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New to me 88 Montero SWB with a 4D56 swap

brentonodon

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Joined
Sep 12, 2022
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5542
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Back in the day I had a '87 Raider that I loved. Unfortunately I was a dingus at the time and didn't maintain it worth a damn and the motor eventually seized when the oil pickup tube fell off on the way to school. Recently I'd been jonesing to get back into some trail riding and spotted this glorious example of a SWB Montero with a 4D56 swap down near Santa Cruz. Meet the Brento-Box.

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Plans for the Brento-Box are the usual:
Winch front bumper
Rear bumper with carrier
33 x 10.5 tires (probably)
Air locker rear from a later model montero
Debating SAS front or designing and fabricating a long travel IFS
Gratuitous trail riding here in CA.
 
Started by scanning the front end and drawing up what I think the front bumper should look like. Not gonna lie, hardcore inspired by the shorty overlander on IG.
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Winch is on the way and I'll model it up so I can get the winch mount plate sorted. Looks like it should mount neatly between the frame rails behind the bumper.
 
Take a look at the silly mounting for the bumper.towers above the actual frame. Horrible leverage against the frame. The factory winch plate attaches under the frame, go take a look at the Adventure Driven Design winch plate. You can modify a $49 Harbor Freight plate to do the same thing and be time ahead. Things to think about since you are designing parts.
 
Yeah, winch mount goes bellow frame, reinforce those towers!

For the SAS get a dana 44 and go with the big rear axle with either a torsen or the air locker


They are fun cars, kind of regret getting rid of mine (did a SAS to it but bad decisions)
 
Not sure why anyone would've thought I wasn't putting the mount plate on the bottom of the frame rails but sure. Still planning a tray that will weld between the frame rails but be justified up against the bottom of the rails as nearly everyone does. Don't want to dig into that until the winch arrives and I know exactly what I'm dealing with. The design is just roughed up at the moment. Details will be coming shortly. In the meantime there's some new bits and bobs to get installed. Got a new glovebox latch, drivers side rear window latch, and all new stickers and badges to get installed while I'm waiting for the winch. The SAS is definitely looking like the option. Dana 44s would be rad.


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Fixed up a few odds and ends last night. New rear side window latch, glove box latch, snorkel mounted, and alternator pivot mount sleeved and repaired.

The 4d56 has a common issue with the alternator pivot walloring out which leads to all sorts of fun belt problems. Here’s how out of whack it was.

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The buggered up hole
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Had to unbolt the radiator to get the drill to fit and line up. Drilled it out to 10mm then machined a sleeve to press in.

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All in all a pretty easy fix. The alternator no longer wiggles around and is nice and in line. Next up I’m ordering the proper alternator tensioner bracket but this should do for now. Pics of the snorkel install when I sort out the new air cleaner.
 
Winch arrived so I've been able to get some progress goin on the bumper design.
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Winch mount plate will bolt in to hold it in place while it's being welded. Welds on both frame rails and plenty of support on the bent plate. Tricky part is going to be keeping the freespooling lever clear of the body as I'm trying to bury this back as far as possible to keep the epic approach angle. Might extend that knob up to make it right up there flush with the radiator so it's not fishing my hand down in the bumper. I'll draw that up for clarity sake. Need to get out during the daylight to really see if that's a possibility.
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Some more mucking about. Did some shoehorning of the winch in the driveway last night and believe I can get it flush with the bottom of the frame rails and behind the lower cowl on the body.
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so with that in mind I drew up this plate. Should bolt right up to the 2 M10 mount holes that are on the horns and then located using the m10 holes on the frame that go vertical. Likely will brace the bottom with a piece of square but since it's a bolt in I'll give it a whirl first then fix if necessary.

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Going to cut out and bend a thinner version to check fitment then either send out or cut some thicker plate to make the real mccoy.

Now on to the new hotness. Got an alert this weekend that a '96 Montero SR had rolled into the local yard. Went out this morning and scored the air compressor, R/D lock switch, and this beautiful axle.
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4.636 gears, disc brakes, air locker, what's not to love!? Ok, those spring perches aren't exactly going to make this a bolt up swap on my SWB '88 with rear leaf springs. So my question to the greater conciousness is if anyone knows if the SR carrier with the 9.5" diff will bolt into at Montero Sport housing that would give me leaf springs? I know the locker version of the montero sport rear use identical axles left and right and that the locking style one didn't but I don't know if I could pull all the guts out of this and pop that into the sport housing. Seems kinda dumb but at the same time the Montero Sport rears are easy to find and at $60'ish bucks from pick'n'pull it'd save me a lot of grinding and muckin about.
 
why dont you convert to coils while you are at it? use the radius arms, just weld some mounts to the frame
 
Going to stick with the leafs in the rear for the basic simplicity of it and minimal f$%&ery.
Here's the axle on the jack stands. I'll take some measurements for a record of the differences between these and stock soon. Safety officer, Mo, approves.
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In the meantime I've built several iterations of my winch plate and have finally got it dialed in. Ordered the part from OSH cut to get it sorted by the time I'm back in town. Should have some shots of installing that around mid October. I've gotta head to Arkansas for a bit so I won't be wrenching for a little while.
 
Alright. Stage 1 of the winch install done. Plate came in looking perfect. Only a tiny adjustment needed before it bolted right in.
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I am going to need to shorten the free spool lever but not a big deal. Time to lengthen the wires and get the controller sorted.
 
Cut some test pieces this evening. Dialing in the shape of the bumper with the help of some cardboard aided design.
 

