Hi All,

I am still new to montero’s and all their common issues. I have searched this forum and have not found what I'm looking for so if there is a thread on this feel free to smack me around as long as you point me in the right direction k

97 Montero LS with 156k miles.
I finished the timing belt last week and started up the engine and all ran well. But because some of the things I found while doing the timing belt/water pump/pulleys and all that, I decided not to drive it anywhere until I had a chance to drain all the fluids (front/rear/center/trans) and so on because of how poorly maintained this Montero appears to be. So it sat in my garage this last week until I had time this last weekend to do all that.. I also had to do the cam seals.. I did much of the work yesterday. The cam seals took longer than I thought is would so I didn’t get to all the fluids. I got everything back together and started it up. And I got a loud screeching noise coming from one of the pulleys. Remember I had not started the engine sense last weekend. Last weekend however there was no pulley noise and the engine was purring .. this weekend loud pulley noises.. so I figured I much have put all or some of the fan belts on to tight. And I checked them and I they were to tight.. the one that was making the noise was the air conditioning pulley. While I'm trying to find the offending pulley I'm starting and stopping the engine no problems. I started the engine and adjusted the pulley till the noise was gone (I will need to replace it/some I'm sure). K, turned the engine off so I could tighten the front pulley bolt and now..the engine won’t start. It acts like it wants to. And it starts and runs/rumbles for about 3 or 4 seconds at 3 or 4 hundred RPM’s then dies.

I keep going over this in my head and I did nothing that could cause this to happen. This must be a coincidence.. a odd one. But to me if feels like engine is not getting fuel. But that’s why I'm writing this to get your inputs. For the 3 seconds the engine is sort of running, if I hit the gas the engine just dies.

Something I noticed that I'm not sure about. I'm not sure how to explain it. I noticed last weekend after the timing belt was done and I started it, when it first started, the engine would turn over and catch but run at a really low RPM for a second or two, then it would take off and run normally. I didn’t give it much thought then. Now its acting the same but not catching on and revving up to normal idle.

This weekend I drained and filled the trans.. (I know I need to get all of it out.. and refill, just didn’t have the time this weekend) and I changed the rear cam seals, and adjusted fan belt pulleys.. that’s all. With all the starting and stopping the battery went a little low (new battery) so I put it on the charger and it was back to full in 2 or 3 hours. But the engine still behaved the same.

I have had this thing for about 2 or 2.5 months and have done nothing but work on it and its getting a little frustrating. I knew that it needed work when I bought it.. but man.. 150k should not be this bad. Ok done complaining.