Hey all... as some of you know my SR suffered a catastrophic failure (lower end knock) at our annual Death Valley trip earlier this year.

The original plan to swap it a new used engine with the help of a couple of local forum members (cap510 & grasscat). We were going to put in a lower mileage 95SR engine and swap in a few key components like the intake manifold.

What we've been able to accomplish was removing the 95SR engine from the doner vehicle, but beyond that, we simply haven't been able to coordinate schedules to have time to finish the job.

Then add to that a mechanic (at Fremont Wheel & Brake) waste more than a month of my time and ultimately flake out on being willing to swap in the engine. Well its sort of still in pieces waiting to be re-assembled.

What I mean by that is that there is some good news.... Currently it's at another mechanic (Bo's Imports in Hayward, CA) I've used successfully in the past to rebuild & r&r the engine in my old 90 Blue Montero.

Current news is they're just waiting on parts from Mitsu (Crank Bolt & new Intake Manifold) before they finish the refresh & install of that 95 powerplant.

I'm quite hopeful that the rig will be back in service in another week or so.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like a story worth publishing....

A few pictures and a writeup is all that is necessary.

Glad to hear of your progress. That gives me some inspiration to complete a small welding job that I have been postponing due to heat. Can't get enthused about welding with daytime temps exceeding 90+ with the AC running....

Yup been looking at that since there were many lessons learned from the trip.
1) Travel with a group. Since I was with a group they were able to help strap me to the trailhead where I could get AAA to pick me up.
2) Have AAA Premium service. It's only $120/yr but with it they were able to tow me from the middle of DV to Bakersfield. Without it, the bill would have been over $1600 @ $8/mile.
3) Have good friends. Luckily Mike Ryan (aka grasscat) is retired and was willing to drive the 200 miles from the bay area to Bakersfield in order to rescue his "adopted son". <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" /> He was also willing to loan me his Montero until I fixed my Montero.
4) Make sure you can take extra time off from work whenever you take these trips as it may require an extra day or two to fully recover.

I didn't arrive home until 7:30am the following morning and I was really in no shape to go to work after towing my rig through the night to get home as quickly as possible so that my buddy who was with me could catch his flight back to NV.

I ended up putting him on a commuter train to get back to San Jose where he could catch a taxi to the airport. Luckily his flight wasn't until 1:00pm so he had plenty of time.