Afternoon all. Hope you ready to have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow.

I'm sitting here crying in my beer. I recently became the custodian of a 1991 black Montero LS, saving her from the the pick n' pull vultures. Previous owner got into the engine and threw his hands up midway through a head gasket change. I picked her up for 500 dollars in Las Vegas and trucked her back to SoCal.

Welcome Ms Monty by poormansporsche

Ms Monty Engine pull by poormansporsche

I've since pulled the engine and called all the local "hero" machine shops only to be told "we're months away from any new builds". So, on the recommendation of a reputable Mitsu indie shop I took the mill to Cylinder Head Sh*tty... I mean City. Quoted 1400 for taking the engine apart, NPR pistons .030 over, Clevite bearings, freshened up heads, gaskets, oil pump, timing belt install, water pump, etc. A little high but he came recommended and frankly I just didn't/don't have the time.

I said lets do it, but you can use my OEM parts and ARP studs rather than your knock-offs. He took it part and reassembled it with his rubbish parts... well I'll save the details for a build thread. He did a crap job. Whole thing is a wash. Heads are unusable, pistons are NOT NPR and have blemishes from the manufacturer. Engine wasn't torqued to spec, oilpump damaged... etc. etc. etc.

Ms Monty damaged oil pump by poormansporsche

Ms Monty bad head by poormansporsche

Ms Monty bad piston by poormansporsche

I picked up new heads ready to go from Cylinder Head Exchange in Sylmar, CA. (Great freaking guys there!) took apart the old heads, got the cams ready for install, new HLAs blah blah blah.

My questions (finally the point, right?)

Cylinder Head City did a bore supposedly .030 over. I'm replacing the crap pistons with NPR's. Do I get the block re-bored to .040 over? Just buy .030 over pistons double check his work and hope for the best?

I have a full OEM gasket kit. I've heard .040 over is the max OEM headgaskets will accommodate but I can't seem to verify this, search as I might. If I need oversized gaskets, does anyone make OS headgaskets for the SOHC 3.0? Only seen them for the DOHC.

thanks guys,

poorman

Based onall you've said, you definitely need to check their bore work. I'm pretty sure you trust anything they said they did. You're into it enough that you may as well bite the bullet and get the blocked checked. Preferably by you for your piece of mind. Good luck, keep us informed.

I thought I was the only crazy person considering building the 3.0 lol. Personally I think ur making a good choice, gonna be a sweet little motor. Question tho, why buy .030 over pistons for a .040 bored block?

It's a very stout engine that's capable of many many miles when built correctly, or so I've read. I have been considering just swapping to a GM engine. Especially after all the issues I've had working with local machine shops. My plan is to drive it around the country for a bit with the missus and when we settle down maybe a supercharger on it and just daily it. Paxton made a S/C kit back in the 90s. CARB approved also. Would be a fun truck.

So I fully pulled the engine apart. Yesterday I dropped it off at a different machine shop. They're going to check the bore as mudraider recommended. If they're within spec Silvolite pistons will be ordered in 30 over. If the previous shop mucked it up and it needs a rebore to 40 over we'll go that route, again with Silvolite and with appropriate clearance. Hastings rings will be used vs the unknown brand regardless.

They will also be cleaning up the block. Magnafluxing and skimming the deck. He had some concerns that it hadn't been done and there were some areas of issue on the mating surface.

The crank still looked ok, but it will be polished up and journal sizes checked. Possibly reground if too far out of spec.

Unfortunately, the machine shop is sometime off before they could commit to a full build, but I hope to have the block, new pistons hung on the rods and can self assemble in two weeks. We'll see.

poorman

That's actually pretty quick for a machine shop. Keep us apprised of the situation

Yeah pretty decent. Would have loved to have them just complete the build, but they were 6 weeks to 2 months off. I'd really like to take trip over the holiday. Though, the odds of that happening seem less and less likely. We'll see.

poorman

Update:

Spoke to the new machine shop this afternoon. Sure as can be, the job performed by Cylinder Head Sh!tty was for nothing. The bores ranged all over the place. Now you could maybe say "maybe due to variances in piston size?" However all the bores also had at minimum 2 thous taper. So, just a crap job all around. I'd say "you get what you pay for" but sometimes, as in this case, you don't get what you pay for. I certainly paid for a quality job that I simply didn't receive.

So the deck is being smoothed out, the crank is within spec and just getting a polish, the bores will get a 40 over and new Silvolite pistons with Hastings rings. Hope this block last a good long time.

Thoughts on using OEM head gaskets with 40 over pistons? Should have enough space?

poorman

That's probly a good question for fasteddy.