Merrill's 4G64 DOHC.

Today was spent knocking out the part I hate.... scrubbing, prepping, repairing, and cleaning everything to make it ready for dye. Just like I did on Page 4, post #88, the whole thing was stripped down and scrubbed clean.

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Since these parts are NOT the easiest to score as a replacement easily, I had to make repairs. Unfortunately I completely neglected to take before pics, so I dont have anything cool to show off. The biggest fix was the warped dash pad. It is the soft part of the dash (feels padded) and it is completely removable from the rest of the dash (see the top of the pic above). This is just one of those things that happens to these dashes. The heat beats it up and it warps and separates from the rest of the dash where it is not secured. Since heat distorted it, heat will fix it. This takes a lot of patience and practice to not over heat it, and not to indent it while trying to form it back to the shape of the dash. The only down side is 9 times out of 10, it will crack where it is bowed (as mine did).

Fixing cracks is very simple. If you cut the crack out, you can re-foam or fill it up with certain epoxies or even other fillers. Fillers harder than the foam will ensure the dash will be less likely to bow again in the same place. If I remember to get some pics, I will post them when I repair the cracks. It's really easy.

I also have holes in the dash which need to be plugged up and a few spots than need new texture to blend it all in. Again, its all very easy to do. I have not yet decided if I will upholster parts of the dash or just dye them. I'll make that decision sooner or later. Hopefully I will have it dyed in a week or two.

Should of had wifey put everything in the dishwasher, lol.. I definitely do not have the patience you have to do what you did here. Many of them pieces are stressed into their positions, like the vent directionals. Good luck getting all the right screws back into their right spots and hopefully you'll have no extra parts.
You ever have problems with any cracking between a repair on the dash and the dash itself. Sitting in the sun I would think the edges of a repaired area would want to start flaring out around the repair. I seen bondo used to patch dash cracks, but don't know how long it would last under a hot windshield.

It all went back together this afternoon just fine. Since I am not dying it for a while, and I don't want to lose anything in the mean time, I put it all back together. The best advice i can give when taking these things apart is to take your time. Heat also helps to loosen up plastic parts.

I've never had a repair break before (or have another crack near it), but it's the same procedure to repair it again. I don't use bondo or body filler on plastic repairs to repair them. It's not meant to stick parts back together and hold them. Adhesives make the repair and body filler will smooth it all out if needed. Sticking body filler to a dash is nothing new. People have been doing it for years, but there is a lot more that goes into it than just throwing it on the dash and smoothing it. In order to make it last, you have to prep it and add other composite materials to hold the shape. The body filler just makes a smooth surface.

I didnt think I had the time today, but hey, looks like I did after all.


First up - repairing the cracks on the dash pad.
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And here is the end result after filling and shaping. Good as new.
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I did decide on a combination of dye and upholstery, so this piece will not be dyed (as well as a few others).

I also fixed 4 holes and a large gash on the dash itself. Nothing major....
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After a bunch of cleaning and prep - I dyed it black just like the current dash in my truck.
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Not every portion of the dash is dyed. Pretty much every part that is not covered in upholstery, or is not seen, was left alone. Once it is all put back together again, it will look like a brand new RHD dash. Right now it is hanging up and curing. I'll probably reassemble everything in a week or so. Upholstery will happen whenever I feel like I have the time.

Questions or comments - Post up!

Looks like it all came out really good from here. Nice!

What kind of dye is that?

VHT Vinyl Dye. Normally I order a plastic dye used by detailers, but my guy didn't have any this time around. I decided to give the VHT a shot. I gave a spot a scratch test today and it holds quite nicely.

I've used that VHT vinyl spray and it is really good stuff to work with. If the trim part you're re-colouring is cleaned properly and you lay the stuff down in light coats, you'll get get good colour penetration into the trim and it won't flake off. Looks good so far Merill, nice job :thumbup:

I'm pretty impressed thus far. I usually use industrial stuff, but this seems to be no different as far as I can tell. If it doesn't work as well, I'll update later lol.

Not a lot to report lately... I was planning on RHD soon, but clients are keeping me too busy for that. I'm back to fabbing on Sundays again.

