Pajero Mk2 SWB MIVEC Build

[CharlieNorth]

Three weeks ago driving my SR back in, as I came up the hill in front of the house I was hearing a low grade ruckus in the back of the vehicle and the engine stumbled, farted and stalled. Today I got a chance to check, I have power at the fuel pump but it no workie. No humm, no spit fuel. The fasteners holding the pump plate on are not looking great so I am choosing to say it is now parked till next year. I might change my mind but I had other tasks at hand, one was to get the winter cover on my Superboat. Nice to have that done. Then a few hours of late season yard tasks, well I done nothing on the Pajero. See what tomorrow offers.

 

[oldsmoky]

Not my advice: it comes from my old mechanic: Estimate the spot on the bottom of the tank where the pickup sits, use a socket on a extension if you have to, and...you guessed it. "Hit it with a Hammer." I think that accurately summarizes most of the advice I've provided so far. Worked like a charm on one of my trucks. I like how that valve clocked, looks like the cast was designed for it. Thanks for documenting this swap.
Michael

 

[CharlieNorth]

Not being much of a hammer mechanic I neglect the simple things at time. Rain just arrived but I will try a tap or two on the tank and see if the shockwave makes itself known. That pump is only a few years old but I have not driven this much in the past year, that is never a good thing.

 

[CharlieNorth]

Made good progress today for getting decent clearance in a few key locations. I needed spacers to raise the transmission at it's mount, first thought was a bar of aluminum, then a few 1/2 thick round 2" bar stock, humm $30 and waiting for them, well scroung in the scrap under the milling machine, two 14mm round pucks which were the cores from hole saw cuts. Toss them on the lathe to bore 10mm holes for the bolts, prime & paint, perfect. Think I would have the camera with me. Not. So I pulled the trans crossmember apart, put the spacers in. Ok got the camera now,

That POR 15 just sucks the flash up.

Interesting that the Tcase interference just behind the mount is now a very generous clearance.

The Mivec valve also has sufficient room now,

And well, the intake, it is kind of snug to the fan now. I can work with this since I am a long way from done up here.

 

[CharlieNorth]

Oh boy, I get to take a step or two backwards, I can not get an image of what I am up against yet but here I go.
Main task recently has been to get the driveline settled into place, proper hardware with preservatives or locktite as needed for the future. Weeks ago I started to run fasteners through the engine mounts down into the mounts on the frame, these mounts I designed, fabricated and welded to the chassis. Later I coated them with POR 15. Well the bolts do not want to run in the threads, clearly I never chased the threads after painting, easy enough to do. So yesterday I ran the bolts in with a top grade of marine antisieze and torqued them on the right hand side, Looked nice.
Get started on the left, had to jack the motor and really loosen the mount cushion so I could get the tap to start in the pad, run it in and out with a small air ratchet, all is good. Line the cushion up and fiddle around to get the two bolts started, let the jack down so weight is on the mounts and start running the bolts in, they do not feel right, heck they do not even look right. The cushion is no where even close to lined up with the frame bracket.
It appears that after the brackets were lined up and jigged, this one got moved before welding. 95% of my welding is done with TIG, these brackets I did with my Miller 250 MIG machine. I am not really used to the pull the trigger and hope especially when half upside down in a high contrast lit engine bay.
This morning I jacked the engine and got the needed spacers between the oil sump and front diff.
I need to get the AC compressor and alternator off so I can either cut the bracket off the frame, or possibly rework the engine bracket on the block.
Simply put, "You want a 2hr job done in less than a week?

I will get pictures when I dig in there.

Ho Humm, just another shippy day in paradise. The two T's were not allowed in the previous sentence.

 

[CharlieNorth]

Something to show, both side engine brackets needed to be cut apart as well as the left side mount pad on the frame required it's angle to be changed since I did not get that right.
I cut the left pad free a week ago and bent folded and mutilated it till the angle was correct. Well, no it was simpler than that.
And dang the top of this rail is fugly with the two previous engine brackets not truly cleaned up.

