Just wanted to say hi. Recently got my first mini. Its a 94 LHD 2x2 Mitsubishi with hydraulic dump. It has alot of abuse and overheats. It will pressurize the cooling system instantly on startup and then make steam from pipe soon after. I guess a bad head gasket or maybe worse. I will check compression soon then tear it down. Its a 3G81 engine. I hope a head gasket and resurface will be the trick. Who sells head gaskets? Is the 3g83 a direct repacement? The truck is a keeper because it is so handy around my place and I got it real cheap!! I will post follow ups on my progress and get some photos on here with the New Tires! (W 207's)
Another Lefty!!!! Welcome!! your local mitsubishi auto dealership should be able to get the head gasket for you. And there are some really resourceful dealers here too that may be able to help out. All of the top end gaskets you'll need are sold as a set. #md997407 or the gasket alone is #md107235. Good luck with your mini and give a shout out if you need any info. Dan
Lhd Swampmitsi, Welcome aboard! And Florida too. I live about 260 miles NW of Debary, up in the panhandle about 35 miles NE of Panama City. My cuz and I both have 94 lhd/3G81 mits, his 2wd, mine 4x4 w/dump. We had to tear his down and replace the rings in it. His was losing power and smoking (oil rings) not much to it. If you determine you need to replace the head gasket and need any info/diagrams/torque specs let me know. If you are getting white smoke/steam out the exhaust - yeah prob head gasket. Like you said, do a compression test. You prob will find that you need the comp gauge with the flex extension. kinda close in there. Compression shud be min 137psi with no more than 14psi difference between each cyl. Dan has a couple of the lhd's and has years of experience managing a fleet of them. He be the LHD/3G81 guru. If you have any questions post up some of us shud be able to help. later.....slim
Thanks to Dan and Slim both for the quick help. I used Dans numbers at my local Mitsu and ordered the top end set. The parts guy was very helpfull and showed me the exploded views, etc.. He said I might have to wait about a week for the parts. We'll see. I was going to check the compression after work but im beat. Atleast I got some psi numbers to reference now (thanks to Slim). I really dont think the mini will pass though. I will try to do the test this weekend. I dont have much to provide to the forum right now other than the following that I found out on my own. NAPA 703-1443 is a good replacement radiator cap at 13lbs/psi and converts to .9kg stamped on the old cap. Almost identical. NAPA gold 1334 was an oil filter that fit. NAPA 3011 was identicle to the existing fuel filter in shape and size on my mini NAPA 60-1512 were exact replacement wiper blade refills. There is no such thing as a replacement aftermarket airfilter and dont care now when motor pumps water!!
I got the parts Yes the parts came in Friday. The upper gasket set and Im ready to get some progress done. Compression first for reference. Hopefully no major issues. Looks to me like you must remove the aft driveline and drop the engine aft to get the engine down to remove the head effectively. Any pointers? I did find the head bolt torque on the forum but couldn't find valve lash clearance for exhaust/intake. Any Ideas or pointers please let me know. I also have convinced a neighborhood friend into the idea of minis and he is picking his up soon, maybe this weekend. Richard
http://www.minitrucktalk.com/showthread.php?t=2420 the thread above should get you started. there are some manual shots for the timing belt install. cylinder head torque is 43-51 ft.lb. valve clearance is in .006 cold and ex .009 cold. good luck with the rebuild! hope its not too serious. I have a new oem head in the garage if yours is irreparable... let us know how it works out. Dan
Cylinder head Hi all, Compression is as follows dry and cold #1 165, #2 120, #3 160. Took the head off without dropping engine. Gasket has evidence of water intrusion on #1 and lots of deposits on exhaust side of head. Here is the problem. #2 has a crack between intake and exhaust valves. Dont know if machine shop can fix it but I will drop it off tommarrow and pray. Also worth noting is the timing belt very brittle/cracked and i pulled it apart by hand. The timing belt link that Dan sent was very usefull. Dan you said you had a head laying around. Please give a price and if it is complete or bare. Feel free to contact my personal email, rbalkham@embarqmail.com Also worth noting is I got some pictures of this head that i will upload later. Also my friend in the neighboorhood got the same year Mitsubishi with 4x4 on Saturday. It runs great but rides rough. I'm sure he will join the forum. Richard:
sometimes the crack between valves is of little consequence. it comes from the rapid heat exchange between the intake (cold gas) and the exhaust (hot air) and it just kinda makes its own expansion joint. all vehicles are different, but i know this is not a problem in some. before you drop a bunch of money on a new head find out if the old one is bad.
Took the head to a machine shop today and he did not like the crack because the valve seats may not stay seated and create a problem later on. It was suggested that another head was the way to go. I dont think the guy understood what I brought to him. I said it was for a mitsubishi mini truck. I probably should have been more descriptive. Anyway another machine shop's opinion wont hurt. Im on a budget so I might just clean it up, reassemble and see what happens.
Swampmitsi, e-mail sent. let me know if theres anything i can help with. post some pics of the project and let us know how it works out.
Tried to upload a few pics for everyone but got a "type certificate mismatch" I tried 3 times and then notified moderator by some type of report default screen. I guess i'm still newbie. Moderator may get frustrated with me. Im sure not computer savy. I'll get pics out soon as possible. Thanks for everyones help and patience. Take your minitruck for a nice ride and enjoy!
I noticed my file size per picture is way to large to upload. I have to figure that out now. Sorry about that.
Hows the rebuild going? Did your new valves show up for the head? I posted a portion of the manual that should help a lot if you still are working on it. look in the reference section of the mitsubishi thread. or go here http://www.box.net/shared/65q954qjuh Dan
engine update I finally got the valves late friday and installed them into brand new head from Dan. Next day I installed head, timing belt, etc.. I gave the gas pedal 2 complete pumps and fired it up. Do you know what happened next? It sat there and idled purfectly. I finished up and installed seats and what not. I then went on a test drive and things were good until I did some radical donut style driving. The engine would not hold a steady slow idle despite cranking up the idle adjustment on the carb. It seemed like the carb was hunting or I had a misfire.Next day It ran the same after warm up. I checked everything i could think of. I then decided to purge the cooling system and sure enough that fixed the problem. I guess the carb is very temp sensitive and an air burble in the carb heater may be the culprit? I have no idea about the valve at the radiator neck and its purpose other than it leaks quite a bit. Anyway we went mini truckin sunday and all was well till we hit a pothole hard and it died. Several attemps to restart and reving up fixed the problem. Any Ideas,thoughts, suggestions? Sorry to be long winded but I have been absent for a while, Richard
glad everything is working out! the valve on the radiator is a vent valve for opening up a hot radiator. pull it to the up position and it should close. lets see some pictures. Sounds like you've got a good grip on the mechanical side of these. you just needed the right parts. let me know if i can help with anything else. Dan
Would anyone know a part number for the piston rings and can I get them at the misubishi dealer. I have a 3g81. Smoke s like a train been riding it like that for 2 years now just have to add a qt of oil sometimes but thinking about trying to do a head gasket and head job new valve seals and trying to see if I can get the piston s out with motor still in truck and hone cylinder and put new rings and put it back together.
