never new Mazda had a piston version. I like the looks better than the Repu

 

This is Mazda's version of the ford courier.almost everything is identical besides the front grill .this is the second truck like this I have seen in my whole life,might be more rare than the repu..maybe...

 

as a side note,, when i built one of these ( b2000 with turbo LPG RESI engine with tall port centreplate )

i used 2 x FC spark side metal engine brackets welded to the chassis where i needed them
( cut shut gearbox shifter position 103mm )
and dropped the s1/2/3 engine bracket onto s1 rx7 rubber mounts

an exact fit,, with inbuilt offset rx7 engine bracket

 

Bumpstart never really thought of that and might have worked also.were they welded to the frame?im guessing they would have to be upside down (compared to how they mount on the fc's iron)in order for that to work right?

 

yes welded , and upside down so the slots for rubber mount are turned up