Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Good Day All

I was fortunate to come across a parts van in my neck of the woods for a great deal!!. Its a 1997 L300 with the 4D56. I bought the van knowing that it over heated and that it may have a blown gasket or cracked head. I was thinking about getting the engine running again when I have some spare time.

Currently there are no accessory belts on the engine. My guess is that the belt to the fan/water pump snapped causing it to overheat. I've checked the oil and there doesn't appear to be any coolant in there and vice versa. I popped the upper timing belt cover off and the two belts are intact. I decided to see if she will start. It cranks but will not fire. I bled the injector lines while cranking and still no start. I'm thinking at this point lack of compression due to a blown gasket.

Hoping for some suggestions to get this engine running again. Before I go pulling the head is there anything else I should try or look at? If the gasket is blown I will also have the head checked for cracks and warpage.

Looking forward to your replies

Cheers

Hey cosmo,
I wish I could help you with your engine, but I'm mechanically declined at the best if times. Are you considering selling parts off of the van? I'm looking for a new front bumper (the modern version without the bull bar attachment). Mine is rusting and I'd rather replace it than repair it. I live in Peterborough so not too far from you.

Anyway, good luck with the engine. Someone on here will have some insights for sure.

Cheers,

Phil

Learned something new today!!

I decided to go ahead and pull the head for sh#%s and giggles.

Before I did that I made 100% sure that all 3 timing marks were aligned...crank pulley on lower timing plastic cover, cam and injector. After getting the head off I measured with rudimentary straight edges (x3 straight edges for an average because I didn't have a Machinist Straight Edge). The head was warped (book says between .002" to .008"...mine was at least .016" in the middle).

I was determined to get her running with zero cost to learn something and get an idea of what is involved for the timing belt replacement on the good Delica.

I put everything back together and after a lot of cranking and bleeding she finally came to life. Rough idle and a lot of white smoke after an extensive warm up. I am attributing the white smoke to the head being warped and low compression as a result. The injectors could be bad as well.

When I put everything back together I made 100% sure that all three timing marks were aligned...crank sprocket on the engine front case, cam and injector. Once the plastic cover was on I reconfirmed that all three timing marks lined up.

In the process of getting her to run again I used "Quick Start" in the intake pipe...I know, not normally a good idea but it was a busted engine to begin with.

So back to the alignment marks...Once I determined that at least the top of the motor was useless, I rechecked the timing marks and the crank pulley mark was at least 30 degrees shy of the lower plastic cover in relation to the cam and injection pump.

I said to myself WTF!!!! After a lot of head scratching and internet reading I pulled the lower cover off only to find all three marks aligned. So this is what probably happened...the use of the "Quick Start" caused the crankshaft pulley AKA harmonic balancer to slip on the rubber which misaligned the timing mark. I confirmed the misalignment of the crankshaft pulley by this picture from this forum. I used reference marks from the picture to compare to my pulley. I didn't attach a picture of my pulley...but trust me, it's misaligned.

As a side note the balance belt, AKA belt "B" teeth were completely gone (smooth as a baby's butt") so I put it back together without the balance belt.

Cause of the overheat was the rubber coolant hose to a rigid banjo line to the turbo splitting wide open. (Water cooled turbo)

Here is a picture of my crankshaft pulley with "Wet n Wild" nail polish marking the timing mark.

Can someone please confirm that my pulley has slipped with a known good pulley?

Bonus points and manicure tips to those who reply!!

Cheers

Here is a sample of my manicure tips...

Smashed with a hammer over 20 years ago... rippled ever since.

Yeah that's not right. The crank pulley looks wrong too. The timing mark should be almost 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the woodruff key. (When the crank is at TDC the key is on the right, but the timing marks on the belt cover aren't quite above the crankshaft.)
Did you turn the engine over by hand before attempting to start? 19mm socket and ratchet on the crank pulley bolt, make sure it does a few revolutions. That way if you were a tooth or 2 out (from a slightly slipped timing mark) you would have felt the engine binding. If you did that and it felt fine then the valves are probably ok (not that it helps with your warped head).

Thanks for the reply

I do have what appears to be the correct crank pulley based on this pic from Partsouq using my VIN
Unfortunately it doesn't show the timing mark.

I definitely turned the crank bolt by hand for a few complete revolutions.

Approximate position of the timing mark:
...though that warped head is going to be a problem. To get it running I'd want to fit a new head. Before committing to a new head, check the pistons for signs of valve contact, just in case the pulley slippage is a consequence of engine lockup.