Hey everyone I have a friend of mine who didn't change the timing belt soon enough. The result, I guess were the pistons kissing a few of the valves. She decided to not get it fixed which has resulted in it sitting at my neighbors house for a few months waiting for her to do something with it..

.. thats where I come in. Since I'm a sucker for a low cost (initial) project, this will be my first 4wd vehicle. My usual is the Mopars of the '80's, you know the little 2.2 - 2.5 turbo'd cars that you find in every junkyard in the US and most of mexico..

So the skinny on the Montero. This thing is in pretty darn good shape. No rust anywhere, rockers, liftgate, wheel wells, none. It's black, has the sunroof, power winders, (something I have gotten use to not having) It only has 137K miles on it. There really is nothing wrong with it except the bent valves, and whatever else that problem could have caused. Now her asking price of $700.00 makes me want to jump on it, but past experience with other vehicles is making me stand back and try to find some valuable info.

I imagine others have come across the timing belt issue. 137 K miles seems a little premature but what do I know? Do you guys think this is a good purchase? Should I pull the heads, check em out, replace the needed valves and run with it? Or should I find another engine and git er done that way.. I'm having trouble finding a used 3.0 except I think the salvage yard (where I work) has a Mitsu Eclipse with a 3.0 in it.. I believe the engine is smoked but the heads are probably still good, if it's the same engine..

Sorry this is so long, and if I am unclear about anything please let me know.

This isn't going to be a rock crawler, maybe lift it enough to get some larger tires under it for mild off roading, but I would like it to tow my little 21' Bayliner, and have it set up for camping with the family..

Thanks everyone

 

No one?

 

Kind of a belated answer, but I just found this site. Mine did the same thing, just a little differently. It had some help from my brother, who thought 'Oh overheating Montero, why don't we just pull the radiator cap while it's still running, and shove a waterhose in it.' Long story short, hot antifreeze went all over the pulley assembly and caused the timing belt to slip. The good news is we got a parts montero should anything like that come up, bad news is it's been sitting for nearly 3 years. As far as getting the thing back into timing, and the belt on it, peice of cake. Changing the valves might be a bitch though. But they are really good SUV's once you get past the bugs, they ride amazing, turning radius is a little hard. Other than that, totally worth it. Oh and the engine parts are interchangable with Dodge's to, Carivan's to be exact.