EyeInTheSky's Gen 3 Budget Build Thread

[EyeInTheSky]

I will be visiting family out of town this weekend near a nice pick your part. Any pieces you would suggest I get that are good spares? I need some interior pieces currently but am looking for ideas of parts that are best sourced from a yard that are nice to have spares of.

There are 2x gen3's and 4x gen2's on their inventory page so if anyone in the Ventura County area needs anything, send me a msg and I'll keep my eyes open.

I really haven't done anything to her in a couple months, just little maintenance stuff here and there.

I ended up with some treasures from Pick n Pull. As my wife and I were walking up to the ONLY gen3 in the entire yard, two guys were wheeling away the engine. I had my wife take some good photos of the engine compartment w/o the engine for hose and wire routing.

Here's what I left with:
1x lug bolt for spare
1x flip up cargo hook from rear floor (didn't realize they aren't reversible... there are two different directions... whoops)
1x center console center part (everything but the cover and the base) (the main reason I was there)
3x Denso injectors
1x bracket (came from the pass side inner fender. Going to use it as a template for dual battery mount)
1x shifter knob retention screw

Total: $52

The console piece was going to be around that much, so I think i made off like a bandit.

I have been gathering parts from other sources too. I have the RockAuto clearance page for my Montero bookmarked and I check on it from time to time. Check out this deal:

The big one, the $84 item, is just about every gasket associated with the heads. I'm looking into tearing into her this spring, getting the heads ported, doing valve stem seals, gaskets etc. Perfect timing on that deal, since the same pkg is $180 from Amazon.

Still researching performance mods that won't affect the reliability of my Montero other than porting the heads (or swapping to the older DOHC). Any other suggestions?

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Finally got around to replacing the spare. It was the original from the factory. Didn't trust that old tire at all.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

My wife and I don't care for football, so she had the awesome idea to head up to Hungry Valley tomorrow to take advantage of the (hopefully) emptier than normal park. Anyone else have the same idea?

Would love to see some fellow ExPo folk out there. PM me tonight or tmw morning, or yell at me on 143.700 tomorrow.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

My wife and I don't care for football, so she had the awesome idea to head up to Hungry Valley tomorrow to take advantage of the (hopefully) emptier than normal park. Anyone else have the same idea?

Would love to see some fellow ExPo folk out there. PM me tonight or tmw morning, or yell at me on 143.700 tomorrow.

You all are missing out...

 

[EyeInTheSky]

I changed my front and rear diff fluid today. The fluid didn't smell TOO bad, and it wasn't THAT dark, but the magnets concerned me, especially the rear. As you can see in the pictures below, the rear had quite a lot of metal on it. When I wiped it off, the remnants looked like anti seize or some other type of grease (powdered metal mixed with the oil, I'm guessing). What do you all think?

This is the first time I have changed the diff fluid since I bought it, and I have no idea when/if it was changed before. Levels seemed ok, though it was hard to be sure.

Rear

Rear after wiping once.

Front

 

[offthepath]

I think its fine, nothing to worry about. It has probably never been changed even from new.

 

[Tliska10]

That's a pretty common thing, when I did my rx7 and tribeca I had a little less then that,

What oil did you use?

Don't forget the transfer case

 

[EyeInTheSky]

I think its fine, nothing to worry about. It has probably never been changed even from new.

That's a pretty common thing, when I did my rx7 and tribeca I had a little less then that,

What oil did you use?

Don't forget the transfer case

Thanks for the encouragement. My old Grand Cherokee didn't have nearly that much metal, and I know for a fact that the diff fluid hadn't been changed for 100k. The ZJ was also way more black and smelled worse.

I used some cheap Peak conventional GL5 85W-90 for this one. I figured it hadn't been changed...ever, so I plan to flush it again in a few months to see if I can push any other nonsense out. When I do that she'll get good synthetic. Also wanted to confirm, my 2002 had the hybrid LSD, so no friction modifier, correct?

I haven't done the T case because I haven't tracked down GL4 fluid for a good price yet. It's definitely on my list.

On a side note, how nice would it be if diffs had oil spouts so you could fill them from somewhere other than that weird position laying on your side cursing the designers of the vehicle? A nice fill spout in the engine compartment for the front diff, and maybe one next to the gas cap for the rear.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Ordered a cheap dual USB charger from Amazon to test it out. If I like it, I'll install two more in the rear area for passengers, and possibly one in the glove box.

I decided the accessory socket in the center console was the best candidate for this. Getting the console out is easy:
Pull the cupholder out, remove two screws underneath, pull plastic plate up and remove two screws underneath there, then remove the two hex head screws inside the center console. Done.

I had to grab the body of the socket with channel locks to get it unscrewed, but after that it was simple. The OEM connectors fit my new plug just fine, so I retained them. I accidentally blew the fuse (#8, 15A, under the hood) when my hand slipped while using my multimeter to verify pos/neg.

