My head was cracked so a machine shop found me another one and rebuilt it. It looks the same, but when I got it home I noticed the lifters are no longer hydraulic. Does anybody know if it's ok to use it? If so, what year engine I should look at to get the right valve clearance specs?

Can anyone confirm this: The machine shop that sold me the head says Mazda used the same head on F2 engines for many years. Supposedly from 83 to 87 they used solid lifters then switched to hydrualic. He says to use .008" for the intake and .010" for the exhaust with the engine cold.

Also, does anyone know if there's any significant difference between them.

The heads are IDENTICAL!!! The only difference is the Rocker assy.
It is okay to use the 2200 head gasket for the 2000 head, but not the other way around.
The 2200 gasket is made with a larger oil passage to feed the hydraulic lifters.
If you use the 2000 gasket on the 2200 head, you starve the lifters and make a hellacious noise.

Besides, the hydraulic lifters have a bad design, and they become problematic if they ever need to be serviced.
The adjustable rockers a far more reliable!

Actually interchanging the head gasket won't make any difference either way around. There is an oil restrictor press fit into the block, even on engines with the hydraulic rocker arms this hole is only like 3/32 of an inch or so. The hole in the gasket is about 3 times this size and is just over 3/8 inch diameter.

Even if what was said about the head gasket was true he now has mechanical rocker arms which require less oil so it doesn't matter either way.

You should be fine running both intake and exhaust lash at .008" It will be much quieter and will help keep the exhaust flow in the right proportion to the intake. I've ran mine at .006" intake and .008" exhaust for almost 3 years now and have never had a problem. It is better to have them slightly tight then slightly loose.

If you have any other questions feel free to drop my site a post.

Kyrasis6
MazdaTruckin.com Owner