(first posted 3/31/2016) The Great American Diesel Boom got its start during the 1973-1974 energy crisis I, when certain diesel imports with their ability to go about 50% further on a tank of hard-to-get fuel suddenly looked very attractive, even if they didn’t sound or smell seductively. The Diesel Boom really got rolling in 1978, when Oldsmobile unleashed its 5.7 L self-destructing V8 scourge upon the land, thus sealing the Diesel Boom’s inevitable demise. But the second energy crisis forestalled that; it even accelerated the Boom, despite the lethargic characteristics of these old non-boosted tractor-like engines. Every manufacturer wanted a diesel, including Mazda. Since they couldn’t readily make their rotaries run as diesels, they looked elsewhere for the technology. In this case, it was Great Britain.
Yes, Mazda licensed the Perkins 4.135 four cylinder diesel engine from the UK firm, one of the biggest sources of diesel engines and technology back in the day for passenger cars and light trucks, including Chrysler vehicles built for export or assembled in other countries. A Perkins diesel was even offered briefly on 1962 Dodge pickups in the US. That was a bit premature.
The 2.2 liter S2 engine in the Mazda B2200 was rated at 59 hp, which means the driver kept his right hand on the slick-shifting five speed transmission most of the time. I don’t know much about this particular engine, but pretty much all of the Japanese diesel light-truck engines from this era had legendary reputations. And the few that have survived seem to be coveted and coddled by their owners.
This ’83 looks like it could five or ten years old, rather than over thirty. The B-series of this vintage and the prior one, also sold as Ford Couriers, are starting to get a bit scarce here, and this is the only diesel version I’ve ever found.
The “BIODIESEL” bumper sticker isn’t very prominent in this shot, but it confirms the obvious: this is not only a survivor of the Great Diesel Boom, but also of the Lessor Biodiesel Epoch, which seemed to peter out a few years back. Obviously, there’s still a few hard-core adherents, mostly driving slowly-but-surely-aging Mercedes W123s. And a few old Japanese pickups. And even one Isuzu I-Mark diesel that just won’t quit; I saw/heard it again on the street just today.
This Mazda is a bit of a hair shirt on wheels, but I do love seeing seeing these clattering relics of another time still being used like this. I said seeing, not hearing or smelling.
First picture look like the truck is carrying the Prius. Niice.
My wife’s late brother bought an 1983 Mazda B2200 Diesel at the Portland Auto Show for $5,800, when he “gave” it to me in 1996, it had a little over 45,500 miles on it, he was able to get 420 miles on the 17 gallon tank. I also can get 420 miles as well. The truck currently has 139,800 miles, and runs great. I have a vanity plate that reads STINKY, which generates a lot of thumbs up from other drivers.
When some people tailgate, all I have to do is downshift, and they will either back off or pass me!. A number of people have wanted to buy it, but it is not for sale at any price!.
I have a 1983 Mazda b2200 just like the one in the picture same color and all it has 119000 original miles on it does anybody no we’re I can find any parts at all for the truck can not find a radiator for it
My dad ran a 1983 Diesel 2200 and when we finally parked it there was 575000 kms on it. Incredible fuel mileage but a strong breeze and you were in 4th gear lol. I learned to drive on that little beast. Fond memories
Wow, an ’83 Mazda pickup. I have tears in my eyes. I had a gas version which I drove for years. It was primitive as a Model T, but much beloved.
It met a tragic end when I took a bribe offered by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to junk it due to its persistent refusal to pass the California smog inspection.
I wanted to swap the diesel in as a work around, but none could be found, so a fantastic machine was sacrificed. A regrettable decision made in haste.
I have not seen one in years. I am happy to see some survivors!
The early 80s was certainly a big but brief diesel boom. Even the Continental Mark VII came with a diesel for a short time. So many of these engines were available for only a year or three. This was one I had forgotten.
In my midwestern area, the Ford Courier was seen a lot more frequently than the Mazda version. Nice little truck!
A BMW-sourced diesel, no less. Also available in the contemporary Continental sedan, which might be even rarer than the diesel VII.
A friend of my dad’s had one of those diesel Lincolns. It met its end because it was getting hard to start, and neither the local Ford dealer or the heavy truck repair place would touch it. And the county we lived in, prohibited engine swaps due to emissions so he couldn’t just stick a gas V8 in it.
