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Head gasket #2

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chrysler kid

20+ Year Contributor
3,100
893
Dec 20, 2002
Mckinney, Texas
I recently purchased a running and driving 2g gst with lots of modifications for $1300. The owner was selling for what he thought was jumped timing, but I found to be all of the upper intercooler piping blown off. Fixed and repaired for him to witness, it idles fine and drives fine but it's eating coolant and oil and has a nice white smoke, I believe both coolant and oil (No sweet smell)

Cylinder #3 smokes with the spark plug removed, I have verified inside the chamber the piston is coated in oil but is still intact.

Questions

Head was rebuilt and ARP studs and cosmetic gaskets were used. I believe the cosmetic gasket has failed from a very basic head tank. (Head is also missing every intake manifold bolt)

Can the ARP studs be re used.

I have an evergreen engine gasket kit. I believe a composite gasket similar to fel-pro. Should be fine correct?

Car is a 98 gst automatic with an mhi 16g, aem wideband, and some sort of obd2 tuner I've never heard of.

I'm really trying to be lazy, but with the intake manifold missing every bolt and only held on by the end studs, but I need to pull the head back off anyways to check for ass hattery

For reference I am willing to do a performance part out on this car. it is my honest opinion that if I resell this car modified with a 16g and the mods the next owner will destroy it. So I want to perform a stock rebuild. Yes my daily 96 is stock, I've put 18k miles on it in 3 years with zero oil leaks and zero problems. It's what I want for this car as well (this is the only other fully intact, non wrecked, not hacked dsm I've found in Dallas in 3+ years. They are rare in the south)

The first image is one the previous owner took when the shop or guy, did the head gasket and studs. Not sure if that zip tie cam gears is an approved method, is that acceptable?
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If you're doing the part out for real, can I call first dibs on the 16g? :D

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the ARP studs can be used a couple times after the initial 1st use, but I would check for any stretching first. The composite gasket should be good yes.
 
I need to find a t25 first. At this time I can't verify it's an actual mhi turbo, the exhaust housing doesn't look correct to me, to be a period correct small 16g

Previous owner was dropping a lot of money into the car, but I can't verify turbo until I pull the head this weekend

f*** it, I should probably send the head out to be re done again. I don't know a single shop that would send a head back out with broken studs still in them
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that pic shows an MLS headgasket, and i would bet you .25 BTC that the motor was not correctly checked and machined for an MLS headgasket. so that is simply why you are pushing coolant and oil. fix is pud, pull head and check it for something vaguely resembling flatness, then install a regular composite gasket and retorque the headstuds after a few hundred miles of driving. done and fixed.

you cant check timing with out at least pulling the timing cover, and the only way you can do the ziptie trick is if you have the little cam gear tooth lock that the vendors sale. so you need to pull the timing cover and check timing when you put the composite headgasket on.

check for other crap work done but after that you should have a good car. a turbo DSM of any configuration is like a hens tooth or golden egg up here too. so just spend the weekend to fix it and keep it, or sale it after it has been fixed right, it will be worth more that way.
 
that pic shows an MLS headgasket, and i would bet you .25 BTC that the motor was not correctly checked and machined for an MLS headgasket. so that is simply why you are pushing coolant and oil. fix is pud, pull head and check it for something vaguely resembling flatness, then install a regular composite gasket and retorque the headstuds after a few hundred miles of driving. done and fixed.

you cant check timing with out at least pulling the timing cover, and the only way you can do the ziptie trick is if you have the little cam gear tooth lock that the vendors sale. so you need to pull the timing cover and check timing when you put the composite headgasket on.

check for other crap work done but after that you should have a good car. a turbo DSM of any configuration is like a hens tooth or golden egg up here too. so just spend the weekend to fix it and keep it, or sale it after it has been fixed right, it will be worth more that way.

Those were my exact thoughts. In reading reviews of the cosmetic gaskets every one is saying they are awesome, *if* you resurface the block and head. If not they are terrible.

You're preaching to me, I've got all the special tools ever needed for a dsm, and a free engine gasket set from an old school dsmer who left the dsm world.

It's time to tear down and do it by the book and do it right

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If you're doing a stock rebuild don't bother with cometic or mls, go with fel pro or victor reinz composite. Assuming the studs were only used once you can definitely reuse em. You have the much sought after split thrust 7 bolt with a black box/tactrix/evo scan ready to tune; although I always appreciate a stock rebuild I personally would definitely utilize those advantages of the 98-99 and put at least a s16g or e16g and some Evo 560s and Evo X fuel pump since you already have an easy way to tune.. Cheap reliable improvement/ upgrade over the t2 small.
 
studs can be re-used infinitely. unless you bash the threads or damage them in some way. and the only non OEM composite gasket i feel good using is the felpro. but i have seen other people use other composite gaskets and have good luck.

good luck on the rebuild, it is always nice to see a dsm get fixed, instead of parted or scrapped.
 
studs can be re-used infinitely. unless you bash the threads or damage them in some way. and the only non OEM composite gasket i feel good using is the felpro. but i have seen other people use other composite gaskets and have good luck.

good luck on the rebuild, it is always nice to see a dsm get fixed, instead of parted or scrapped.

Yeah that's everything I've been reading about as well. I will probably also do a light coating of copper gasket spray, and then let everything cure overnight before adding fluid and starting.

If you can't tell by my join date, I'm old to the dsm world, and this car is covered in stickers, purple stuff, and holes drilled in the fenders for bumper fasteners, so I'm a bit old school in my ways compared to these kids.


