So I was a hair's breath away from parting out the old Montero. While I went junkyard hunting yesterday looking for air conditioning parts for my Winnebago, I stumbled across a 1988 Montero in a junkyard really close to my place. Out of curiosity, I looked under the hood... Of course, the engine was gone. I asked in the front office, and was greeted with "yes, we have a 2.6 that needs a good home."
Apparently, there was a gentleman who started a project fixing up an old Montero a few years ago. He hired them to repair the engine, as it it popped the head gasket. Unfortunately, as is all too often, the head was trash. It took them too long to find another head, even though they eventually retrofitted a 2.6 Caravan head to fit. The gentleman died before the engine was complete. They refunded the family the $800 Deposit they had gotten, and kept the Montero and engine with parts in trade.
I was offered a complete, machined, and assembled bottom end, rebuilt head, new carburetor, and every other component either new or rebuilt from that carburetor to the exhaust manifold for $400.
I think my summer plans have just changed. No more money into my cheap Chevy project (1993 C1500 with a 350 that I picked up for a grand), build this Montero engine, get the Montero back on the road, then try to get as much out of the old Chevy truck as possible. The Montero will be better suited for my needs, as I need a small, lightweight vehicle to pull behind the RV. I already built a bumper for it, and it was built to fit my IBISTEK HMMWV aluminum tactical tow bar with a 17500 pound weight rating. It is also four-wheel drive, which the Chevy truck is not. The air conditioning always worked better in the Montero, too. In addition, if we do end up moving North next year, four-wheel drive is awful nice in the snow.
I am downloading the 1988 Raider FSM right now, but I was curious if there was already a concise listing of the engine torque specs sitting around on this site. It would appear that I will be picking up a complete, yet disassembled, machined and rebuilt engine tomorrow (they have to get it from their race team garage off-site). Time to look into replacing every tool I need to reassemble and install an engine that I lost to the ex-wife in the divorce (she claims someone broke in and stole all my stuff when we were separated; its BS, but not worth taking her back to court and keeping her in my life over).
Before I begin, any tips or tricks I should know about? For example, a Toyota 22RE is easier to pull by unplugging the computer and feeding the harness out with the engine, swapping it on the stand. Any quick tips like this for the Montero?