There’s a Mazda B2200 Diesel truck here in Tacoma. Although no one in my family has ever owned a B series Mazda pickup truck, I’ve seen them all over the Puget Sound area. It’s an unforgivable shame that the B series trucks were discontinued in the USA, and even more so, that the diesel engine was discontinued. Is diesel for everyone? Maybe, maybe not. But I believe that Mazda should’ve continued to offer the diesel, and turbo diesel for the B series trucks. There are always people who do need a diesel engine, or who want a diesel engine, for whatever reason.
Mazda has offered diesel utes/pickups ever since this model and continues to do so with their BT50 model today also sold as the Ford Ranger.
Dang, it’s just incredible the CCs that appear on the streets of Eugene. I almost expect to someday see one of the Olds diesels with the original engine (and still running!).
I saw one last year in the nearby Wal-Mart parking lot here in TX. I heard it run for a bit as we walked out of the store and it did in fact have the diesel still in it.
There was an Olds diesel for sale on NZs trademe site recently of all places one washed up here and survived intact it was still a runner according to the listing.
I think it’s the same diesel also offered in the Ranger trucks as well. Back in the 90’s where I live there were actually two rare diesel cars still running around. Wish I had taken pics. They were a Tempo and Escort. And of course I shared the story of my friend Brian’s Diesel Rabbit a few COAL’s ago. The only touch of that era I have left are several books on converting your car/truck to diesel power that were popular back then. In one book the author mentioned the best mini truck for conversion was the Datsun because they were “overbuilt”. And he said the worst was the Courier because of its front crossmember layout. Guess Mazda for it figured out.
IIRC, the diesel engine in Tempos and Escorts was a Mazda design, so I’m surprised that Mazda “outsourced” the diesel for their “B” series trucks.
The Ranger used 2 different diesel engines, I can’t say with an certainty who the suppliers were.
Honda and Subaru offer diesels in their CUVs, the Subaru may be the only “boxer” diesel engine….at least in a car.
The ranger used this diesel first then switched to a Mitsubishi design that I think was turbo’d.
Don’t know about the US Escorts, but the first diesel in the Euro-Escort was the 55 hp 1.6 liter Ford Dagenham diesel in the Escort Mk3.
The current Mazda BT-50 pickup (related to the Ford Ranger) comes with Ford diesels, either a 2.2 liter 4-cylinder or a 3.2 liter 5-cylinder.
Johannes it is the Ranger Mazda and Ford were still tied up in those even the engine options are the same.
the Mazda built 2.2L Perkins and the Mitsubishi built 2.3L diesel
I test drove one of these back in ’83. I had completely forgotten about it … I didn’t really care for the small cab, and also wanted 4wd so I bought a used Datsun 720 KingCab instead. It’s coming back to me now; the dealer let me take it out by myself for quite a while, and I took it home to let my roommate, who had owned a 1st gen Courier, try it out. I think it was yellow. And definitely slow.
Wow, never knew the engine was a Perkins design. Saw very few of these back in the day, most common diesel mini-pickup was the Isuzu, with maybe the Toyota a distant 2nd.. There was a turbo-diesel Ram 50/Mighty Max, which may have been even more scarce than the Mazda.
Nissan also had a diesel-engined pickup, and a few models of diesel powered sedans.
Yes, I owned a 1981 720 pickup with the SD22 diesel engine for a couple of years – it’s essentially an industrial engine widely used in forklifts and marine applications. They also used a slightly-larger displacement version, the SD25, from 1983 to 1986, in the pickups as well.
Cold-blooded as all heck. Below 40 degrees F, it would not start without use of an engine block heater.
My good friend owns a Mighty Max with the turbodiesel and 5-speed manual in a 4×4 – he just finished restoring it last year. It is so nice that he doesn’t even want to drive it now!
Everything in Japan had a diesel option years ago from Tercels and Starlets size upwards all could be had with diesels.
There’s a mint Ram 50 diesel running around up here, still driven by it’s original owner. I never knew Mazda jumped on the diesel bandwagon either, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
The comments prompted me to do some further Perkins research. A neighbor had owned a Massey-Ferguson 1100 Diesel in the late ’60’s that had very smooth and solid motor, and I had long heard of the Perkins reputation. The Perkins website indicates that the company had gotten into some financial trouble in the ’50’s after rushing a larger truck engine (the “P6”) to market, resulting in large recall expenses and a big hit to their reputation. The Massey-Ferguson farm tractor and implement company came to their rescue in 1959, guaranteeing a market for Perkins engines for all of Massey’s diesel needs. The company was retained under Massey through the turbulent (for farmers and farm implement companies) 70’s and 80’s, until being sold to Caterpillar in 1998, where it now resides and apparently prospers-they build motors all over the world and are expanding into the Chinese market. So, this truck has a license-built engine from a company that was owned at the time by a company that was one of the biggest builders of farm tractors and equipment. Solid. Now I gotta go look up whether Caterpillar tractors have Perkins diesel engines. That would be very confusing.