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I'll be getting the steel parts cut this week. If anyone else is keen on one of these I could do a batch order and ship a flat pack version of the bumper that y'all could weld at your leisure. Makes things a lot cheaper when you do more than one at a time.
 
steel arrived for a few parts. Got the bumper tacked up and maybe about halfway welded last night. Should be able to finish it up this weekend.

bunch of 3/16" plate laser cut by OSH Cut.
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So it begins.
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I'm sure I'll catch guff from some of y'all irates but the leaf perches and u-bolt plates also arrived. Here's what they'll look like when finished.
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Should be able to cut the bash plate for the u-bolts this weekend as well.
Going to be a lot of wrenching and welding this weekend. Who's bringing the beer?
 
Following. Had a 4D56 in an '83 D50 4x4. Great engine except when hot with US aluminum head:mad3:. Like the early Montero's too.:beer:
 
Lots of welding and grinding yesterday. Also installed the OME torsion bars and shocks.

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Still waiting on bushings and u-bolts for the rear axle swap.

Before I finish up this bumper with its brackets, paint, and tubing I’m thinking a body lift is going to be in the cards. Anyone here installed one? Wondering about any radiator mount mods that need done.
 

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And there it is! Had to modify the winch mount plate a smidge to clear everything but the welding is all done and it’s ready for paint or possibly powder coating. Now if I can just get those bushings and I bolts in for the axle swap we’ll be in business.
 

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Still waiting in those u bolts and bushings from summit (they’re drop Shipped from arb and still MIA).

In the meantime I’ve got the rear axle loaded up and taken to the shop to get cleaned up save re-hardwared for leafs. At this point I should’ve just coil sprung it. Geez
 
Success at finishing up cleaning the ‘96 SR locking axle and getting the new perches tacked on.
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checking pinion angle of the stock setup saw right at 10 degrees pitched up while the perches were at 2 degrees pitched down.

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Fun to do these things upside down on a bench instead of under the truck.


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Also made up the u bolt skid setups. These should provide a nice smooth sliding surface for any boulders and not wreck the u-bolts on the spring under arrangement.

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Plenty of access for sockets and wrenches to get to the mounting hardware for the shock

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Still waiting on ARB via summit racing to ship my dang hardware! Other than that and some paint we’re getting real close to done.
 
Alrighty, still on hold on those god forsaken bushings and u-bolts from ARB. In the meantime I got the winch all wired up and the bumper powder coated. A few little things to button up there. Namely, the hood latch support is a bit in the way for the winch controller so I'm going to fab up a new one of those that provides the same support but isn't in the way.
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Also, been noticing some coolant in the overflow and after some reading and testing I've concluded that my head gasket is toast. In my chats with the previous owner it would appear he installed the newer style head on this motor even though it has the older style pistons. On the left is the newer style pistons and on the right are the older style. The older style has reliefs in the tops for the valves since the older style head had valves that were ever so slightly proud of the head mounting surface.

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Anyway. New head has arrived and I'm waiting for the gasket kit which should be here in a few days. Christmas project!!!!!

So shiny.
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Also got started on the rock sliders for the truck. I'll get some pics of those up when they get closer to done.
 
Alrighty. Lots of progress and the faint beginnings of a new project for the ole montero.

First off. New head is installed. Turned out I was right and the old gasket was toast and the head had warped a bit. Here's some pics of the work.
Setting up the surgery room
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Out with the old
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A bit of cleanup and inspection. Block still dead flat which is great. Cylinders looking to be in excellent shape.
In with the new.
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This motor has the old style pistons and head so the valves stick up proud of the head surface. Clearly shown here.
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You can see that the head gasket was toast. Definitely getting some blow by into the cooling system which explained the pressure I was seeing in the radiator hose after only running for a minute.
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Some things I'm going to sort out soon though are some tools to test injectors and reset the timing of the mechanical fuel pump. Slowly becoming a diesel mechanic.
 
Now, on to the fun bits. Went to some of the local pick-n-pulls yesterday and found some gems. There were some 4.9 gears in a montero sport but unfortunately that's the 9" rear end so it wouldn't fit my 9.5" rear out of the SR that I pulled some months back. There was, however, a gen1 montero that had been picked nearly clean.

I was going to grab a few body panels but found that they had been bondo'd up pretty hard and not in any better shape than mine. However, those sweet manual locking hubs were prime pickin. I was going to get those headlights as well since they were having a sale for $10! but these guys popped up while I was pulling the hubs. They were super bummed about missing the hubs so when they grabbed the headlights I was fine with it.
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The real fun pick and the beginnings of a big project was this beast right here. A 1979 bronco. Which, as some of you may know, came with the narrower Dana 44 with the high pinion reverse cut gears!
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Yoink
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Don't worry about that little v8 block there. that was for another guy that happened to be crawling on the same truck. He really wanted that block for a build he's doing so we ended up helping each other out to snag all these. The craziest part was when I was checking out. The guy must've just been over it because I got out of there paying less than $100 for the axle (granted, missing some bits) and those hubs! Pick'n'Pull Miracle!!!!! Now I gotta clean this thing up and figure out what bits I'll need for a SAS! In the meantime the manual hubs will do nicely. My next hunt is going to be for some 4.9 gears on the 9.5" rear end.
 
Getting closer to installing the '96 SR rear axle. Finally got the right u-bolts in. Had to modify the u-bolt plate/skids to get everything clearing since the ones I designed it for are a smaller thread size and therefore smaller socket to get to the nuts. Nothing like powder coating things just to find out you have to clear out holes again. Honestly not a huge fan of powder coating anymore simply due to the inability to rework it.


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