Appreciate the insights, fellas. I’m currently stalled due to my new radiator not being the right radiator, so Fezzik’s down for the week. Also, the day job has been crazy these past few days, so I’m herding cats.
Gotta get an amazing machine done, but will be back round these parts ASAP!
From the look of it I need a radiator cap to modify, a tee, a pair of valves, and a few hose barbs and hose… My only question is how you avoid collapsing the hoses when you pull vacuum, or maybe you just don’t care? Everything is designed to handle 15+ psi positive pressure, the question is can it handle it going the other direction…
I wouldn’t worry too much about the hose, I mean it’s definitely going to collapse under vacuum, unless it’s one of those weird old hoses with a spring running through it, but it’s never been an issue on anything I’ve worked on. You have to remember to pinch or plug the hose going to your overflow in an open cooling system though, otherwise it won’t work. It doesn’t pull more than 15hg If I remember right.
225,XXX
Fortunate to get every Friday in July off (with pay!), I found myself staring down the barrel of a hot Friday with nothing better to do than hit the bricks early and replace my crusty old radiator with the freshly rodded, tanked, and painted OE unit I got from Josh by way of Ryan. I was in the driveway at 0530. It was already pushing 90°F/32°C.
I was concerned about pulling the transmission cooler lines on the bottom of the radiator. You know, losing transmission fluid, making a mess, trading one neglected, weak link for another. That sort of thing. While messy, the lines turned out to be not much of a problem at all. If I lost a cup of fluid from the radiator, it was a lot.
Trickier still, I’d read conflicting stories about how to remove the radiator. Some said to unbolt and remove the fan and clutch. Others said the lower fan shroud was designed to unclip and drop out to allow clearance for the fan when pulling upward.
My ass.
It looks like there might have, at one time, been a lip or ridge or something on the bottom of the fan opening—and maybe that’s what people were talking about—but whatever was there is long gone on my truck, and no amount of careful gymnastics was getting that thing out without removing the fan.
After spraying through the AC condenser from the engine bay side to hopefully blast dirt and bugs and whatnot out the way they came in (taking care to also check that water came through the oil and transmission coolers, too), I was fairly wet and feeling not-too-bad, so I spent a good 45 minutes with a pick carefully grooming the fins on the backside of the condenser core.
BEFORE
CLOSEUP
There were a couple spots where it was pretty nasty. One, in fact, where it looked like almost 2-3 inches of fins were mashed down into the core. Guess I’m lucky the AC still works, eh?
(You can see said spot, just left of center in the picture below.)
AFTER
Despite having to lean over the core support and get almost crosseyed to do this, it was kinda rewarding. You take one of those little picks you get in the set of four—I used the one that’s a 90° angle—and you slip it into the space between the fins.
Turns out the pick is pretty much the exact width of the bend in the fins, so you just slide it one way, move to the next slot and slide it the other way. Back and forth. Back and forth. Until everything’s relatively uniform.
There were a couple areas where I needed the pointy end of the pick to grab a a few smashed fins and pull them back before I could do the back and forth thing, and I definitely didn’t do all of them, but it was a nice little thing to do while I was in there, and I’m looking forward to seeing if it makes any difference to my AC temps.
With everything drained out, and no tstat installed, I shoved the garden hose nozzle into the upper water neck and flushed things until the water came out clear below. (I wanted the pressure to help remove any sediments from the bottom of the block before flushing with several gallons of distilled to mitigate the mineral content of the tap water.)
I GOT HOSE
I remembered seeing Johnny B From Peoria showing up in several “what size heater hose do I need” threads over the years tell people to check the coolant lines to the throttle body. And honestly, I was considering skipping these. I mean, it’s not like I need to worry about my TB icing up in winter.
Of course, he’s not suggesting that because of TB icing. He’s reminding people that these overlooked hoses can get brittle, crack, and cause a loss of coolant while driving. I gave one of my hoses a wiggle. It was hard as a rock. It even snapped when I went to pull it off.
Disaster averted.
