1987 B2000 "Dolly" Engine Bay Restoration

OGMB2K

Hey members,

In keeping with the sections of the forum I will be creating and posting the restoration efforts related to my daughter's newly acquired truck Dolly. This is her first car, and we ended up buying a doozy of a fixer upper.

Our first priority is to get her running and idling without overheating. The previous owner thought it was a bad water pump and therefore supplied me with one. After an initial inspection of the engine bay, I found the following that makes me suspect other things;

No coolant overflow bottle. Therefore any escaping coolant just vents to the atmosphere. That lead to me opening the radiator cap.
No coolant. The radiator is filled with straight up water, no bueno.
Rad hoses are hard as rocks, time to change.
As you can see in the pics, the entire head, intake and carb are gunked in form a gasket, but there is none around the thermostat. Leads me to believe that has never been changed, so I am changing that too.
Then I'll check and replace the temp sensor find and connect the wiring as everything in this bay is old, tampered with and ratty.
I just received the OE fan, I am waiting for the clutch and housing to arrive.

Now as far as it not idling, well that points to poorly tuned carburetor for starters. So here I am going to do a complete tune including plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter. After which I'll attempt to tune the carb to see if she'll idle. I know I have to replace the wire that goes from the alternator to the electronic choke because it just looks melted and chewed.
Oh and then or first I'm cutting that heat wrap off the header.

Once she's running right, I'll begin to work on cleaning up the engine bay, its gonna be fun times.
Stay Tuned.

MazdaMitch

Now THIS is a nice post, and shows off how a forum is better than a facebook group. Nice Post.

OGMB2K

MazdaMitch Thanks .. I am also thankful to those responsible as forums like these existed, but now with the resurgence of the culture it is nice to have a dedicated forum to the brand/models. THANK YOU!!!

OGMB2K

Oh Mitch ...
I have been trolling your YT video on your engine bay and you have some splaining to do .. lol

Like yourself I pride myself on building the cleanest most minimalist engine bay possible. That being said I have a question about yours and a difference in my own engine bay currently. What is the canister the leads from your PVC valve over by your battery? I do not have such a canister, not that it surprises me this truck is missing a ton of goodies. Is that whats left of your emissions or inspection requirements? Tried researching it in my Haynes book, but there is no section for the Weber carburetors .. lol

Thanks

MazdaMitch

OGMB2K Its an oil catch can. I should do a "post" about it sometimes.
It helps to keep your valves and intake clean. Combustion will be better too.

Short video of when I dumped it.
https://youtu.be/ciFCHfbc2n4?si=6otRjrbWx5MVrVHQ

This is how it is on my Charger.
https://youtu.be/FL4SFAzQ-qU?si=lyl0M3KSM0WDZB9X

Every vehicle should come with one.
More on it all here https://oilcatchcan.com/

OGMB2K

MazdaMitch Hey there Mitch,
With regards to that canister, is there any reason it couldn't be mounted off the intake manifold with a custom bracket?
Or would the weight potentially crack and damage the manifold? I see great potential to be mounted off the EGR block off or those two threaded holes towards the from of the manifold that face up ..

Thanks

OGMB2K

I know weeks may go by as I update these posts, but they are literally days as I have one day off a week and therefore have to time repairs perfectly.

So Day Two : I have a separate post of the progress being made on changing the water pump / thermostat here:
https://mazdaminitruckin.com/forums/d/272-dollys-cooling-system-woes

I've since learned that my truck is actually a B2200, with a 2.2L not a 2.0L, but has B2000 fenders. I'm guessing this was done to shave the antennae hole. Anyhow, after grinding to a stop as I wait for new timing belt covers I decided to begin cleaning up cables and hoses ...

OMG, this truck is missing everything .. lol. Every part touched by the previous owner has bolts missing, vacuum caps missing, hose clamps missing or extraneous wires leading to no where or exaggerated lengths of cable or hose wrapped around the engine bay.

Today, I cleared out all the redundant electrical systems, removed the grille and removed the PS fender. Very easy to do as half the bolts were missing all along the way. I'm gonna have to divert a budget to buying new screws ... lol

Since this is the engine section, ill keep it to that Here is what I am working with:

How about this nugget.

I began planning my new cable deletes and re routing. So I removed the PS fender, first four bolts held it on, two were the ones inside the fender well. That led to me finding the source of the ant infestation I HAD inside the truck. A little soap and water goes a long way.

The Ant Nest that came out from inside the fender, best not to park your truck under a tree for an extended period 0f time.

This was what I managed to remove from the PS that was connected to nothing.

To leave you with a cliffhanger ...
Wait until you see the Valve Cover I was able to find ... Muahahaha ...

MazdaMitch

OGMB2K The intake gets so hot you cant touch it, and that will just transfer to the canister, not to mention the engine shake on start up. I prefer mine to sit to the side alone. You could try it though and see.

OGMB2K

MazdaMitch
You are absolutely right, however, other than handling the can when you need to empty it, oil runs hot and therefore other than potentially melting a cheaply made can, could theoretically work then .. Hmmmm

Cusser

Mine, on my 1988 B2200. Oil catch can from Amazon.

MazdaMitch

OGMB2K it's only vapors that land in the can I can never gets hot not even warm in fact it will condense and look like milk in there sometimes.