01 Mitsubishi Montero 3.5 V6,Timing belt problems,Truck has 160,000 for sale for part
 

01 Mistubishi Montero,3.5 V6,160,000 miles,ran fine everything works,sitting in front of Apt other day with truck running,just quit,turned over but never restarted,took to shop Monday,they said timing belt was hitting teeth and that I had a interference motor and that I would need to purchase a timing belt kit,6hrs of labor for $1000.00 and then they could tell me if motor is bad,called Mitsu dealer he said don't spend the 1000.00 because the motor is gone.Doe anyone know if this is so? If so is there anyone who needs a excellent white truck with bad motor,contact me

Breakage of timing belt is one of the worst things one can experience. However, unless you were running the engine at 5000 RPM when that happens and a valve had literally done through the piston (made a hole), a broken timing belt does NOT make the engine useless. It's possible that after replacing the timing belt you (your mechanic) finds out that one of more cylinders have bent valves. All you need to do is to pull the head and replace the valves. Since replacing the valves involves doing another timing belt job, have a mechanic put a camera down into spark plug holes to see if any valves are bent before starting on the timing belt. If so - take off the head and replace the valves. This type of work has been done on thousands of engines and is totally worth doing. It really irks me that we, as a society, had come to the point that a simple (or moderate) engine repair is dismissed in favor of spending $50k on a new shiny toy that will likely have the same issue down the road. The problem is that this new toy has electronics up to wazzu to the point that no-one but the dealer can work on them and the software in it will go out of date two years down the road.

Sorry if I came across too harsh. Did not mean to do that. Just wanted to make sure that people do not throw away a good strong engine (and one of the best SUVs out there) just because it bent couple of valves.

1k is high. Unfortunately that's what Mitsubishi dealer charges for it on Montero. I remember the pain of it when we had to pay that much for the job years ago. At that time the timing belt was the "mystery box" that you don't dare touch yourself :( I'm glad I got past that fear and learned to do it myself.

I totally agree with Hunter D. The prior owner of my 94 Montero had replaced the timing belts incorrectly, then started the car, and "oooooooops".....ker-clunk!. Immediately bent the valves on one side of the engine. I guess that owner got the same advice, and chose to get rid of the poor Montero. It has been repaired, and the engine runs like a new one.