I widened up the hole a bit, pushed the new charger in, connected it up and reassembled. Quick and easy.

Charger

Connections

Connector is under the left corner of the metal bracket

Hole enlargement. I didn't have a bit larger than 1in, so I wiggled my 1in blade bit and finished off with the file. It ran on me once, which is why there are so many scratches.

Overall, well worth it. Any others I install, however, will be on separate, new lines. I want the utility of the 12v plugs for things like my Baofeng charger and air mattress pump.

 

[Tliska10]

You should have to add some sort of lsd oil in the rear diff most gear oil will say LSD additive or LSD okay

 

[EyeInTheSky]

You should have to add some sort of lsd oil in the rear diff most gear oil will say LSD additive or LSD okay

I've heard conflicting info, and the dealer was no help. The FSM I have is for the 2003 which dropped the hybrid LSD with the inclusion of TC. The manual doesnt say anything about a friction modifier, just GL5 and oil weights based on temps.

I've read that since it's the hybrid LSD, no friction modifier needed. The oil I bought said "LSD Ready" or something similar on it, but I bought the friction modifier just in case. I've been listening for chatter every time I've driven it, but have heard nothing. Anyone care to chime in, or preferably show me something official either way?

 

[EyeInTheSky]

My wife is taking a group of girls up into the mountains this weekend for our church, so I've been prepping the Montero for her journey. She drove it to work this morning, and as is par for the course, as she crested a large hill, a CEL popped up. She read the code, P0302, cylinder 2 misfire. This is a new one for my Montero; I got a P0306 back in October under similar conditions, but it was accompanied by P0134 that time. No issues since, and I chalked it up to the cracked exhaust manifold that I replaced a few months ago.

We recently drove it up the Grapevine, so a much longer and steeper grade than the one she takes to work and had no issues then. She reported that she was driving it in 4th at around 60mph, and was right at the top when the code hit.

I have been meaning to do it anyway, so I moved up my timetable on the plugs and wires. Going to pull the intake plenum tonight and check the plugs. Hopefully there's oil on them so I can replace the spark plug seals and breath a little easier. Time will tell.

Also thinking about doing a compression test while I've got the plenum off; $25 at HF won't break the bank and will check off another box on my Montero to-do list. Depending on how froggy I'm feeling, I'll probably replace the valve cover gaskets while I'm in there as well.

Any other suggestions on things to do while the intake plenum is off?

 

[EyeInTheSky]

My wife is taking a group of girls up into the mountains this weekend for our church, so I've been prepping the Montero for her journey. She drove it to work this morning, and as is par for the course, as she crested a large hill, a CEL popped up. She read the code, P0302, cylinder 2 misfire. This is a new one for my Montero; I got a P0306 back in October under similar conditions, but it was accompanied by P0134 that time. No issues since, and I chalked it up to the cracked exhaust manifold that I replaced a few months ago.

We recently drove it up the Grapevine, so a much longer and steeper grade than the one she takes to work and had no issues then. She reported that she was driving it in 4th at around 60mph, and was right at the top when the code hit.

I have been meaning to do it anyway, so I moved up my timetable on the plugs and wires. Going to pull the intake plenum tonight and check the plugs. Hopefully there's oil on them so I can replace the spark plug seals and breath a little easier. Time will tell.

Also thinking about doing a compression test while I've got the plenum off; $25 at HF won't break the bank and will check off another box on my Montero to-do list. Depending on how froggy I'm feeling, I'll probably replace the valve cover gaskets while I'm in there as well.

Any other suggestions on things to do while the intake plenum is off?

I'm well on my way to removing the plenum. Got the wiring harness disconnected (only lost one tiny metal clip in the process), and broke loose a lot of the bolts.

Here's the freeze frame from my OBDII scanner. I don't know what she did, but at least she was thorough. I cleared the code and let it idle for a bit, no CEL. It's running a little rough with a slight miss, but not terrible (plus I may be over-sensitive to it right now).

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Plenum is off, only dropped one bolt. One thing I noticed that concerns me with the plenum is that with each cylinder, the amount of oil and carbon buildup gets higher and higher as I look from front to back.







As expected, a bunch of buildup in the EGR tube.



And the interior of the plenum has a good amount of carbon build up.



None of the plugs are oily on the tips, though all have some gray buildup. Looks like they are NGK bi-metal (copper core with a nickel plate, part number 6953/BKR5E-11). I have some NGK platinums that will go in tomorrow (I know, OEM is iridium, but I couldn't justify the cost (2x) for a negligible difference in burn and an estimated 15% bump in longevity). All the plugs looked essentially like this one.


Any thoughts from the Montero gurus in here?

 

[Tliska10]

How is your PCB Valve and air filter?

I just changed my plugs last week and removed my manifold also was a PITA. But my manifold didn't have no carbon build up likes yours interesting.