Dont Call it a Build Thread

[howirolla]

So I did a thing.



As some may remeber I am a Land Rover guy that has had thoughts of switching to a monty for quite some time now. Have had my eyes peeled for something just right to finally tip me over the edge and pull the trigger.

here is the rover on a local trail for anyone that may be interested in seeing that


97, winter package, and lots of other bells and whistles. 222k miles. looked great in the pictures. has a cracked windscreen and a fuel gauge that doesn't seem to work.

I posted the ad for this thing in the clist thread a bit ago and was finally able to line up schedules enough with the owner to meet up and take a look at it. After about a 2 hour drive I arrive to see the monty out driving around. So I park, meet the owner, and then am told that it has apparently developed a noise over the 3 weeks it has been sitting. Well it sounded like a pretty dang loud lifter click. I checked the oil, not low, just old. owner says its due for a change and he had just gotten the supplies to do so. after a while the clicking sort of calmed and i noticed that as i raised the rpms it would go away. so i took it for a test drive. made sure the tcase and lockers worked. the owner tells me he doesn't think it has ever been in low range. didnt find any rust. the compass wasn't working either, the owner said it never had, i pushed the S button just below it and it did some stuff and started working just fine lol. i looked it over some more and made a low offer, and we settled in the middle. 2 hour drive home and here it sits.



changed the oil today, had hopes it would help the lifter tick...no luck. so i guess i will have to try something else there.

found the sticker from when the tbelt was done, cant read what the mileage was when it was done, but looks like the "next service" mileage says 194k, so shes a bit over due...


anyone run dual batteries? i have a set up in the rover i use for my fridge and would love to swap it into this but i am just not seeing the space!

but so far it seems pretty neat, the wife likes it, and the third row, i am looking forward to some lift and 35s, but i cant figure out if the low range in these things is a total jip or if i was just spoiled by the rovers low range...maybe both!?!

guess its time to sell the rover so i can dump some money on this thing!

 

[KyleT]

Rover low range is pretty low by normal standards.

Looks nice. After 7 rovers I have two montys, lots of extra cash and more importantly spare time not fixing them.

 

[normal_dave]

Awesome! You've been patient, held to your budget, I think that's going to make a great truck. I like that it looks still all original. Let's hope it has had good maintenance most of it's life, and the last owner just fell off a little. It has all the stuff you were looking for and then some, locker, traditional rear axle, plus limited and winter package to boot, what more could you ask for?

The lifter tick is a common issue, when you pull the valve covers, consider also pulling the rocker arms, and do a lifter bleed. This will clean, test, and restore savable lifters, and let you know which ones are failing. If the black rings are cracked, replace the lifter, if it won't hold pressure after bleeding, replace, I ended up replacing 7 on mine, but the rest were restored to service and have been fine. Be sure to buy the OEM (ouch) but it's worth it.
http://www.club3g.com/forum/maintenance/165458-how-bleeding-lifters-v6.html

Tick could also be exhaust leak or even failing timing belt tensioner, but most likely lifters. I think the lifters usually fail due to oil loss at the top end as a result of a few of our infamous leak points, rear cam seal(s), front cam seals, valve cover gasket, clogged pcv, and eventually valve stem seals (ol' smoky...)

Great looking truck!

 

[howirolla]

Rover low range is pretty low by normal standards.

Looks nice. After 7 rovers I have two montys, lots of extra cash and more importantly spare time not fixing them.

Yea it sure is nice having a low gear THAT low though haha

you aren't the first monty person I have seen that was formerly a rover person, its reassuring that I am on the right track lol

 

[howirolla]

Awesome! You've been patient, held to your budget, I think that's going to make a great truck. I like that it looks still all original. Let's hope it has had good maintenance most of it's life, and the last owner just fell off a little. It has all the stuff you were looking for and then some, locker, traditional rear axle, plus limited and winter package to boot, what more could you ask for?

The lifter tick is a common issue, when you pull the valve covers, consider also pulling the rocker arms, and do a lifter bleed. This will clean, test, and restore savable lifters, and let you know which ones are failing. If the black rings are cracked, replace the lifter, if it won't hold pressure after bleeding, replace, I ended up replacing 7 on mine, but the rest were restored to service and have been fine. Be sure to buy the OEM (ouch) but it's worth it.
http://www.club3g.com/forum/maintenance/165458-how-bleeding-lifters-v6.html

Tick could also be exhaust leak or even failing timing belt tensioner, but most likely lifters. I think the lifters usually fail due to oil loss at the top end as a result of a few of our infamous leak points, rear cam seal(s), front cam seals, valve cover gasket, clogged pcv, and eventually valve stem seals (ol' smoky...)

Great looking truck!

far as I can tell its deff all original. I was able to crawl around it more yesterday after work. the guy had it for 6 years and put well below average miles on it. has a brand new alternator and accessory belts, so he was trying at least lol.

even has the adjustable suspension! as well as heated seats, something the wife loves, we haven't had that option in a car for years lol

its deff a lifter, I got the ol stethoscope out and poked around where I was hearing the noise and its fer sure coming from under the valve cover. front of the driver side bank.

