This page is about my 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup truck with a Volvo 4-cylinder turbo engine and Ford T5 transmission. The current setup/information, as of May 2014, is described below:
Update 3: As of June 2013, the truck is an extra vehicle at our household, but not going anywhere. It does a lot of work as a hauler. It was painted rainbow colors by the GSA kids for the 2012 Lexington Pride Festival. Most of that paint as been stripped off now to try for a rusted look, but it's not complete. The turbo is leaking oil, and will need to be replaced.
Update 2: As of March, 2011, the truck is being prepped to be my daily driver again after living with its original owner, my father, for a few years while I was in Alaska. It's getting a new Clutchnet clutch and turning back up the boost.
Update: As of April, 2007, the truck is being comfortably used as a daily driver. Although the engine was originally being managed by Megasquirt, I swapped that stand-alone engine management system for Volvo's OEM management from an '87 760: LH-Jetronic 2.2. That required a bit of wiring and swapping out some sensors. The upside is that for stock power levels, it's a simple plug'n'play procedure. While Megasquirt has lots of functionality and is very useful for engines making above-stock horsepower figures, LH 2.2 provides simplicity. No tuning is required, even though this Volvo engine is a 2.1 liter, low compression engine and the LH 2.2 ECU originally managed a 2.3 liter, higher compression engine. Now that LH 2.2 is installed, the truck starts and idles beautifully every time.
Another recent change was the clutch. The truck received a stock Volvo turbo pressure plate and stock Mustang clutch disc to replace the racing-spec units that were originally installed during the swap. It is much more streetable now, and is great in traffic. It's possible to slip the clutch a bit when really hammering on the accelerator, but since this truck will ultimately be babied by my father, that shouldn't be a problem.
I should also note that while the transmission was out of the truck for the clutch swap, it was rebuilt by my father's friend Matt, who is amazingly patient when it comes to transmission innards, unlike me. The rebuild was necessary because I broke a few parts while trying to remove and reinstall the tailhousing in order to eliminate a leak.
New pictures of the final product have been added in the photographs section below. What follows is a summary of the swap and some progress pictures.
In October 2005, my dad and I discussed swapping the drivetrain from my 245 into his Mazda B2200. In the 245, this drivetrain was good for 15.9 at 84mph in the quarter mile. During the swap the drivetrain also received a better camshaft and a larger diameter exhaust.
My dad has owned the chassis for this project for many years. It started life as a 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup truck. It has the "cab plus," which features two folding seats behind the front seats. That gives it a long wheelbase. The engine was a 2.2 liter inline 4-cylinder. While it was carbureted, it was burdened with an excessive amount of emissions-related equipment. This led to difficulty with tuning, and a loss in driveability in recent years. The truck was originally equipped with a manual transmission.
The 245 had a B21FT Volvo engine mated to a Ford Mustang T5 manual transmission. The B21FT is a 2.1 liter inline 4-cylinder with a turbocharger. The Mazda originally had about 85 horsepower. The B21FT in its current setup should have at least double that. The fuel and spark management are handled by Megasquirt stand-alone EMS. (Later changed to Volvo OEM LH-Jetronic 2.2.) The clutch is a 6-puck sprung ceramic plate and the pressure plate is 100% over stock clamping force. (Later changed to stock Volvo and Mustang components for less left-leg exercise.) For the swap, we mated the Mazda's hydraulic clutch setup with a Volvo master and slave cylinder.
The original plan was to create new engine mounts to adapt the Volvo block to the Mazda frame-mounts. Instead, we found that it was easiest to weld the Volvo crossmember between the frame rails on the Mazda. We were then able to reuse the original Volvo mounts. Once we lined up the crossmember, the shifter fit perfectly through the hole into the cabin.
Because the Volvo engine is managed by Megasquirt, there is very little integration that needs to be done. One of the biggest issues was the accessories. In order to simplify the swap, we stripped out the air conditioning. The alternator and power steering pump from the B21FT were used. The alternator was simple to adapt to the Mazda electrical system. The power steering pump was connected to the Mazda rack quite easily. Because of the air conditioning elimination, we used a power steering bracket from a non-air conditioned Volvo to reposition the power steering pump on the block.
