1988 Mazda B2200 from North America - Comments

The engine smokes during warm-up.

I've seen this problem listed a lot on various message boards, so I thought I'd clarify the problem for those of you faced with it. Many have said they replaced the head gasket or valve seals, but the problem still exists. The problem is not with a gasket or seal, rather the oil rings.

The Mazda B2200 and 626 engine blocks have a high nickel content in the alloy making them a very hard metal. The smoking problem can be caused by two things. First, the oil rings can simply lose the friction battle with the hard cylinder walls, making their function ineffective. Second, and more commonly, the oil rings get stuck in the groove by oil carbon deposits built up on the ring, also rendering them ineffective. The problem generally occurs after 100K miles, and causes the engine to fail emissions even if the smoke clears up after the engine warms up.

There are two possible solutions; re-ringing the engine or a complete rebuild. Because the engine block alloy is so hard, the cylinders tend to wear very little and in some cases the original honing marks are visible. If you choose this route, you should thoroughly clean the pistons and the ring grooves with a good solvent that breaks down carbon, like Chemtool. Easy-Off oven cleaner works too, although not as well. Clean all of the internal parts and surfaces of the block, de-glaze the cylinder walls with a quick honing, replace the rings and reassemble the engine. Some smoking may occur during the initial break-in but this is normal. Remember, also, if your engine was passing a great deal of oil that there is likely an oily residue in the exhaust system which will smoke until it eventually burns out of the pipe.

Of course, if you have the engine apart, you should have it checked for wear. If the cylinder walls are excessively worn, re-ringing the engine will not help you, at least, not for long.

I have a B2200 that a friend gave to me (yes, gave... as in free). When I disassembled the engine, I found the oil rings completely recessed in their grooves on 3 of 4 pistons and I had to use a machinist's scribe to get them out. The engine had some cylinder wear, mostly skirt wear causing the cylinder to be out-of-round, so I'm doing a complete rebuild. Shop around for parts, as their prices vary widely.

After you re-ring/rebuild, prevent this problem from re-occurring by keeping up with oil changes. I would also recommend considering the use of a synthetic oil, although good oil maintenance as well as engine maintenance in the form of tune-ups should suffice in preventing a re-emergence of this problem.

If this sounds imposing, it's really not. I'm a technical writer by trade and my car/engine work is a shade-tree hobby. If you've rebuilt engines before, this task should pose no problem to you. If you have any questions or need more information, email me at webmaster@cowpensvets.org.

I have a 1989 Mazda B2200 LX. I was having the same problem with the engine smoking.

To solve the problem I rebuilt the engine, added a Weber carb, a header, and also ran new exhaust. All this combined together solved the problem and also added a great deal of horsepower.

It was a lot of trouble to do all of the work, but it was all worth it, I wouldn't give the truck up for anything. And like you I have a spare engine just in case.

Also while I had the engine out I started a 4&1/2" body drop. Now the truck will lay the doors, or ride 8" off the ground with the help of Air Ride.

To those with whom I've had contact starting from this article: I've lost all of my emails and address book contacts during a system upgrade. We've discussed starting a message board for B2200 owners to post information and questions, and that is still in the works. In the meantime, please email me at webmaster@cowpensvets.org so I can get your email addresses again. Thanks.

I never did write any comments about how the engine rebuild went or how well it runs so I thought I'd update my first message. The rebuild went well, except that I didn't have the money at first to replace all of the valve timing components. I had the cam, but not the rocker arms. So I finished the motor and ran it on the old cam for a while. The rocker arms were so worn that if I took it up to highway speeds, the engine sounded like it was about to blow. The hydraulic tappets in the rockers would collapse and my engine sounded more like a teletype machine than a gasoline engine. Eventually, I got them replaced and after that, the engine ran so smooth and quiet that once when my neighbor rode with me to the store, he thought the engine stalled at the light, when it was just idling. At one point I hauled over 900 pounds of equipment over the Tuscarora Mountains in PA. It had to work to do it, but I was always able to keep it at or just below the speed limit.

The biggest problem I had afterward was getting it to pass emissions. Even though the engine ran perfectly and had a lot of torque, it was failing badly, emitting well over 600 ppm of Hydrocarbons (the limit was 217) and 6.5% carbon-monoxide (Limit was 2.1%). I rebuilt the carburetor, but it still didn't help. It turned out to be an air/fuel solenoid that is controlled by the computer via two wires that protrude from the top of the carburetor. The solenoid is screw-mounted to the top portion of the carb, and seats into an orifice at the bottom of the float bowl. The solenoid was dirty and gummed up and wouldn't actuate when power was applied. I tried cleaning it with spray cleaner and it would work only sporadically, then quit altogether. It turns out that in the de-energized position, the solenoid valve is open, which caused the engine to draw way too much fuel. I finally had to cut the solenoid open with a dremel tool and clean all of the internal parts directly. I've had no problems with it since. Now my truck gets 22-23 MPG with a mix of town and highway mileage. It still has a lot of torque, although it will never win any races, but hell, I have a Mustang for that.

In one of my last comments I promised to start a message board to help Mazda Pickup owners get information about maintaining and repairing their Mazda Pickup. Carsurvey.org's board is geared more toward surveying customer satisfaction, so rather than clutter up their board with maintenance tips and troubleshooting, you can post questions on mine. It's located at http://www.cowpensvets.org/carboard/. Hope to see you there.