So! Everything cleaned up and ready to reassemble! I blasted garden hose water through the TB hose barbs to make sure there was no crustiness left. Then I installed the new hoses. Then I fought with the damned bastard heater hoses. I bought new worm clamps, because I hate dealing with those split clamps that need pliers (and are almost always pointing the wrong direction).
I got the bottoms on real nice and flush, then fought with the uppers. They’re on there, and they’re on there good, but I’m not happy with them. And then I found the bag of new heater hose I ordered sitting on my work bench. (I wonder what hose I used.)
@MrGalantguy this bud’s for you!
Every Montero owner knows you want the OE thermostat. I think I paid $40-$50 for mine. And while it’s still fine, I’m not going through all this for nothing. I got this one from Josh, who had connections at a local Mitsubishi dealership. Well, that dealership closed down.
Checking a few of the online Mitsubishi Parts Warehouse-type places, I found the tstat listed as NLA. On a whim, I tried Ebay. And that’s where I found the AISIN unit.
It’s the same thing. Right down to the stampings (like those 555 tie rod ends) And it’s $19 shipped on Amazon. If I didn’t have a decent emergency spare right now, I’d grab a second just because.
Of course, things took a bit of a turn for the worst at this point…
I reinstalled the tstat housing (empty), slipped the new upper hose on, and poured two gallons of distilled water through the engine, preparing for final assembly. Then I went in and grabbed the fresh radiator out of the clean corner in the garage.
I gave it a final once-over and everything looked right. All metal. Same radiator cap and drain lines. Perfect. And then I went to bolt it in.
At first I thought I’d just bumped the AC clutch with the lower inlet pipe while lowing the radiator in place, but when I slipped it over the mounting studs on the core support, it was clearly making contact. If it wasn’t, there was no way I’d be able to get a hose on it.
I pulled it back out and took a closer look.Wait a minute! This one has a radiused lower pipe. Mine has a hard 90° pie cut going on.
Now, this is a Montero radiator. I got it from Ryan, who is a long time, legit Montero guy. He knows his stuff. It was his rebuildable spare out of another Montero. But now I wondered, why was this lower pipe different from mine? Did the radiator shop have to replace the original piece? And did this stick out further than it was supposed to?
Roughly 3.25" from the core to the outer edge of the pipe on my old radiator.
3*.75"* on the new unit. The lower pipe sticks out a half inch further than it’s supposed to.
I had the wrong radiator. Damnit.
Texting back and forth with Josh, neither of us could figure out how this could have happened. Why was this one piece different between the two? As we made plans for him to come pick up both radiators on Monday and take mine to the shop for refurb (we were trying to minimize downtime, obviously), I tucked both radiators up against the wall on my patio to keep them out of the sun and elements until Monday.
And that’s when I saw it…
This was the first time I saw them side-by-side. Turns out the new one is a Montero radiator, but likely out of a 3.0L V6 first gen truck. The core itself is 1-2" shorter in both length and width. But look at how similar the rest of these things are!
The top tanks have the same ridges. The mounting tabs are opposite, but on the exact same centers. Technically, I could cut the elbow off the new radiator and run it just the same—but that would be stupid, doing all this work to resolve cooling issues only to install a smaller radiator.
Josh picked up the radiators. Mines at the shop this week. I’ve got all new belts on order at NAPA, and it looks like I could afford to replace some weeping hoses while I’m in there. (Front axle is leaking from both sides, so a winter re-gear is looking likely, too.)
And now I’ve got all this access and time on my hands. I think I’ll do some detailing this weekend.
225,387
Thanks to @Todd, Radiator #4 showed up yesterday afternoon. After P went to bed, I went out and put that sucker in.
Started with changing out the belts. I kept the old belts since they were in decent condition. They’ll make a nice emergency kit for the road.
TBC…
It’s so clean though, I feel like I need to go spend all day under the hood with a toothbrush now.
I hear ya. And once you start down that path…
<shudder>
#gearheadnightshift
So replaced all the accessory belts and the PS tensioner pulley because I thought it felt sloppy and might be making the howling noise I thought might be the PS pump itself. Wouldn’t be the first time I had two in a row that didn’t work.
