4WD 4life

Lets purchase a new 4X4.
First things first. Happy wife, happy life. Unhappy wife and your well…. Screwed.

Lets face it, if you need permission you need a new girl friend. On the other hand, if you have your partners blessing you both will enjoy your new adventures together.

 

I purchased a 1991 Mitsubishi Pajero V6 Wagon with 292,000km (give or take a 1000km) for $2600. The body was straight but the engine didn’t sound right. It was my first V6 vehicle. I thought that it might just need a tune up. My brother knows more about cars than I do. I called him to have a look. One of the leads wasn’t on properly. One week later Laurie and I replaced the Dizzy, rotter, sparkies and the leads with all new parts and checked the timing and it was out by 20de’s. It wasn’t quite right and then Laurie did a compression test to find that it had lost compression in cylinders 2 and 4.

 

The wife is not happy.

 

Auto repair shop quoted top end (top ½ of the motor) $4200 including labor or $5200 to replace the engine with a long motor (is the block, pistons and everything else inside the motor, with all of your parts that bolt onto the outside).

Engine recondition workshop quoted $3500 12 valve long motor or $4200 24 valve long motor. At the time I didn’t know how many valves I had or how to find them. Of cause my bother laughed at me for days.

6 weeks later I found a new reconditioned motor that had only done about 5000km out of a 91 Pajero that had been written off for $1200 and I mean everything from electrics to plumping and anything else that’s there and the radiator as well.

It took my mates and I 16hrs to do the exchange with the motors and replace the clutch with a new one since the engine was out at the time and then on start up the solenoid on the starter motor court fire so we swapped it with the old one after we had cleaned it and replaced the bushes.

 

The wife is still not happy about the $1200 bucks plus the cost in oil, coolant, zip ties and grease but….. Well it’s a happy life in the end.