Drug another one home...

[KarmannMarco]

Well , I've been enjoying my 97 LS for almost two years now. Its taken me through some fun trails , all kinds of weather and has been a reliable family daily driver. Never once did I feel I needed an SR model.
This past weekend however I came across a deal I could not pass up and I managed to drag home a 96 SR.
The lady i bought it from gave it to her daughter as a first car. Her ghetto boyfriend rigged a terrible mess of a sound system in it and managed to make it so only one speaker worked despite adding two amps and more speakers. (fixed that mess already) The the girl decided the truck was to big for her and wanted something small so her mom sold it to me for dirt cheap.
The plan is the drive this SR as it is for awhile , work out all bugs and address the maintenance needs. Once all that is done I will swap the 31s I have on the LS over to the SR and sell the LS (if i could keep both I would) I would go with 33s however my 31s still have a good 80% thread left in them and have honestly gotten me everywhere I've ever pointed them at with no issues.

Issues to work out...

-Clearcoat on the hood and roof is toast ( just like on my LS )
-Rough Idle... the truck runs and driver great however the idle fluctuates between 650-850 RPM up and down in a constant pattern. It's not throwing a code so I'm unsure where to start on this.
-Spare tire/wheel is missing all together.
-Front two leather seats have seen better days , headliner is dirty.
-Burns oil ( as does my LS )

To start I'm thinking timing belt kit w/ water pump , plugs , wires , full fluid flush.
I know I should probably do the valve stem seals while I'm in there but I may leave it for a future project.

All and all I'm very excited for this truck and hope I can put its capabilities to the test soon but selling the LS is going to be tough!

Here pictures. I'll take some better pictures of the two trucks together in the next couple of days.


The SR...



The LS...

 

[off-roader]

Nice! How many miles on each?

As for maintenance, check the fluids especially the transmission/transfer case & diff's as it seems they are easy to not maintained properly.

 

[KarmannMarco]

It is kind of cool to have two second gens in the driveway.
Both currently have 167K oddly enough.
Thanks for the tip. Any particular brand of fluid I should be better off using?

 

[off-roader]

Not really other than ensuring the AT fluid is 100% mitsu transmission compatible.

I'm not convinced synthetic would be better than dino oil either since these aren't really high revving high temp engines IMHO.

 

[SoCalMonty]

Castrol Import trans fluid works well and doesn't break the bank.

 

[off-roader]

Castrol Import trans fluid works well and doesn't break the bank.

Sean,

How long have you been running the Castrol fluid? If you haven't already, a quick transmission fluid analysis might be a good idea to confirm all's well since it's not uncommon for problems associated with the wrong lube to take some time before they manifest themselves.

I know from other's experience on 4x4wire that Mobil 1 was claiming to work for the Mitsu's transmissions in much the same way. But after a while the owner discovered that it was in fact not working properly and it had caused excessive wear on his transmission. He only discovered this after performing an oil analysis several times over the life of the fluid. It showed excessive wear (metal particles in fluid) which cause some severe problems that ultimately resulted in a failed transmission.

 

[Jay Ayala]

-Burns oil ( as does my LS )

To start I'm thinking timing belt kit w/ water pump , plugs , wires , full fluid flush.
I know I should probably do the valve stem seals while I'm in there but I may leave it for a future project.

First of all, nice find SR. Your LS looks great too! After having gone through a Valve Stem Seal job myself, I'm going to highly recommend that if you are going to do all the timing belt and other stuff, you may as well do Valve Stem Seals too. Sure it's a little extra work but it will be very much worth it. I just completed this job an I am so happy I did it. No more blue smoke from my tail pipe. It was time consuming but not very difficult. Seeing as how you will already be about 80% of the way there with the parts you need to remove to get the timing belt and water pump done, it may not be much of a difference for you.

Check out my post on how to do this with the "rope trick". 1989 V6 - Valve Seal Replacement - Rope Trick.

 

[96 Montero]

KM we need to meet up, I am on the west side of Houston.


Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Dprisner]

Congrats on the very nice looking Monty SR! :clapsmile

 

[KarmannMarco]

Thanks guys. I appreciate all the suggestions and comments.
As for the rough idle i think I've got it figured out. My CEL went on tonight on the way home and I pulled the code with Torque on my phone.
The code was P1400 which is the Map sensor....which is partially responsible for the idle and fuel mixture. $80 on Rockauto.

 

[Skidmarkart]

Castrol Import trans fluid works well and doesn't break the bank.

FYI - I have been running this for 40,000+ miles without a hiccup. It works great and according to my research is basically the exact same stuff that is in the Mitsubishi bottle. I also have 45,000 on it in Miss Skimakrart's Subaru.

 

[chip0wa]

Nice trucks! Is black an alright color to have in TX in the summer? Here in AZ I could never have a black car again.

Also all that's left in the classifieds in AZ are Montero Sports... cant find any good Gen 2 for sale. Let me know when you're ready to sell if I don't find one here locally soon :smiley_drive:

 

[KarmannMarco]

Nice trucks! Is black an alright color to have in TX in the summer? Here in AZ I could never have a black car again.

Also all that's left in the classifieds in AZ are Montero Sports... cant find any good Gen 2 for sale. Let me know when you're ready to sell if I don't find one here locally soon :smiley_drive:

Thanks! Well the truck is actually gray ( if that matters ). Last summer I was driving an 85 BMW 635Csi with barely cool AC here in Houston , same dark gray color , and it was a nightmare! ( not the car , the humid TX weather )
It took me a long time to find the LS because there are so few here too. And most I saw were in very poor condition. Even though I wanted the SR I pulled the trigger on the LS on the basis it was very well kept. It's not perfect but its better then most on CL and it gets me back and forth from Texas to Colorado about 2-3 times a year without a hiccup. I will be putting the 31s on the gray truck and putting the smaller stock tires back on the red truck before I sell it (less then 250 miles on them). I will probably have it ready for sale next month sometime. I'll let you know




On another note. I noticed in the gray truck when I start it in the morning and drive it right away the engine has to rev up all the way for 3000-3500 before it shifts into next gear , and it does not shift as smooth as It should. It will do this for one minute until the tranny warms up and then its smooth as butter. Or if I let the truck sit for 5 minutes before I drive it , it also runs super smooth.
This weekend I plan on doing a trans fluid flush and I hope that clears it up.

 

[Imnosaint]

It is kind of cool to have two second gens in the driveway.

Even cooler that they may flank a Karmann Ghia, air-cooler that is.

 

[KarmannMarco]

Even cooler that they may flank a Karmann Ghia, air-cooler that is.

I'll try and take that picture tomorrow


My tranny fluid was light brown in color so I can only guess its not been serviced in a long time (if ever)
My factory service manual states I need 5 quarts ( 10 pints ) when replacing the fluid. However the guide on here says 8.9 quarts. Am I missing something?
Also is there a filter under the tranny pan that I should be changing when doing this job?