Outer Limits 4x4 Board

to cut a long story short, the gq has died again and im sick of spending all my hilux money on the patrol, so were upgrading the family bus and currently looking at a 94 pajero, 3.0lt v6, manual, aircon, etc. just had a burnt valve repaired (unsure what caused it).
does anyone have any info about this model pajero, let me know any probs they are known for.
does $2000 plus 89 gq in current form (head and radiator out so obviously not running) sound like a good buy.
the gq was basically a family bus for the missus to drive the kids around with, and occasionally wheeling around the place with the family. im a bit upset about replacing the patrol with a pajero (of all things) but if the pajero has no major probs to worry about, i might be able to finally spend money on the lux
please help because shes driving the lux around at the moment.
please let me know anything to look for on the pajero or any probs they are known for or what might have caused the burnt valve.

thanks

I'm no Pajero expert, but if it's on gas, there is a good chance its responsible for the burnt valve.

Perhaps surfing through the Mitsubishi section might give you some answers.

Cheers,

Micko

I'll sell you a workshop manual and a towbar. $110

pajero isnt on gas, and i will go thru the pajero tech section and look

Run Away....FAST! Thats my best advice

My experience with a friends 92 3.0v6 has been nothing but grief... as I ended up being the problem solver after several mechanics threw in the towel! Lessons I have learned from the sorting:

The V6 runs very hot in a confined engine bay (you need to let it stand for over 1/2 hour after a test lap to work under the bonnet!) and it tends to lead to warping & cracking of the heads.

It is a very sophisticated (read complex) ignition & Control system with many parts in the loop to diagnose if it start acting up. Lots of fun when you are out bush!

There are several known components that go bad (mainly due to heat) such as the 'power amplifier' that boosts the signal to the coil (only $40 to replace... I have swaped it out 3 times already), the crank angle sensor in the distributor, and the capacitors in the ECU itself (very common). Also burnt out exhaust valves (especially on the rear cylinders) seems to be all too common (his engine has done this).

My friends engine has been rebuilt twice (once at 80K and again at 230K... new heads etc) and has been well maintained. It started playing up again (randomly dying and staying dead for 30min at a time) about 6 months ago. That is when everyone else threw in the towel (after much $$$ of course!). We replaced all the plugs/leads & new dist. cap (ran smoother higher up the rev range but still not great), I rebuilt the ECU with new low esr computer capacitors (regained proper idle control and fuel economy), replaced the power amplifier which helped a bit, and also replaced the loom going to the cranks angle sensor (old one was a bit brittle with snapped strands in the wire). It ran really good after all of that... right up until it died for no reason when hot!

So we saved the most expensive until last... and replaced the crank angle sensor ($300) and all was well with the world with the Paj finally being a proper car once more!

Don't get me wrong, off road (especially on sand) it was a really good vehicle with all that power... and the driving position & handling were almost car like. However with so many ongoing gremlins the remote travel reliability was always in question. It has since been replaced with a 2.8L D Hilux!

Whilst this is only my experience with one vehicle... searching for solutions I discovered so many mechanics that no longer touch them (lost time, no result, too many issues) and also just how many other owners had the same hassles! Basically a great car but made overly complex for its intended duty. The diesel varient doesn't seem to suffer any of these traits however!

Hope this has given you an idea of what to look for if nothing else!

Cheers Harvey

Gday Mate,

Ive had my '94 NJ 2.8TD Pajero for maybe 6 months now. Has 318 on the clock. No problems as of yet. Very comfortable to drive, not as slow as i was expecting, plenty of torque and so far nothing has really stopped it off road while running Silverstone MT-117 Sport Muddies. Fairly easy to get parts. GQ rear coils fit under the back to give a 2" lift, torsion bars can be wound up to compensate, fits 32's without any lift and Nissan or Landcruiser rims should go on easy. One thing tho, oil filters seem to be $40 - $50. Take a look in the tech section tho, there's some good stuff in there.

Thomas