1. Blown head gasket (smokey tail pipe and milky oil).
a) Head gasket set, head machine work (straighten, mill, new valve guides and stem seals), timing belt, water pump, timing belt tensioner idler, front main seal, timing belt crank sprocket, new crank pulley bolt and washer, new accessory belt(s). Under a grand if you do the labor, two solid days for an average skill mechanic working alone. Multiple writeups on here. Mitsubishilinks.com for a factory manual for an 89, which will work fine for a head job - 91 manual on the same site is much less helpful.
2. Some strange rattling/knocking under the truck when driving (yes I took it for a SUPER short drive). It seems to be mid truck drivers side, but not 100% it's def not in the engine compartment. Maybe catalytic converter? Any help here would be AWESOME.
a) as previously noted, plus there is a roll stopper appliance on the dside inner frame which couples to the tcase case dside outer end. One side is a bracket with thru bolt, and the other side is a bracket with a steel hole lined with a rubber doughnut which has a lot of clearance on the thru bolt. It's to limit engine/tranny/tcase deflection under heavy torque. The donut can rot out, and with a misfiring engine, can rattle against the bare steel while pulling or decelling hard.
2. A leak coming in from somewhere under the dash. The passenger side floorboard carpet was SOAKED.
a) as noted, plus clean the drain(s) for the cowl air intake bucket, under the plastic grill. In fact, the whole hood to windshield base unscrews with engine compartment screws and removes. the drains are rubber pipe cut on the slant with a filled end with the lower ends free and a vertical slit. Crud makes it thru the plastic grill and clogs up the drains, and the air bucket fills up in heavy rain and overflows the interior air inlet sill and flows into the truck via heat vents.
3. Drivers side floorboard was damp.
4. Paint on hood and top faded and clear coat peeling.
GOOD
1. $500 bucks
2. Paint on rest of vehicle nice and shiny.
3. No rust from what I could see and the truck looks overall clean (doesn't look beat all to hell off road).
Further thoughts. Does it have the offroad kit? Headlight washers and an lsd rear diff, for which there will be a lubricant additive orange warning label on the driver's door jamb, rear side. Great trucks with all the want it's from the gen1. The 5spd is very tough, a true truck tranny.
One more necessary immediate do item, You MUST remove the radiator and take to a rad shop and have it rodded out, tanks removed and boiled out, leak tested, and put back together. Under $200. These tiny radiator flues clog up, and you get a long term chronic mild overheat. Any fairly minor overheat event or low coolant level, can make the head bow up, stretch the head bolts, and lose the head seal and blow the gasket. Buy new head bolts.
Replace the fan clutch, too, unless it's very stiff at room temps (VERY stiff).
The LS model usually had the offroad kit, power windows/locks.