Another concern was the gauges in the Mazda. In order to give the proper signal to the coolant temperature gauge, I used an adapter bushing to put the Mazda sensor in the Volvo head. A stock Mustang speedometer cable was adapted to the Mazda speedometer, and the correct combination of plastic gears in the transmission tailhousing gave the right speed. The gas gauge remains the same, but works poorly as it did before. The tachometer is fed a signal from the coil, as it was in the stock setup. The only gauge that was added is a boost gauge, which fit nicely just to the left of the Mazda steering wheel. For the oil pressure idiot light, we installed the Mazda sending unit on the Volvo block.
Originally, I planned to use an Isuzu NPR truck intercooler, since it is a popular upgrade for the Volvo intercooler. However, there was limited space inside the front grille of the Mazda. An NPR could probably be fitted with more cutting of the bumper, but because the power goals are modest with this project, we used the stock Volvo intercooler. It sits behind the bumper and grille, but in front of the sheetmetal supports. Only the bottom protrudes, and is not very obvious unless you know what you're looking for. However, because the truck is equipped with a Turbo XS RFL blow-off valve, it is quite loud between shifts and is obviously turbocharged to anyone who knows what the sound is. (For my father's sake, the blow-off valve was replaced with a recirculating compressor bypass valve from an Audi. It still makes a bit of noise, but not nearly as much.)
For cooling, we used the Volvo radiator and an electric fan from Summit Racing. The fan is controlled by a Saab thermoswitch in the lower radiator hose. It gets power directly from the Optima redtop battery, and so it cools the truck even after it is switched off.
The battery was relocated from the passenger side, which is the stock location for the Mazda, to the driver's side, which is the stock location for the Volvo. This simplified routing of the cables to the starter, which is on the driver's side on the B21FT.
The T5 is topped by a short shifter. While the shifts remain short, in order to restore the stock shifter height, we added length with threaded rod. The stock boot from the Mazda fits over the shifter, which is topped off with a custom shift knob. This shift knob, along with the boost gauge, are the only interior indications that the truck is not stock.
The carbureted Mazda had a engine-mounted mechanical fuel pump. In order to feed the B21FT, we had to do some adapting. We kept the Mazda tank and sending unit. We were able to adapt the Volvo in-tank pump to that sending unit. To provide the main pressure, the in-tank pump feeds the K-Jet main pump from the Volvo. The tank, pump and fuel rail are all connected by steel-braided flexible hose. The injectors are 46 lb/hr Bosch-style units from Ford. (The larger injectors were replaced with the stock Volvo injectors when I swapped the truck to LH-Jetronic 2.2.)
The exhaust had to be completely custom fabricated. The downpipe is the stock unit from the B21FT, which is 2.5" in diameter. It has two oxygen sensor bungs, which allows for installation of a wideband oxygen sensor during tuning. After the downpipe, there is a flange that widens to 3" pipe. Because the gas tank is on the passenger side in the rear, the exhaust turns and passes underneath the transmission to the driver's side. The first muffler is a 3" glasspack. The exhaust passes over the axle, and then includes a Dynomax straight-through muffler. Finally, there is a 90 degree turn and the tailpipe comes out behind the rear tire on the driver's side. The exhaust is obviously very free-flowing, but it is very quiet at cruise and under load.
I made very few changes to the engine setup during the swap. One of the changes was to swap the camshaft to a Volvo "A" cam, which is a stock Volvo cam with better top end power than the "T" cam that came in the B21FT. I also set the boost on the stock T3 turbo to 15psi using a manual boost controller. (The boost has been returned to stock levels for daily driving.)
The driveshaft from the Mazda was re-used. I ground the old front yoke off and had a new yoke welded on to accept the Mustang slip yoke. It was balanced at the same time. I was amazed that the driveshaft was so close to the right length for this swap.
There were a few cosmetic aspects to this swap. We switched to a B23 valve cover in order to allow the hood to clear, which it unexpectedly did without a hood scoop. Before installing the valve cover, I painted it. Half the valve cover is painted with the Japanese flag, while the other half is painted with the Swedish flag. This pays homage to the two countries where the chassis and engine were manufactured.
There were also some large rust holes in the truck's sheet metal. I welded in patches to fix these holes, and then painted the bare metal and any small rust spots with POR-15 rust preventive paint. The front and rear bumpers were also painted with POR-15. The whole truck could probably use a paint job, but its ratty looks belie the soup job under the hood.
I took a lot of pictures throughout the swap process. I am only posting a few for space reasons. If you are considering a swap like this, feel free to e-mail me and I can send you additional pictures.