Today was actually an off day. We had a small glitch in the schedule, so I ran to the yard for some goods. I decided that the final design of this particular phase would bring a clearance issue to the Montero Sport rear sway bar once I change my wheels. As such, I pulled a Ford rear sway bar which will be going on soon. I'm not completely satisfied with the switch, but I gotta do what I gotta do I guess.

I managed to get it stripped and coated this afternoon and will soon have it installed. I'm not going to bolt it on like it was. It will be better fitted and perches welded to the axle. I'm also building adjustable end links so I can dial it in better.

Aside from that, I made the decision on my pistons. I'm going to end up with a compression ratio of about 10.8:1 and will push 15 PSI. That should net some good power to start with.

I'll get some pics up when I get some actual work done. If anyone is interested in the 26 mm Montero Sport rear sway bar I have, let me know. It's a near perfect fit to the MM.

Isnt that CR kind of high for a turbo engine?

Are you using a KM132 transmission? Is that one stronger than a km145?

Not really. It's all in the tuning and guts. You can't cheap out on that stuff to make it happen right. One of my clients is on 30 PSI @ 11.5 or 12:1 (can't remember which one - many people do it)

My trans is from a Montero Sport. I'm not sure on the model #. I never bothered to look.

Thank god someone thats not afraid of compression and boost but you seem to play with evos and theyre the king of it lol only way to build boost and make serious power with big turbo 4cyl one thing my fellow neon/srt crowd fails to accept

Compression and boost are not mutually exclusive...I'm running 10:1 with 25 -30lbs of boost.

compression does not have to be low for high boost with todays modern efi engine systems - with proper tuning you can get massive power - besides what are you doing with a turbo but compressing the charge to pack more fuel into the motor? High compression is to get the more power from the charge - you just need to keep it all below the flash point of the fuel aka detonation.

Knock sensor....

exactly...

I'm not worried at all about the high compression. This is nothing new, and I'll have it under control.


On to today (or the last couple days)....

I originally wanted to use the Montero Sport rear sway bar for the rear of this truck, but I ran into a small snag - its going to be too wide and will interfere with my new wheels (when I get them). The montero sport is a far superior bar because it mounts to the outside of the frame, and it is larger in diameter (1 inch). As badly as I really wanted to run it, I had to compromise.

I ended up with the F150 rear sway bar. This, as many of you have seen and posted about, sounts to the inside of the frame, and it is an 1/8" smaller in diameter than the MS bar. Most people will never notice the difference, but I know it lol. After the bar came back from coating, I ordered up a new set of Energy Suspension bushings and slapped it all together.

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The truck handles quite nicely. The front feels like it rides like a mushy old Buick compared to the rear now, so I must finalize my front design soon. I do recommend this bar for its ease of install and gain, but I noticed a lot of people having one big issue - welding.

I did mention in a previous post that I was going to weld all this up and what not, but I figured I could take a few extra moments to design a 100% bolt-on solution for the rear sway bar. Here it is.....

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I built 3 of these kits for my team to test out to see if we can break them, or if we need improvements, but there it is. Once we get some R&D time, this kit will be available. All one has to do is drill 4 holes to mount the end links to get a complete bolt-on rear sway bar.

I'll update more as it happens!

Which sway bar setup is this for - montero, f-150, or both?

F150. I can build one for the Montero bar as well. Easily done.

any idea as to price?

That's what I want to know too

Im interested in upgrading the FRONT sway bar as I have already installed the f-150 rear bar. Looking forward to seeing what you've got planned for it

As of right now, the rear link kit is looking at about $100 shipped. One other kit I sent out will be installed tomorrow, and the other will be later this week. I went out for a long ride the other night and put this bar to the test. It performs quite well. As soon as I can confirm pricing, I'll make a post.

I have posted before about the front bar. You can fit an S10 bar to the front. They have 5 different sizes to chose from, and they are very very similar to the MM. The larger bars will not fit without serious mods to the front end. I intend to rip my front components out and build new with the 33mm S10 bar. I can make that into a bolt-on kit, but that will cost somewhere between 400-600 (off the top of my head).

S10 bar sizes are 23, 25, 28, 29, and 33mm (there may be a couple more). The MM is 22mm. The S10 25mm should fit without serious modification, the 28 and 29mm bars might fit with little modification, and the 33mm will NOT fit unless the whole front end is significantly modified.