If you're doing a stock rebuild don't bother with cometic or mls, go with fel pro or victor reinz composite. Assuming the studs were only used once you can definitely reuse em. You have the much sought after split thrust 7 bolt with a black box/tactrix/evo scan ready to tune; although I always appreciate a stock rebuild I personally would definitely utilize those advantages of the 98-99 and put at least a s16g or e16g and some Evo 560s and Evo X fuel pump since you already have an easy way to tune.. Cheap reliable improvement/ upgrade over the t2 small.

Car already has a walbro 255, an fpr, fic 750 injectors and an aem wideband. I definitely appreciate the info, I'm in the dark on the black box ecu's and tuning since all of my other dsms were 1996 models.

I believe I will be going for a red/black engine theme. I may also repaint the engine bay white as it is a bit dingy and scratched

I believe this is an eBay 16g, previous owner swears it's a real mhi turbo, again I'm not familiar with the companies that sell these. I can tell it's not a real evo3 turbo because of the missing stampings on the compressor housing, and the 3 bolt waste gate (and it's also new looking and shiny). Seems to be in great shape with no shaft play though

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The turbo? Yeah looks like it to me.

Looks clean man! Yeah they are def hard to come by. Im about a hr north of houston and ive been looking for another clean gst or gsx for a decent price and not completely ran into the ground

Yeah this is only the third "complete" vehicle with a 4g63 I've seen lately. Most cars are not in anywhere close to running condition and are missing major components

I should have this one finished next week. It's automatic but it's a good car

Old timing belt tensioner, zero signs of adjustment to the tensioner pulley.
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Throw that evergreen auto sh** in the trash.

Yeah....they all seem like paper gaskets. The only one I really plan to use is the head gasket.


Ok so the head studs, half of them came out when I loosened the nuts. I'm not sure if that is typical or not

The fic injector gaskets are trashed. Not sure if he ordered the wrong ones but they are way too big for the intake

All of the top intake bolts missing like expected. Exhaust studs and turbo studs were not torqued correctly

I can't find any defects in the cosmetic gasket, but I did find defects in the cylinder head. I believe it was a gasket slap, the head left some pretty serious gouging in the gasket from either improper torquing or uneven surface.

Again any advice or tips welcomed on what you see. I mean this cylinder head looks like shit to me, but it's the first one I've ever looked at in detail

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That evergreen head gasket is junk. A $26 felpro has been proven to like 700whp.

Affirmative. I will purchase fel pro gasket tomorrow.

Also can anyone explain why the cosmetic has the coolant passages in the head blocked off? One of the passages was so bad with electrolosys I had to use a paper clip and rust neutralizer to open it back up again.

For some reason those passages are blocked by the cosmetic gasket?

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And the broken stud

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And a light polish and clean

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Definitely throw that Evergreen head gasket away and use an actual FelPro gasket. Everything in the Evergreen kit is great with the exception of the head gasket and valve cover gasket- I installed one of these kits in a customer car against my better judgement one time because he was on a tight budget and it didn't last the ride home before blowing between 2&3 on a perfect head- so maybe 50 miles or so. The valve cover gasket will be hard as a brick and leaking before the first oil change.

Best thing you can do is forget the Evergreen gaskets altogether and buy a FelPro HS9627PT3 set so you won't be buying some of the gaskets twice.
 
Definitely throw that Evergreen head gasket away and use an actual FelPro gasket. Everything in the Evergreen kit is great with the exception of the head gasket and valve cover gasket- I installed one of these kits in a customer car against my better judgement one time because he was on a tight budget and it didn't last the ride home before blowing between 2&3 on a perfect head- so maybe 50 miles or so. The valve cover gasket will be hard as a brick and leaking before the first oil change.

Best thing you can do is forget the Evergreen gaskets altogether and buy a FelPro HS9627PT3 set so you won't be buying some of the gaskets twice.

Yeah I was reading up on the evergreen head gasket and saw your post so I put it back in the shrink wrap and put it back in the far corner of my parts bin in case the zombie apocalypse and I need one in an emergency.

Fel-pro came in, painting the valve covers and intercooler piping wrinkle black today

The fic injector gaskets fell apart in my hands so have to figure out replacements for those.
 
One of those gaskets is not like the other...

Name for me this gasket. I don't want to goober it with rtv like the previous owner did

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Black wrinkle theme

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Oh my goodness. previous owner put an evo8 head gasket on his car.

He also ordered the wrong injectors seals

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Notice
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And installed on my 7 bolt

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And compared to the actual 7 bolt h3ad gasket

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The name of that gasket is "dealer only" afaik - unless you buy a whole gasket set. Either order one, or get some gasket paper and cut one out. Use Karopak.

I found the gasket and the o ring (for the water pump tube) on extreme psi. I spent about $80 on a bunch of random pieces last night. They don't sell just one exhaust stud unfortunately.

Water pump tube o ring $3
Thermostat housing gasket to head $2
Exhaust manifold stud kit $28
8x intake manifold bolts @ .86 each
Alternator tensioner bolt $6
Fic fuel injector o rings @ $20 a set

Add to that $28 fel pro head gasket
Intake man gasket $11
3x can of spray paint $24
Oil change to vr1 oil $36
Misc gaskets (free evergreen kit)
Changing timing belt and balance shaft belt (free contitech brand left from last build)

I'm not too deep in the parts hole yet.

Guesses on clean retail when I'm done? Thinking $5k price range. Zero rust Texas car no hail damage with one dent
 
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