They are widely used in Cat equipment.
They have mostly replaced the older Caterpillar-developed engines in a lot of the equipment they have built in the last decade and a half or so.
A lot of the smaller gear has “Perkapillar” engines in them. Excavators are the big exceptions, as they usually used Mitsubishi engines in them.
The 3054/3056 are similar to the old 4.236 and 6.354. The C4.4 and C6.6 are updated versions of the same engine.
A lot of the skidsteers used either Perkins or Mitsubishi engines until the D-series arrived.
Hope it helps!
Thanks! And nice to know that a storied and proud old company survives.
I was driving a Foden the other night which is a Dutch built DAF with Caterpillar engine and 18sp Eaton Fuller transmission, nice to know theres a Perkins connection in there somewhere.
You sure it’s Dutch built?
Some DAFs are actually built at Leyland (and in the UK still come with a sticker in the door jamb with a Leyland logo), and I thought the later Fodens were built at Leyland too.
The plant in Leyland is still legally called Leyland Trucks Ltd, though the trucks are all badged as DAF.
Great little museum up there too
Yeah I’ve driven DAFs with a sticker which says “Manufactured by Leyland Trucks” or something like that. It sent me rushing to google, as I had no idea.
Not one truck with the Foden name ever left the DAF Eindhoven plant. The Foden Alpha below clearly says DAF CF (DAF’s midsizer). Judging by the mudflaps there’s a Caterpillar engine at work. Nice rig !
It has a PACCAR sticker inside the door jam pure DAF chassis but cat engine ex milk tanker there were thousands of them here, a nice little earner untill Scanias replaced them, Ipresume its Dutch DAF is though it could have been assembled elsewhere DAF badged equivalent has a step on exhaust brake instead of proper Jacobs.
Prior model to the Alfa those have the same CAT C12 motor though nice trucks to drive and no difference to the CF from behind the wheel.
Quite right. Foden (doesn’t exist anymore), DAF, Kenworth and Peterbilt are PACCAR brands. Their big engines (like the PACCAR MX13) sprouted directly from DAF engines; the smaller ones are Cummins products, as far as I know. I remember that light DAF trucks had Cummins engines in the past.
For a short period, in the mid nineties, DAF also used a Cummins 14 liter in their long distance top model. The 507 hp type 95.500, see tractor on the left below (photo courtesy of Truckstar.nl). In Europe DAFs never had a Caterpillar engine.
This is the truck
There were so many diesels in the early ’80s that almost nobody in the U.S. bought. Mazda also had a 626 diesel in 1984, available in the LX 4-door sedan only if I recall correctly. Don’t think it was available any other year. The only one I ever saw was new and unsold at a dealership.
For a while in the 90’s I had an ’86 Ford Ranger with a 2.3 turbo diesel which was made by Mitsubishi. It had led a hard life and had terrible compression. It actually ran quite well but probably didn’t make much more power than a n/a diesel would with good rings. Earlier in the 80’s a Mitsubishi 2.2 n/a diesel was offered in the Ranger. I wonder if that was the same engine used by the Mazda/ Courier.
As many have noted a basic 1/4 is not really on the market in N.A. If a diesel long box was offered it could sell pretty well.
“Only Mazda’s got a truck for just $5895…”
There was another Mazda commercial I liked advertising the rotary engine. ” The piston goes boing boing boing, and the Mazda goes mmmmmmmmm.” Another one was ” The thrill is back, Mazda performs !!”
My daily driver is a 1985 Peugeot 505 turbo diesel wagon. I can imagine the original purchaser was very interested in the fact that it would easily double the average MPG of any comparably sized station wagon in the USA. There is a rather soothing sound and feel to older, quite primitive diesels. Having previously owned a 240d, the rough cold starts and vintage air cooled airplane sound of clatter appeals to me.
Nice, a more than 30 years old car as a daily driver. Peugeot still builds your car, it’s now called the Peugeot 508 SW 2.0 BlueHDi.
Peugeot diesel engines were also used by other automakers. Among them are Ford, Toyota, Suzuki, Lada and Rover. Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot are the most experienced diesel engine builders; of car diesels, that is.
It seems that Isuzu sold the most diesel powered vehicles among the Japanese automakers. During the early/mid 1980s, you could get an Isuzu I-Mark, pickup or Trooper with a diesel.