In any case, I kinda regret not replacing all three tensioner pulleys, but up close the issue really is the pump.
Speaking of things not working out the first time, here’s Radiator #4.
This is the first time in over four years of ownership I’ve done this.
Josh and Adam at ADD did them for me the first time in exchange for my building their website back at 160k. (They also did the truck’s first timing belt job. 
) and 25k ago, Josh did the belts while I was working on other things during the new engine install. So this was the first time I did anything more than fiddle with PS tension.
You learn some valuable lessons on the first try; like don’t connect the upper radiator hose before installing the shroud; and don’t tension the alternator and PS belts before installing the fan assembly.
Because damn.
It was a little after midnight when I got this far. Since I didn’t want to deal with the garden hose out front, I used simple green in a spray bottle with an old dish brush and an extra bottle of distilled to rinse the intake because it was still so so gross.
Cracked the bleeder screw, poured a solid two gallons of fresh distilled water down the hatch, and buttoned things up.
No leaks or drips at all. Temp came right up, AC blew real cold 47F/8C. I took a cool picture with it running.
I fell into bed just before 2AM.
10 hours later, I drove Fezzik in to the office to trade in my old laptop for a new one. No issues.
Which meant I was somewhere I could take these comparative shots…
Low beams and factory fogs.
High beams only.
High beams and Diode Dynamics SS18 (2 flood, 1 spot lens).
That was Thursday; yesterday.
Today, we drove up north. I wasn’t as easy on the cooling system. Max AC full blast, and while I didn’t necessarily get up to the speed limit much, I made a point of letting overdrive struggle on climbs to see what the temp gauge would do.
Worst I saw all day was 208°F, while trying to lug it in overdrive on a 35mph, uphill climb.
TPS code is back, but I’m gonna get 300 miles out of this tank, too.
Felt good to drive my truck again.
200+ trouble free miles. And it was hot out there today…
Yay! That’s awesome! Glad your problems are solved. This batch anyways 
Right?
I’m gonna run another bottle of radiator flush through to make sure everything’s wicked clean, then I’m filling up with proper coolant and water wetter. Really looking forward to progress.
Next on the to-do list is fixing all the drive line leaks. The front axle is leaking at both ends. The tcase is leaking. And the transmission itself is leaking.
Sounds like a good time to regear! Maybe I’ll dip into my secret slush fund and get those crawler gears while I’m at it. 
Gears, torsion bars, bushings, springs, new brake calipers and lines… It’s gonna be real nice.
Yeesh. I guess I didn’t update this last time. 
Fezzik’s been back on the road a couple weeks now with a new (to me) OEM radiator (from Todd), all new coolant and heater hoses, OE thermostat and radiator cap. Temps have been just fine on two trips up the hill with the family.
I have noticed the temp gauge wiggle a bit, suggesting I’ve got an air pocket in there, but nothing a quick reset won’t solve on a Saturday morning. Assuming no further issues, I’m going to run the truck like this for a month or so, and do a couple drain-and-refills before the big Iowa road trip come December.
In the meantime, I removed my front seatbelts the other night after work.
I believe Todd hooked me up with the driver’s belt last year to replace the frayed original. It was working just fine, but the passenger belt had a nasty habit of locking all the time. It was so aggressive, V almost couldn’t wear it.
So I pulled both belt assemblies (took a JIS/Philips, 14mm ratchet, and about 20 minutes), boxed them up, and mailed them to Westfield, Mass., where Safety Restore is going to refurb them for me—and re-web with ORANGE belts!
This service sets me back about $170 including shipping there and back, but they’re highly regarded, I’ll get fresh seatbelts back with a lifetime guarantee—and I’ll have ORANGE seatbelts up front. (How cool is that?)
I asked if they could share pictures of my belts being refurbished so we could do a story in TGP Magazine about them. They’re going to call to discuss. 
Should have them back next week sometime. For now, I’m feeling really weird driving the truck without my belt. I reach for it every single time I get in. Crazy.
