89 Power Ram 50.  It had sat for a year or so.  Old boy used it to  check his trap lines.  Mechanic put a weber on it with no regulator so it ran poorly.  Rebuilt the odd left handed weber, put a regulator on it.  Put my spare 31s on it with a mild fender trim.  Fuel pump and idler arm bushings.  Put the cheapest shocks ever made on it.  I'll probably replace them with some kyb monotubes. The truck still rides bad.  Typical short low ifs.

The carrier bearing was shot so I replaced that with a cheap one from rock auto.

Daily driver duty and we haul engines in it because it's low.  These things have a wierd amount of leg room.  Not sure I would wheel one but pretty fun for hot dogging around on dirt roads.  Keeps the miles off the Toyota.

It burns a lot of oil.  It's a g54b mitsubishi which is a 2.6 with a dual timing chain and balance shafts.  Runs really smooth.  Pulls hills better than a 22r.  4.22 gears.  Front driveline angle is like flat.  Clutch linkage is a cable.  Weird.  These have little aftermarket support but share a lot of parts with the montero.

This is a jet valve head which had a cracking problem.  I will replace it with a non jet valve head if I rebuild it.

Today I drove it to a conference for work.  Had two different guys try to buy it from me.

A coworker has a 2wd standard cab version, and he is like 6'4" and loves his.  He rebuilt the motor and painted it Hemi Orange.   

There were alot of good little rigs out there back in the day, just Toyota had all the aftermarket support.  And the fact in stock form did better than most, especially in ground clearance.  I miss my 85 Nissan 4x4.  It was a fun truck, just no after market support, and off road, it had alot of flaws. 

Hi H...

If you did not have this pickup what would you be driving?

Gnarls.

I'd be driving the 80 Toyota.   Still do a lot. Trying to keep it on chores and wheeling though.

Also the engine started blowing a ton of oil so I will tear it down in the very near future.  The 80 is back on daily driver duty.

Started burning more oil and developed a miss on number 3.  Decided to yank the engine.  Ordered an early style non jet valve head.   These things are a lot like a cross between 22r and a 3rz.  Flywheel must be at least 30 pounds.  Every bolt is one size bigger than a 22r.  No big deal except like the water pump bolts are 12 mm instead of 10 mm.  Kind of cool.

Well when it comes to snapping off fasteners yes.  Overall I don't know.  This stuff is very easy to work on and in some ways easier even than comparable toyota.  This motor is all original and was definitely done at 160k miles though.  Not sure this isn't because of the dreaded jet valve head, but I would say a stock 22r would typically live longer.

Removing the water pump is what I am referring to.  Also those bolts on the bottom of a carb manifold.  Don't know why they would put such tiny fasteners in anti freeze.  I always work it out but those break a lot on disassembly.   This mitsubishi thing had 12mm on the water pump.  Came out clean.

Man this is cool. You definitely got the better end of the deal.

Here is a stock 22r flywheel at 24.  I may be investing in a heavier flywheel next time I put one together.

Geezz.. those are rough looking flywheels!! 

Gnarls.

I'm running the Marlin Turbo flywheel/clutch combo, 1" bigger disc and much  heavier flywheel.  The 22RE held better up the hills on 33s than ever and crawled well with 4:10s.  I switched to 4:88s and this thing is a crawl monster at idle.  Heavy Is Cool!

Macaw blue is better than black. 

Gnarls.