Ford Courier / Mazda B2000

Okay, so I've been keeping an eye out for a unique beater to turn into a track rat. After reading about the Mazda REPUs on here I noticed several standard Ford Couriers and Mazda B2000s around for cheap....which got my wheels turning....

What do you have to do to make one of these handle? I know you can swap in a V8 fairly easily, but that doesn't help the light back end go around a corner, just down a quarter mile.

The image of a v8 powered Courier slammed down on bucket-deep steel wheels with roll cage extensions halfway down the bed, screaming around Roebling.....hmmm....

Howzabout a rotary? I can't remember where I saw it, but an early Datsun pickup set FTD at something with...(guess what) Miata subframes. This is of course, far reached, and expensive, but brain candy nonetheless.

Just get a REPU you know you want one!!!!!!

You know you want to...

Hey Jonathan I have that on a T-shirt!!

I think a V8 would be a rather bad idea for handling, but a 4 or small 6 and some suspension work would be fun.

I used to work with a guy that had a Ford Courier with a 460 shot gun motor in it. C6 with reverse shift pattern and tubbed rear end with a narrowed nine inch.

Idling at 50 MPH that thing would scare the S%*& out of you!

those couriers had the ford lima motor in them. I've heard of people turboing that motor with decent results.

I owned an 'original' Courier, would have been a B1600.

Slow, slow, slow. It had the same engine, methinks, as the original rear drive 626. They were prone to cracking cylinder heads if they got hot, which mine eventually did. It drove okay, but had 4 wheel drum brakes, 2 cylinders per wheel, which had to be manually adjusted. Weekly. Construction quality was vintage 1960s Jeep Wagoneer.

The later (and more common) B2000's were much more upgraded. Disc brakes, I'm pretty sure. You could get the Ford Pinto 2.3 in this body style but most were automatics. I looked into swapping one into my '76 and it wasn't simple; the bellhousing was obviously different, the starter was on the opposite side...there were just a lot of things different enough to make it a lot of work. These were famous for front fender rust. Still slow.

The 1986 B2000 was a total departure, and vastly superior to anything that preceded it. They were very nice driving trucks, handled well out of the box, had really sweet shifting transmissions and an engine that at least wasn't like a gerbil running on a wheel. My Dad owned one for years and it was very dependable.

A female friend of mine was looking for a new small pickup back in 1986. She was looking at the Isuzu but I told her she needed to look at the Mazda. She thought the Mazda had a rotary engine and had crossed it off her "test drive" list. Well, after 1 drive she agreed with ddavidv's assessment....nice driving small trucks.

The REPU is ubercool, but a non-rotary unit can be had in running condition for less than a grand. Also, the early Courier / B1600 bodystyle is really the one I like

I agree that the V8 swap is mostly a drag race answer, and i had thought about the ford 2.3L with a turbo - parts are still available and it mates to a 5 speed.

I guess my real concern was adapting the suspension and finding the bits to make it happen. I know with enough time, money and custom work anything is possible (like Miata-izing the running gear) but is it hoonable around an autocross course in enjoyable fashion at minimal initial investment? Can I slap a set of stickies on it, lower a couple inches, and not be hating it from cone to cone? Has anyone here actually worked on the suspension of one?

Keep the ideas coming....I'm liking the thought of this more and more....

I loved my old B2200 only issue is by the time i went in the army i was running 40w oil because on each cold start up it would smoke like you just seafomed it (believe it was the valve seals) but that little 2.3 with the 2bbl carb withstood a metric E36 M3 ton of torture between our landscaping business and maine winters.

My guess is you would have to do something with the trans (top speed at red line is 15MPH max) something with the rear spring setup, granted you could make it work but it would be bad ass to see a strut set up on the back.

From what i remember as well there is plenty of space for almost anything you can think of, good luck.

I would either go rotary with the Fazda or just get a Toyota truck and do the 5mgte/7mgte swap that I've seen documented somewhere.

If you go with a B2000/B2200... they should be available with the F2 motor.

As in.. the non-turbo 8v version of the motor in my MX6, the F2T.

