The War Rig build thread. '03 Montero Limited

[houstman]

I am so out of it, I have no idea how a picture of my dog got added to the last post...

 

[NickSchmaus]

I am so out of it, I have no idea how a picture of my dog got added to the last post...

That dog pic is cool. Where do you live in Seattle?

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[houstman]

That dog pic is cool. Where do you live in Seattle?

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

Bainbridge Island

 

[Jvdkooij]

nice build

 

[houstman]

nice build

Thank you!

I'm hoping by the end of Summer that it will be a real head turner!

 

[BOPOH]

Hey, build looks good! A note about chinese winch, i had one too (from HFT) - take it apart and re-grease it with good grease. Mine was completely dry by the 3rd gear, i did it before mounting on the bumper. Never had an issue with that cheap winch

 

[houstman]

Added rhino liner, orange go-fast stripes to match the winch, and 2.5" flexible rubber fenders. I still need to do the paint touchups, but that might have to wait until next week.

 

[houstman]

Added recovery points to the front and rear bumpers, cladding to cover the unibody in the rear, rock slides, a front skid plate, and the snorkel. The snorkel is directly fed into the MAF which opens up nearly two cubic feet where the airbox was. This will give me room to out in a 120 amp deep cell battery later this month. The winch, CB radio, and 12v fridge will all run directly off this battery.

I am hoping that on Monday I will be able to start the buildout of the shelf/drawer and kitchen setup in the back.

At the end of the month we're taking off the factory roof rack and building a custom job for a popup tent, and lots of offroad gear. We will also be installing a hood mount for the hi-lift jack, and I hope to do some painting of the grill and hood.

I am planning on doing a month on the Trans America Trail starting September 5th... I have a lot to do before then!

More to come...

 

[houstman]

Painted the hood safety orange, UV clear coated it. Then I taped off a Japanese "rising sun" war flag for the War Rig in orange, and then filled everything in with flat black. Sprayed that with matte UV clear coat. Taped it off once more to maks a blackhole sun on the other side and painted it again with rhino liner.

 

[houstman]

Got the mounts for the RotoPax installed, installed the dual battery, stereo, and CB... now I just need to do the wiring to connect the fuse block to the rear of the rig for the fridge and portable water pump.

 

[AZPAJERO]

Wow. Nice. I've never seen Gen3 with the cladding removed. Liking it so far.

I ripped off the cladding on my '97 but still have yet to fill in the holes that were left behind.


How did you fill yours in ?

 

[houstman]

Well, a lot happened this week. Got the shelf system built out, the Hi-Lift mounted to the hood, and the electronics for the fridge and water system all wired. Packed the rig and left on a 5,000 mile off road adventure with the dog. 45 miles outside of town and the engine seized. Sigh. New motor time, I guess.

It appears a head gasket blew and flooded the cylinder(s) with coolant and the pistons got all bent out of shape trying to compress it. Well, if I have to put a new motor in there, I am going to see what I can do about installing the 3.2L diesel and accompanying ECU. Anyone have any leads on such a contraption?

Can the existing transmission work with the diesel?

If it is a no-go, then another 3.8L is fine and dandy.

 

[houstman]

Wow. Nice. I've never seen Gen3 with the cladding removed. Liking it so far.

I ripped off the cladding on my '97 but still have yet to fill in the holes that were left behind.


How did you fill yours in ?

I used Bondo with the fiberglass strands in it. I bought a small diameter round chisel and put it inside of the holes left behind and gave it a few good whacks with a 3 lbs sledge. This way it made a little indention around the hole and created a space for the Bondo to fill. I did a fairly half-assed job sanding it all down, because three cans of spray-on bedliner later and no one can see the work underneath.

 

[coffeegoat]

Blowing head gaskets is pretty rare on these rigs (as far as I understand), was there any weird temperature stuff going on before it happened? I would expect severe overheating before a head gasket going, particularly on a 2003.

You mentioned having the water pump and timing belt done early in your build, if you had a shop do it I would investigate a bit more because they may have buggered something up that caused the overheating and eventual head gasket. This might result in someone else paying for the new engine.

Alternatively it could have been bad from the PO, but I would imagine you would have found it by now....

 

[houstman]

Blowing head gaskets is pretty rare on these rigs (as far as I understand), was there any weird temperature stuff going on before it happened? I would expect severe overheating before a head gasket going, particularly on a 2003.

You mentioned having the water pump and timing belt done early in your build, if you had a shop do it I would investigate a bit more because they may have buggered something up that caused the overheating and eventual head gasket. This might result in someone else paying for the new engine.

Alternatively it could have been bad from the PO, but I would imagine you would have found it by now....

The weird thing is that the temp never went up. I just suddenly lost power managed to coast to the side of the highway and the engine seized.

When I popped the hood oil had sprayed out of the fill cap on top of the engine and it didn't appear brackish with coolant. Mechanics who know more than I do are currently looking at it.