Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
One of my sons has his eyes on a 94 Mitsubishi Montero. It's really a nice SUV, but unfortunately the knucklehead owner ran it out of oil.
So... He and I are mulling over him buying it, and the two of us tearing into the engine to see whether or not it's rebuildable. If it is, he could have a heckuva nice SUV for under 2 grand. If not, he could probably sell it for what he can buy it for ($500).
I'm not concerned about being able to do the work, because I've done a lot of engine rebuilding over the years. But I've never been into one of these particular engines. I don't know about the availability of used engines and/or parts. Because its a DOHC I'm a little concerned about the heads. It's a 3.5 liter V6.
Does anybody have any experience with this particular Montero? The engines? Anybody know where there's an excellent used engine for cheap?
We're in the "mulling it over" stage, and would appreciate some input before we decide to either pull the trigger, or walk away.
I agree with you guys about the engine swap. The problem is that we're not having much luck tracking down any good ones. It seems that there aren't many in salvage yards, and the few we've found are about $1,000.00. I'm puzzled as to why that is.
well, if that 1000 bucks gets you the long block with accessories, and maybe a 30 day warranty, that may be legit. Not like the old days of buying a small block Chevy for a few hundred.
My bro-in-law did a swap in his ford truck, getting a motor thru an area salvage lot ( they were able to actually source one out for him ). Price was in that area, but it had less then 100k miles which is fine on their straight 6's and he did get a 1000 mile warranty for some piece of mind.
Worst case--fix it up and sell it for some extra ching. It could be a great low cost way for him to tinker more on a car without hurting the wallet.
Have you priced a rebuild "kit" - gasket set, rings, bearings, the stuff you would replace as a matter of course in tearing down and re-assembling? Mitsubishi rebuild kits may be available only from the dealer, which would mean $. That said you might find a good online dealer who will discount the parts - that's what I do for Toyota parts. Full retail on a valve grind gasket kit for the Toyota 3S-FE motor is about $500, unless it's gone up in the last couple of years.
You'll want to get your hands on a good manual of course if you want to rebuild the engine.
The question is, really, if the crank was scored, and if the pistons were scuffed, probably both happened, but how bad?
$1000 for a good engine from a yard may not be such a bad deal. If you can get a good runner for $1500 plus some good father-son activities, to me that sounds like a deal. And if the kid does at least some of the knuckle-busting, he will appreciate the car more, if you give a kid a car, he'll beat on it and does not really value it. Sad but true.
You might as well price a rebuilt one, although they are probably too costly to really consider.
With the boneyard engine, you get to keep the one in the truck, if the heads etc. are in good shape you might sell it to someone else to rebuild and recover more of your $.
Worst-case scenario would be parting the truck out, if you have a place to do that, if you bought it for $500 you would probably make a profit before sending the remaining hull to a metal recycler.
Another question is if it will run at all, is it just knocking a big-end of the rod as you usually get with oil starvation, or worse than that?
M3 Mitch - we've hunted that stuff down. And you're right, the rebuild kit prices are okay - comparable to other stuff.
Basically I'm not so concerned about the bottom end of the engine. Even if we needed to bore the cylinders & turn all the journals, you're still dealing with a known quantity.
I'm a little more concerned with the heads. DOHC usually means more fickle and a LOT more expensive. I'm not thinking that the heads are probably cracked, but I'm remembering a 2.0 VW engine I tore into. The upper end was starved for oil long enough that the cam had actually melted/fused to the head. Needless to say, that was not good!
Thanks for the help guys!
Others?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
