So i reinstalled the engine - Fired her back up and a ticking noise was still coming from the old girl. Time to call in the cavalry! Decided that i drove 250+ ks with the noise on a 4wd trip and that 20ks into the local diesel shop would be fine. I got about 2kms down the road when the noise suddenly got ALOT worse, blowing huge clouds of black smoke, no power, and still ticking. ABORT MISSION AND RETURN TO BASE. As i turn around the engine suddenly stopped in her tracks and i had to call the brother to pull me home.
I almost stripped the ol girl down for parts as a donor for the DMAX but my better half (Bless her sould), the forbs boys and friends convinced me that it just wasnt the Mu's time yet.
I got it towed the the diesel shop for a full rebuild. With the symptoms he suspected that i had melted a piston and quoted 5K. For a remove, refit, rebuild, injector recondition and dyno. Bloody bargain.
When i saw my phone ring 2 days later my heart sank - could have only been bad news when the mechanic rings you.
- Pushrods bent
- Broken valves
- Camshaft snapped into 4 pieces
- Put a terminal grove in the block
- Crankshaft was missing a chunk close to piston number four.
BUGGER
He said that maybe the timing belt had suddenly jumped on me and caused all the damage. Timing belt was loose when they took the cover off (Only done 20k ago)
Now is it time to pull the pin? He told me for another $650 in parts to fix it.
It was getting bloody expensive now and i made the call that this was to much to spend on the MU and unless i could find an alternative option it was time to hang the keys up.
For some reason 4jb1t's are worth their weight in bloody gold. I could not find an engine under 250k for less then 3K plus shipping. And most of them didn't include injector pumps! (Considering i bought the car for $1400 thought this was not an option)
In the dying moments of the MU's days and at the end of my motivation i recieved a call from a wrecker. 2002 Australian delivered, gear driven (timing), Rodeo 4jb1t with all accessories included for 3K delivered to the workshop.
I had this motor installed and i mounted the intercooler up. I am now running 15 PSI boost through the old girl (Havent touch the fuel really at all yet) and she pulls like a teenager! Very happy that the missus told me to wake up, not be stupid and fix the mu.
Now the MU is back and reliable as ever i have got a few different plans for the old girl which i am pretty excited about.
Video of the mu's first weekend back. Few easy tracks as a bit of a shakedown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqAwRd06M1kMU COVER.jpg
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