Forklift

ah you're right on the chain tension and oil pressure, forgot about that. I guess I need to accept the fact I need to pull the motor, have a look, and plan on doing a rebuild.

Well maybe (hopefully) my original post was premature. I pulled the valve cover off and am seeing what I believe to be excessive slack in the timing chain that without much effort slaps against the side of the timing cover. I'd imagine this is too much play and could be an explanation for the knocking sound. Here's a video of the knocking with windows down sitting in traffic: https://imgur.com/a/tgm9G5h Here's a video of the chain slack: https://imgur.com/a/i9D8s49

Hi Guys, relatively new Conquest owner, picked up a stock 87 with 106k back in October and have spent most of the winter and spring getting it back in shape after sitting for 15 years with a bad head gasket. I've made a lot of progress: completely new steering (including redhead box) and front suspension, new clutch, rebuilt the rear axles, new CIFIC head with stainless valves from Dad, new cam and head gasket, all new fuel pump/cleaned tank/filters, rebuilt throttle body, new hoses/lines/belts throughout, rebuilt the calipers, new brakes, new front bearings, etc etc etc. Basically I've been getting it ready to do a handful track days this summer. As of last week put about 100 miles on it, and was starting to hear some chattering and front engine rattle at idle; I tightened up the balance shaft tension which took away most of the noise, but thought i was still hearing a little bit of chatter under mild load (e.g. 5lbs of boost or less). I attributed it to noisy mechanical lifters (valve lash is .006 and .008 respectively), however took her out today and started hearing what I believe is some pretty loud rod knock at 1500-2000 under zero load. I pulled over, and saw the oil pressure gauge was right above the L peg. I killed the engine waited a bit, checked oil level (fine), and on 2nd or 3rd restart had middle gauge oil pressure again. I had replaced the sender about 2 months ago as the original was dead. Before I replaced it I hooked up a mechanical gauge and had 80psi on cold start, so never though I had an issue with oil pressure. The car even got a new OEM mitsubishi pickup o-ring when i previously dropped and baffled the pan. All that being said, while I'm hoping that i just have an immense amount of chain slop (and just need to pull front cover and replace it all), or somehow have a really loud rocker, and that the oil pressure drop on the gauge was a fluke, I'm a realist and think i need to rebuild the bottom end. I've already read Dad's rebuild advice thread a couple times, and I assume I can get away with just a short block rebuild since the head is brand new. That being said, does anyone have any recommendation for a trustworthy machine shop in the Northern Illinois/Northwest Indiana/Southern Wisconsin area with a good track record in this community?

thanks, just sent you a PM

@BKB94 - I can't find any info on ST springs via google, and these are obviously old parts. What info do you have? Any idea of spring rate and how much they lower the car? Thanks!

Mods: I tried to post this in the Fuel/ECU sub-forum but I don't have 10 posts yet; feel free to move this over Hi everyone, been a long time lurker, first time poster. I picked up a 87 Conquest two weeks ago and have been having fun going through it. It sat for 15ish years, mostly inside however when I pulled the gas tank, it needed cleaning; when I removed the sending unit, the sensor (is it a sensor? It looks like it's a housing for a resistor) was disintegrated. These sending units are no longer available, neither OEM nor aftermarket. I called around a couple places and was getting an estimated 6 months and $350-$600 to rebuild it; Tristar Radiator which was recommended here and elsewhere was so backed up they wouldn't even give a price because they aren't taking new work. In posting on the facebook group, someone mentioned other folks had success with a Montero sending unit, specifically part number MB571603. This part IS available from Mitsubishi for ~$100 based on where you order it from, it is also available aftermarket, for ~$20. I believed my issue was the disintegrated sensor, so I took a $20 gamble on amazon and bought this one aftermarket one hopeing I could just take the sensor off of it and put in on my old sender: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VB8CG84 . The short story is that it worked. Looking at the pictures for this sending unit, it appears that while that hat is different, and the connector is different, the rest of it is very very very mechanically close to ours with the stuff that goes in the tank. In theory if you felt like doing some fabrication to your existing sender hat, you may be able to figure out how to disconnect (or cut out) your existing mechanism and attach the one from the new sender. I didn't feel like going this route because my suspicion is that the only thing wrong with mine was the sender and I'm comfortable soldering a single wire. I'd imagine that say if your float was bad on your original sender, you'd likely have success replacing yours with the one from this Montero sender. As stated above, soldering in the new sensor worked. The only weird thing is that while the guage moves as you would expect by manually moving the float arm, my low fuel warning lite seems to stay on all the time when the ignition is on ON; this may be a function that the car isn't actually running, and/or that it has no fuel tank and the fuel pump isn't connected; I'm not sure, as this is the first experience I have with one of these cars. Even if it's abnormal, I'll take a working needle with an always on low fuel light over nothing! Pic 1 and 2: Side by Side, you can see the Montero (bottom) sender looks pretty darn similar with regards to everything that lives in the tank. Pic 3: You can see the hats are different; the Montero sender has 3 holes and is more triangular in shape. The holes in the Montero hat in no way match up to to our hat. Pic 4: Connectors are different however both are three terminal setup Pic 5: My dirty sender; all I needed to do is take a soldering iron, melt the old solder, remove the old wire Pic 6: Here's the connection point on my original sender, after I removed the old sensor wire I took a file and filed mine down some to get rid of rust/dirt Pic 7: On the Montero sender, I just cut the wire and stripped a little of the insulation off, and then soldered it onto my old sender. I had soaked my sender (not fully submerged, just up to the bottom of the hat) and soaked/submerged pickup in vinegar for 24hrs in between Pic 6 and 7, it worked great! Pic 8: Attach the sender sensor on the bottom of the rod Pic 9: Here's the cleaned up original sender with the new Montero sensor Pic 10: Here's my working gas gauge when manipulating the float arm!

Hi Everyone, Long time lurker, first time poster, first time owner. I'm Mike from Chicago. I purchased an 1987 Conquest about two weeks. The car was previously a California care for the first 15ish years of life and then was located to Iowa. It was driven in good weather up until it supposedly blew a head gasket in 2010ish. It has sat since then, for awhile outside, but mostly indoors. The saving grace on this car is that at some point it was undercoated so while it needs a paint job, there isn't really anything but a tiny bit of surface rust in places. I've been having fun going through it and replacing worn parts; I pulled the valve cover and it had a busted jet valve rocker arm; that in combination with the stated head gasket issue, along with ~106k miles, got me to order a new non-jet valve head which should come in this week. Other fun activities have included pulling the gas tank (it's getting cleaned), cv axles (waiting on boots to arrive), replacing the clutch and slave master, and soon replacing the brake master and all rubber lines since a couple are dry rotted. Anyways, thanks for having me, this site has been a wonderful resource already; I look forward to sharing progress and participating in the fun. Also, I've tried to attach some photos but the 500kb is ridiculously small in 2023!