I cut both side engine brackets apart, the right side needed to be shortened 8mm, already had been shortened a bunch. Now with the engine sitting on shims over the front diff/axle housing and spacers from the pinion mount bracket I have the mounts set in place, I like it now, these are not welded yet,
Right side,

And the left side, when first set in place the mount is a touch tall and had overlap

So I jacked the engine allowing the mount to spring into alignment and placed a clamp to hold the bracket till weight was back on it.

Let the jack down and the bracket lines up sweet.

I like what I see now, I should be able to tack weld these in the morning and pull then out for final weld and painting.

 

[CharlieNorth]

Today I welded the brackets together and re-installed the new configuration of mounts, I had utilized a 3/8 spacer to the axle housing. Tightened everything up and, well I cannot fit a 1/8 spacer between the sump and housing. Oh well, I did not expect the mounts to settle that much. At this point I will machine a pair of shims to go under the mounts.
On top of this I had my camera with me all day, looked at it a number of times. Just never reached for it and took any shots.

 

[Salonika]

The mounts seem quite long to me.

 

[CharlieNorth]

The mounts are all 95 SR parts. Frame brackets are hand made allowing the engine to sit lower and positioned fore aft with the Gen3 rear mount and G3 trans & Tcase.
Engine brackets, originally the left side was original dimension and right had been narrowed, I am also utilizing an alloy Gen3 oil sump which is snug to the front diff but sits nice in this lowered position.
Somehow between early this year I got something F'ed up, I expect jigging the frame brackets and not putting the engine back in after final welding things were just not right, they are now though, at least with 1/8 spacers going under the mounts. For me this is frustrating since I routinely make custom engine mounts and brackets and to this point have not had to redo any.
Oh well, I will have a small sheet of 1/8 fiberglass here on Friday and be able to make the shims after multiple days of too much food with a few friends around.

 

[CharlieNorth]

More info about the mounts, these cushions are mid '94 till late 99 on both 3.0 and 3.5 Monteros, these incorporate roll stoppers where the early mounts do not, hence why these are long.

I made a spacer for each side, started with a quick sharpy scribe

Drilled the holes and rough cut,

Then dress the edges on the 18" disc.

These are now installed between the cushion and frame, I have not truly checked what my clearances are yet since we had holiday guests arrive for a midday meal so I will now get a chance to get back to it.

 

[Salonika]

Nice disc sander

 

[CharlieNorth]

That and my better Bridgport might be my last big tools I let go. That sander has two 18" discs that are 7/8 thick. massive flywheels.

 

[CharlieNorth]

Another task mostly done, I F'ed up the original AC condenser when I first installed the engine-trans last October, the transmission bound up resulting in crank balancer getting into the condenser core. A new condenser from Japan is stupid money for my needs.
So I started comparing the condenser from my second SR, Similar width, about 6mm thicker core, that will be nice for the few weeks a year the temps climb above 70 deg here.
What I was seeing is the plumbing to the receiver was in the wrong place as was the liquid line connection. I got staring at it and woke up this morning with the thought I could move the plumbing to where it needed to be. Turns out I could. Still have some detail work to properly mount it but it will now go in.

So now I will be utilizing the AC condenser, the oil cooler and transmission cooler from the SR up front.

 

[CharlieNorth]

Frustrated outdoors today trying to clear snow up, something is buggered up in the carb on my Gen 1 I plow with, I was finally able to limp it idling in low reverse into the garage. It is supposed to be above freezing tomorrow so I will F with it then.
But back to my Pajero, will I be mounting the plow one this, no wait that is not the scope of work here.

I have pretty much built out in front of the radiator, kind of forgot how much fits up front here.
I started out with reworking the Condenser mounts and fittings allowing the largers condener to muont in this body properly, came out nice.
Then moved on to finalize the fitting of the SR trans cooler over the winch, had to use the taller cooler brackets from the smaller cooler the Pajero and 3.0 engine vehicles run, that cooler has a few less rows and Mitsu mounts the coolers so the top is in the same place. But with the winch snug up under this I raised the cooler up higher. It fit in a gen 1 fine as well as the SR but this body is a bit lower so I had to "fiddle" a bit. Still need to install the hoses,

I then moved on to installing an SR engine oil cooler and the condenser fan,

 

[oldsmoky]

Nice progress Charlie, I bet you are glad you cut that header . I love the speed wrenches BTW. Keep up the good work!