Alright, I kinda got tired of always working on the monty so it started going down hill. I use a lot of oil, like 1 qt/150 miles. Never see any smoke. Can't ever smell it either. It started fouling #1 cylinder and once it did that, oil would be visible on the exhaust manifold. I would just change the plug every time it fouled which was OFTEN and just keep feeding it oil. The other day it fouled the plug, I changed it and it didn't fix it. Checked it out and #4 was fouled. Wouldn't run worth a crap. Changed both plugs and it got me to wqork and home basically. Now today on the freeway cruising at 65, it started losing power and slowing down and it was floored. Runs like crap now. Idles really rough and has very little power. Okay, I just was wondering where I should start. Yeah I know the motor is shot and needs to be rebuilt but I don't want to hear that since it is only 1 1/2 yrs old. 50k miles (daily driver and I work const.)

Any thoughts?

Look for a parts truck and grab the engine. I have 5 and I'm looking to end up with three runners and be rid of two parts trucks. That was my solution. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Air, Fuel, or Spark... Got to start somewhere. I'd look at the cap/rotor..

What kind of "performance" rebuild did you do?

.040 over, balance shaft elim, street balanced within 1 gram, non-jet valve head



Yeah, the basics. it runs, barely, so it gets gas. Just to get home it used 1/4 tank of gas, about 15-20 miles. It's like #1 and #4 aren't firing. I check for spark and it has spark but I can remove the plug wire for #1 & #4 and it doesn't affect the motor at all. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

So it sounds like a timing/ignition problem. Have you looked at the cap and rotor? My 2.6 quit one day driving down the road, and I had NO idea where to start. I just started replacing parts and happened to have an old rotor from when I changed it 10,000 miles earlier. Long story short, the new looking rotor for some reason, stopped working.. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, I've experienced things like that. Dist quit on the trail once, coils go out on the freeway, weird crap like that. I just don't want to throw parts at it. Guess I'll have to start just throwing parts at it. Yes, I looked at the cap and rotor and they appear good?????

You need to start with a compression test, things happen even to new heads. This happened to mine with only a few thousand miles.

I just did a compression test and here are the results...
#1 30
#2 160
#3 155
#4 0

Why would both #1 & #4 go south and the others be fine. This means rip the thing apart right. This is my only vehicle and this isn't very good since parts are few and far between. Anyone wanna buy a broken down Montero for cheap?

At this point it's time to pull the head and take a look. I think it's in the top end as it was running. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Check to be sure you dont have a bad jet valve. You can eliminate them or fix them with the head still on the car.

Kevin