Swapping in the F2T is pretty easy if you can figure out the one big problem of the distributor wanting to occupy the same space as the firewall.

And F2T + RWD light truck would be a blast.

My FIL had a 70 something Courier like ddavidv had and man it was slow. Cool little truck but very slow.

FlightService wrote: I used to work with a guy that had a Ford Courier with a 460 shot gun motor in it. C6 with reverse shift pattern and tubbed rear end with a narrowed nine inch. Idling at 50 MPH that thing would scare the S%*& out of you!

How do you idle @ 50MPH?

Buddy of mine put a ford 2.3 turbo in his ford splash. I think on clubroadster.net someone had an older mazda truck he dropped a miata engine and rear end into .

dankspeed wrote:

FlightService wrote: I used to work with a guy that had a Ford Courier with a 460 shot gun motor in it. C6 with reverse shift pattern and tubbed rear end with a narrowed nine inch. Idling at 50 MPH that thing would scare the S%*& out of you!

How do you idle @ 50MPH?

I'm going to surmise that since the post had "460" in it (as in cubic inches)...it had a lot to do with that. The F350 I had with a stock 460 would idle uphill in 2nd or 3rd gear (I forget which). Torque...it's all about the torque.

Yes...with the right gears in a Courier, I can absolutely see "idling" along at 50 mph. (as in foot-off-the-gas in top gear on level ground)

Clem

Back in my BMX days I always thought Todd Corbit was rad because he had a Turbo Courier

Who says a light rear end can't be a blast to drive??

drift truck

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but weight balancing a truck sounds pretty easy to me:

The base Ranger in the 1980's had a Mazda 2L in it. Bought it new (1986 with dealer added AC, $5800 out the door) and liked it so well I kept it 6 whole months!

ddavidv wrote: The 1986 B2000 was a total departure, and vastly superior to anything that preceded it. They were very nice driving trucks, handled well out of the box, had really sweet shifting transmissions and an engine that at least wasn't like a gerbil running on a wheel. My Dad owned one for years and it was very dependable.

And when Mazda was looking to do a little parts bin engineering to create their new roadster, they mated a NA version of the 323GTX motor to a RWD transmission from the truck. That's right, the Miata's got a truck transmission! It was funny when I had my 91 B2200 - the final drive was higher, but the spacing between gears was exactly as I remembered from my first Miata.

It's the only truck I've ever driven that I could heel-toe downshift.

http://wichita.craigslist.org/cto/1881609956.html

Local to me but this seems just about perfect, assuming it's got a manual trans and not the auto, just need to clean it up, ditch the graphics, and retint the windows. Could be very nice little driver for ~$1500 I think. And a whole lot nicer to spend time in than any Courier.

The only new vehicle I ever owned was a Mazda B-2000 truck. Had the SE-5 sports package. 5 spd. Great truck.

Isuzu P'up trucks are super lightweight. when my starter broke, I could roll-start it by myself on level ground. iirc the box didn't even have an inner and outer layer of metal.

The OP is looking at the early, early trucks from what I'm reading. We're straying waaay OT on that.

About the handling...despite it's horrific manually adjusted drum brakes, after installing some fat BFG rubber on some Western aluminum wheels (it was the 1980s, after all) it actually did handle pretty well. I don't recall at all what the front suspension looked like, but I imagine it was double wishbone stuff. The rear was simple leaf springs. I don't know that I'd feel compelled to lower it much, if at all. Some sway bars to keep the lean down and stiffer shocks would probably make it pretty decent.

The transmission was a high point, very smooth and almost MGB snick-snick so it's not a shock to hear it wound up as the Miata trans in some form. But if you swap in the Ford engine, I don't think you get the same trans. That will require a (still Mazda built) trans from a Ranger but that one is totally different, I think. It's the one with the STupid Rubber Plugs in the bellhousing that shrink and leak the fluid (ATF) out. The B1600 had a real short, car-like shift lever whereas the Ranger has a long, trucky lever. Totally different feel.

If you could find a decent engine to bolt to the original B1600 vintage Mazda trans (Miata dohc?) then you'd have something that would also be an easier swap.