226,xxx
Okay. So I mailed the seatbelts to Mass on Monday. By Friday, I had freshly rebuilt belts in my mailbox.
Installation was a piece of cake, though I just realized the reason why I was sweating my ass off at 5PM in the shade…
Pay no mind to the crappy seat covers. I’d like to replace the front seats before winter.
I don’t need new seatbelts, but I kinda want new seatbelts now.
I know, right? They have so many colors, too. Kinda makes it feel like a newer truck. 
PS: They have Cobalt, Turquoise, Baby, and Royal blue options—but gold would probably be hot af in the Rooster. Maybe light pink in Ulysses?
Yeah, that cobalt or royal would be beautiful in the Rooster, and I’ll “need” them as soon as I track down a bench seat for it.
Yeah, buddy. Crazy how something as simple as seatbelts can get you excited about your wheels.
228,200
The plan was to drop Fezzik at Ernest’s place for a couple weeks so he could chip away at a re-gear and transfer case upgrade. When he offered to source the gears for me, I gladly paid extra for his expertise.
A month later, Fezzik is back in the driveway—and oh what a feeling. Turns out Ernest had to drive to Albuquerque, NM, to find the non-disconnect 4.90 front axle we wanted. Woof!
The speedo indicates an easy 10mph faster than reality. Combined with the tach showing elevated engine speeds, it’s admittedly a little discomforting, but I’m sure it’s okay. Not hurting anything.
Which brings me to this thread on PajeroForum and this thread from 4x4wire, which prompts me to ping the one and only @PajEvo in the hopes you can dust off some old Pajero insights to help a brother out.
As I understand things on the 4x4wire article, reducing the size of the speedo drive gear compensates for larger tires—the smaller gear turns a higher rpm to accommodate the lower rpm of the larger diameter tires.
So if my speedo is reading 10+ high on 31s, I should go to a larger speedo drive.
A) I have no idea what gear is in a 4.27-equipped Gen 2.5.
B) The PajeroForum thread suggests these may vary outside the USDM. O_o
C) Much as I like how larger tires LOOK, I seldom rock crawl, I don’t want to pay a premium for looks, and would like to stick with 31s, MAYBE 33s one day.
Here’s the parts list from the wire. Any thoughts?
MD705466 - Gear, Speedometer Drive (N=26): For 4.625 gearing and stock (225/235) tires
MD705464 - Gear, Speedometer Drive (N=24): For 4.625 gearing and 31" tires
MD705463 - Gear, Speedometer Drive (N=23): For 4.625 gearing and 32" tires
MD705462 - Gear, Speedometer Drive (N=22): For 4.625 gearing and 33" tires
MD705461 - Gear, Speedometer Drive (N=21): For 4.625 gearing and 35" tires
MF472536 - Spring Pin, Speedometer Drive Gear (3x16mm)
MD701788 - O-ring, Speedometer Drive Gear (10.3mm)
MF520403 - O-ring, Speedometer Drive Gear Casing (35mm)
EDIT: Almost forgot. Tonight we start the mad dash to install all the stuff I’ve bought in the last month. Gonna be a busy couple of weeks for this thread. Stay tuned!
228,266. Uh, where do I start?
I think that’s it for now? Pictures and stories to follow.
I totally missed this before duder. Sorry bout that. Lemme do some digging…
Edit… okay agreed on smaller gear but first we need to suss your existing. I’ll need to dive into parts catalogs to get that number first. Lemme see if I can dig it up tomorrow evening, or maybe lunch time if I get all the math corrected. Lol!
Appreciate it, buddy! Even rusty, you appear to be THE guy with experience, here!
I don’t know what I’ve got, what I need, or what’s available. The GOOD NEWS is, since Ernest still has the tcase—he’ll be building one of Adam’s spares for a quick swap after the holidays—if I can get the gear delivered in the next month, I can get my speedo roughly corrected when the new tcase goes in.
(Of course, I may be used to doing “85mph” by then, but still.)