 

[Toasty]

You can get 2.72 low range gears from Marks4wd that are a bolt in deal, around $1200. Very easy to install, the other option is the Rubicon 4:1 case swap. The big problem with those trucks is that they geared the diffs to 4.27 to just barely be epa compliant. Switch to 4.63 or 4.90 to get back into the power band, the truck will run cooler as a result.

 

[howirolla]

You can get 2.72 low range gears from Marks4wd that are a bolt in deal, around $1200. Very easy to install, the other option is the Rubicon 4:1 case swap. The big problem with those trucks is that they geared the diffs to 4.27 to just barely be epa compliant. Switch to 4.63 or 4.90 to get back into the power band, the truck will run cooler as a result.

Yea I found that gear kit from marks already, and a couple of things about the case swap. also read about the diff swaps which is deff gunna be on the list after 35s lol.

anyone know the cost/work trade off of the two options? seems like grabbing another tcase and doing a gear swap in it and then just swapping the tcase would be pretty simple. but man 4:1 would be dreamy!

 

[offthepath]

Nice clean truck!

 

[Toasty]

Doing the 2.72 gears in a Monteo case is super easy, i bought a donor case when i did mine (back then they sold 3.15 gears) i swapped the gears into the donor then into the truck.
4:1 is more involved but not crazy technical. I plan to sell a swap kit for this in the future. Maybe you want to be a test monkey? I could compile the parts and custom fab the rest. Ship you all parts (driveshafts, mount, pinion flanges, trans adapter, customized pulse gear, speedometer interface) except the Rubicon case itself.

 

[ManfromSnowyRiver]

And you really need both, diff gears just to get out of the parking space and not over heat, and t/case gears for real wheeling. If you are nutty enough to be thinking 35s already(and thats pretty nutty) :smiley_drive: I would seriously consider the 4:1 swap. Its much more suited to 35s+ and works amazing. Oh, and if you add all this, we expect to see you on next years northern California Sierra Carnage!

 

[KyleT]

Fwiw you can add a quart of ATF to the oil, drive it around a few miles then change it and put in some rotella T6 or other higher detergent oil. The detergents in the ATF help to break gunk free. Might be enough to quiet down that lifter.


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[howirolla]

Doing the 2.72 gears in a Monteo case is super easy, i bought a donor case when i did mine (back then they sold 3.15 gears) i swapped the gears into the donor then into the truck.
4:1 is more involved but not crazy technical. I plan to sell a swap kit for this in the future. Maybe you want to be a test monkey? I could compile the parts and custom fab the rest. Ship you all parts (driveshafts, mount, pinion flanges, trans adapter, customized pulse gear, speedometer interface) except the Rubicon case itself.

that was my exact plan if I just did the gears, makes the most sense, less down time. wish they still had the 3.15's, I wouldn't have any issue with clearance stuff for them to fit.

haha would be hard to turn down being a test monkey! could probably even make it easier on you in the fab department because I am pretty capable in that area.

 

[howirolla]

And you really need both, diff gears just to get out of the parking space and not over heat, and t/case gears for real wheeling. If you are nutty enough to be thinking 35s already(and thats pretty nutty) :smiley_drive: I would seriously consider the 4:1 swap. Its much more suited to 35s+ and works amazing. Oh, and if you add all this, we expect to see you on next years northern California Sierra Carnage!

haha
when I was researching these and saw 35s really weren't out of the question, I knew it was the only option for tire size for me. I have 33s on the disco and with lockers that's about the limit you wanna run unless you are ready to put new shafts in, and that's fine, but with 33s all I could think was that I wanted 35s haha.

 

[howirolla]

Fwiw you can add a quart of ATF to the oil, drive it around a few miles then change it and put in some rotella T6 or other higher detergent oil. The detergents in the ATF help to break gunk free. Might be enough to quiet down that lifter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

good info, I will have to give that a try next. I did some sea foam over the weekend and I thought it had solved it but it only lasted a day, so I don't know if it actually did anything or if it just randomly quieted down for a day.

 

[coffeegoat]

If you're going to be into the engine to do the timing belt or similar it's suprisingly easy to do the lifter clean procedure that Normal_Dave mentioned. If you've got access to the valve covers you can do the process in about an hour and at least on my rig none of the lifters were working correctly. All of them were stuck in varying stages of compressed and one was broken, it probably took 2-3 rounds of soak-manipulate-clean-repeat before they were all functioning correctly again . An hour later and they're all cleaned up and ready to go - simple and fast enough that I might make it a standard maintenance procedure I do every 40k or so just to avoid problems. I'm curious if the mileage/power will be improved given the reduction in valve opening that must occur if the lifers can't open like they're supposed to.