spacecowboy7777
Active member
Newest 2002 limited Gen 3 owner here, been a long time coming and I couldn't be more excited.
My use case:
Weekend road trips with 2-6 hours of highway before relatively easy 4x4 roads, fire roads, and deep sandy desert conditions. Also, needs to be able to haul a dirt bike on the hitch or a couple dirt bikes on a trailer. I wanted AC and an auto transmission, as well as possibility to sleep inside the truck if wind is bad at night.
I had a 1995 gen 2 LS, 5-speed for 3 years and drove it everywhere with the same above use. The gen 2 looks way cooler than the gen 3, both from the outside and inside with the "oh $&#@" bar instead of a passenger airbag and the cool 90's interior. Also, that thing romped off road, even with just the center locking diff, it killed it in the sand and never got stuck. But the AC was not strong enough in 95+ desert temps, the 5 speed got old when in traffic, and my girlfriend was a nervous about the safety of the vehicle when we were cruising at 80 on the highway. I sold it at 240,000 miles on it because work allowed me to start use their truck for personal purposes. Left that job and now need my own vehicle again.
Chose to search for a gen 3 because of the better highway manors, incredibly powerful AC, and newer, so easier to find parts and expertise. Also simply wanted to try something new.
Bought this 2002 limited after the timing tensioner had let go at 154,000 miles. The previous owner attempted to put a new timing set on, but he got a low compression symptom. Sold it to me for a fair price, and I had it towed to my mechanic for both cylinder heads to be machined and rebuilt.
I will keep a running total of the money spent on this rig. I think this can help people gauge pricing, though these may be high prices because of my HCOL area.
Running Price total:
Initial purchase: $3,000
Top end rebuild with new radiator, all new hydraulic lifters, heads machined, etc.: $4,500
4 Falken 265/70r16 H/T Tires: $900
Alignment: $120
New airbox: $100 from ebay
Here we are the day I bought it:
After 3 months, my mechanic still hadn't even started, so I started calling around. After multiple phone calls to auto shops all over San Diego County and beyond, I had it towed to Rally Sport Engineering in Costa Mesa because the owner/lead mechanic used to have a gen 3 himself and conveyed confidence in his abilities with the Montero and Mitsubishis. They had the heads pulled, machined, and reinstalled with new timing set and new radiator along with a smog check from the place across the street within 1.5 weeks of my towing it to them. All OEM and Aisin parts were used where possible. Unfortunately, while at the first mechanic, the truck was sideswiped by a local utilities company. On the bright side, the money they gave me paid for all the mechanic work.
Picked up the truck and drop an hour home on the highway. Truck runs great with a few exceptions: Tires are old as heck and loud as heck. Also, there is a massive lift on the front and the truck feels like it needs an alignment. This is the day I picked it up at the shop:
My use case:
Weekend road trips with 2-6 hours of highway before relatively easy 4x4 roads, fire roads, and deep sandy desert conditions. Also, needs to be able to haul a dirt bike on the hitch or a couple dirt bikes on a trailer. I wanted AC and an auto transmission, as well as possibility to sleep inside the truck if wind is bad at night.
I had a 1995 gen 2 LS, 5-speed for 3 years and drove it everywhere with the same above use. The gen 2 looks way cooler than the gen 3, both from the outside and inside with the "oh $&#@" bar instead of a passenger airbag and the cool 90's interior. Also, that thing romped off road, even with just the center locking diff, it killed it in the sand and never got stuck. But the AC was not strong enough in 95+ desert temps, the 5 speed got old when in traffic, and my girlfriend was a nervous about the safety of the vehicle when we were cruising at 80 on the highway. I sold it at 240,000 miles on it because work allowed me to start use their truck for personal purposes. Left that job and now need my own vehicle again.
Chose to search for a gen 3 because of the better highway manors, incredibly powerful AC, and newer, so easier to find parts and expertise. Also simply wanted to try something new.
Bought this 2002 limited after the timing tensioner had let go at 154,000 miles. The previous owner attempted to put a new timing set on, but he got a low compression symptom. Sold it to me for a fair price, and I had it towed to my mechanic for both cylinder heads to be machined and rebuilt.
I will keep a running total of the money spent on this rig. I think this can help people gauge pricing, though these may be high prices because of my HCOL area.
Running Price total:
Initial purchase: $3,000
Top end rebuild with new radiator, all new hydraulic lifters, heads machined, etc.: $4,500
4 Falken 265/70r16 H/T Tires: $900
Alignment: $120
New airbox: $100 from ebay
Here we are the day I bought it:
After 3 months, my mechanic still hadn't even started, so I started calling around. After multiple phone calls to auto shops all over San Diego County and beyond, I had it towed to Rally Sport Engineering in Costa Mesa because the owner/lead mechanic used to have a gen 3 himself and conveyed confidence in his abilities with the Montero and Mitsubishis. They had the heads pulled, machined, and reinstalled with new timing set and new radiator along with a smog check from the place across the street within 1.5 weeks of my towing it to them. All OEM and Aisin parts were used where possible. Unfortunately, while at the first mechanic, the truck was sideswiped by a local utilities company. On the bright side, the money they gave me paid for all the mechanic work.
Picked up the truck and drop an hour home on the highway. Truck runs great with a few exceptions: Tires are old as heck and loud as heck. Also, there is a massive lift on the front and the truck feels like it needs an alignment. This is the day I picked it up at the shop:
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