Isuzu also supplied the diesel engines for the Chevy Chevette, which was on the same GM T platform as the (pre-1985) I-Mark.
there is an identical mazda diesel still clanging around Peterborough. I have to guess it spent a good chunk of its life somewhere salt free as most vehicles from that vintage died of terminal body rot eons ago. the primer and rust patches on this one get bigger every year but the old girl is still holding her own!
I never thought of this area being anything special vehicle wise, but since joining CC I am impressed with the interesting vehicles I spot!
Nice little truck. My brother had a gasoline powered 81 or 82 B2200 with a stick and 2WD he bought in the mid-late 80’s. Tough little truck, and I imagine with a good diesel engine pretty much indestructible mechanically. Sadly living in Ill-annoy the salt and tinworm had started eating away my brother’s lil’ Mazda when he bought it. A quick respray of red paint merely slowed the inevitable.
Quick q for those in Oregon. Do they use road salt out there to clean the roads in winter? A truck like that in Chicago would have turned to dust years ago.
the truck featured in this article has lived its entire 282,000+ mile life in western oregon and washington, where there is no need for road salt because we hardly ever get snow. i know because it’s my truck! i was very surprised to find it here. totally cool!
I found myself in L.A. traffic behind a survivor just yesterday, complete with a Leer camper shell and a surfboard sticking out below the raised window. It’s SoCal, after all. There was a “Got Biodiesel?” bumper sticker to complete the package. The exhaust didn’t smell of diesel oil OR french fries, so I’m not exactly sure what he was running. But there was no black smoke, for which I was grateful.
Hey – that’s my truck! Glad to see it being appreciated.
joe do you still have the diesel pickup
nice looking diesel survivor i also have one now [1984] b2200 diesel , was my dads he bought it off a friend with low kms now has around 130,000 kms it lives in saskatoon saskatchewan canada looks the same as in the picture including colour nice little truck has never been winter driven may to september then put away for winter love the sound of that diesel rattle starts like new not a power house just a good old truck that survived
My dad bought one just like it new. It came to me when he died. It sat in a field for 13 years. I’ve restored everything I could. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2v2ybJr6AY
I have a 83 mazda b2200 diesel in real good shape it’s for sale (980)258-4320 Josh
just found this article. former resident of oregon. my 83 ranger has clocked over 350,000. originally purchased somewhere in California. the second owner lived in Washington, I bought it while living in oregon. then moved to Arizona for a few years. now I’m located in texas. where the truck struggles with fast traffic. I use 2ndary roads due to the 70-85 mph speed limits on the freeways. having a 4 speed. the r.p.m.’s are just too high to keep up with freeway traffic. mileage has dropped below 25mpg, so the truck is due for injectors and injection pump service. (it got 34 mpg when I bought it).
Halo sir i am pakistani i like this truck mazda b2200 i bought it you demand this truck
Still have 3 b2200 Mazda perkins diesels on the road in Peterborough, one with a higher ratio rear differential and a turbo !Have lots of extra parts lenses, electrical, dash , doors, hoods, etc . No engines , trannys, cabs, boxes .al
I saw online a Perkins conversion kit for my Hillman Superminx recently, I knew it was an option when new but never actually seen one, no Im not tempted yet my daily car is diesel already.
There are a few vehicles in my life which I have driven, but oddly remember very little about. One such as a dealer test drive of a new Mazda pickup of this vintage, mustard yellow, and I’m pretty sure it was a diesel. This was around the same time I also test drove a new slant-six Dodge van. Ended up with a used Datsun 720 pickup … NAPS-Z gasoline engine, not diesel. It was brown with a stick shift though.
I actually just bought an 82 Mazda B2200 from my buddy who was reluctant to sell it to me, but he needed a change 😅 regardless it’s amazing, my only current debate is to swap gear ratios in the tranny and diff to get a tad better mpg and less stress on that ol perkins lol well that and completely rewiring it, it sat in a field for 30 years and the mice unfortunately had some lunches with the poor harness in a few spots…
I’m leaving a picture so y’all can view her in her glory!
I have a gas differential (82-84 B2000) with the high gear set 3.08 IIRC.
I have a ton of parts fo the gas trucks and am looking to buy another 82-84 truck
Would even be interested in a diesel if you want to sell
Hello : I recently purchased an ’83 Ford Ranger with the Perkins 2.2 diesel.
very little support and/or parts from anywhere as of yet. Not a cream puff, but
half way decent. Will be selling at some point in near future. I paid a premium
for it, but had to have it !
TR