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420A Need help, HG job

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609DSM

Proven Member
368
154
Aug 13, 2019
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
I need as much advice and tips from anyone who has done this themselves. This is my only car and I've been walking/bus to get to work and have been missing school.

Not even sure if I have the money to resurface the head... gonna call a shop near me tomorrow.

Right now everything is disconnected (all wiring harness is disconnected and p/s is off along with the bracket). I'm gonna rent the otc 6667 harmonic balancer puller tomorrow, havent removed crankshaft bolt yet, gonna have to bump it or whatever it's called.

Also i plan in renting a camshaft tool that holds them in place so I can spin the bolts off. I'm working with next to nothing, no air or battery impact. This job is very frustrating and I need my car back... the crank pully tensioner bolt snapped but its locked in place so I should be able to manually tension/mount back on...

I'm at a point where I found a n/t Wiseman's post about removing the top motor mount bracket easily, the rain let up today and I had only a couple hours of light so after I got as far as I could with inbolting things I came back in for research. I'm gonna drop the cross member tomorrow and start to maneuver this engine and make it dance till I can get this dang bracket off.

Can y'all help me out with some tips you've learned from doing this on your n/t? And yes I've read all the write ups I can find and searched in depth removal and install procedures associated with this job and have been reading my Chilton manual like it was the bible and I'm on my death bed after a life of sin LOL.

Pls send help ):
 
Oh I also have all the necessary gaskets, new vcg gasket/head gasket(duh)/TTY head bolts/intake gaskets and what not. I'm trying to avoid removing the intake as I believe it to be sealed properly but will if I have to. I can send pictures tomorrow if anyone wants to see where I'm at, it's dark right now.
 
slips69 is rebuilding a 420a right now! he should be able to walk you through this if no one else replies, you can pm him and see if maybe you can call him and he can work with you, if you were closer I would be right there to do this with you, I have worked in the same situation and worse, and most of us here have, relax and try to enjoy the learning and the knowing that it will run with your sweat and blood.
 
slips69 is rebuilding a 420a right now! he should be able to walk you through this if no one else replies, you can pm him and see if maybe you can call him and he can work with you, if you were closer I would be right there to do this with you, I have worked in the same situation and worse, and most of us here have, relax and try to enjoy the learning and the knowing that it will run with your sweat and blood.
Thanks man. I appreciate the support
 
Hey buddy I'm slips96 or shaun what you got? I read your post but not understanding where your having the problem. The bottom sub frame brace should be taking off to get access to the alt, oil sending unit, knock sensor connectors. If you have cruise control unplug the vac lines. If you got everything unhook an disconnected the your next step is to remove the rear transmission mount from the 3 nuts this will sepperate the trainnie from the frame now you should still have both the passanger and driver side motor mounts hooked up but the front and rear mounts should be off and set aside. Now hook up a chain to your hangers 1by the intake top pass side 2by drive side get your hoist in place and hook the chain in the center off the chain and Jack enough to hold the engine and transmission in place. Unbolt the drive side mm then the pass side mm then just be careful pump the jack till the d side is clear then pull it back towards you just enough for the mm to be off set from its original location. Check to see that your not hung up on the cruise control, brake res, and that the crank pulley doesn't cut the lines running along the top of wheel well frame. It will come out in a slight angle ps will be higher then the ds. It's tricky to get it out but it's easier to pull it out rather then leave it in.
 
I don't have an engine jack. And I do have cruise control, that thing gets in the way of the top alternator bolt so I cant put slack on it to pull it off. So I have to do everything with the engine inside unfortunately. Give me a moment I'll send pictures I just woke up
 
The engine and transmission needs to come out your not going to do a hg job with that engine still in their. Noticed the driver side mm now how are you going to remove the timing cover? And the harmonic balancer will hit the frame if you Jack the pass side. I've been there and done that and i cant assist you on this without you having the right tools rent one or go to harbor freight you can either buy one for 140 or if you can go check your local can man or recycling center I caught a guy scrapping his and the gave him 20 bucks then went to harbour freight and bought a jack for 60 bucks. Just try and get one soon I can help you once you get one. It's too difficult to do a hg job with that still inside the engine bay if you looked at my photos if you do some research you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm on fb shaun riptoe look me up add me as friend if you interested I have a complete brake down and rebuild on their. Good luck and let me know.
 
I'm gonna go get the right harmonic balancer puller which is otc 6667. I'm gonna have to remove the front motor mount in order to get more access to the front right motor mount bracket. I can link the material I read that has directed me down the path I'm heading on. You said I cant do this without pulling the motor out which I see what you're saying but I've read of people doing their timing this way and the only thing preventing me from pulling my cylinder head off is the camshafts being in place with the timing belt. I could however be completely wrong as I havent found a head gasket replacement write up, I'm only going off what I'm piecing together from my research.
 
You can pull the head with the motor in the car. You have to remove all of the mounts except for the right transmission mount. You lower the motor down so the crank pulley clears the frame. You will have to move the motor up and down several times to get the left motor mount plate off. This will be the hardest part. Once that's off, you can pull the timing cover and get the belt off.
 
UPDATE: I have broken off the timing belt cover out of frustration and its inconvenience. The harmonic balancer is pulled. To do this I used an 8.8 grade m12x1.75x120mm bolt from home depot, it costs roughly 3.50USD. It wasn't easy to get off because the pulley was tight on the bolt and had to bang the pulley off after it had backed off the crankshaft gear.

I just need to remove the engine mount bracket. My pulley is slightly damaged from getting it out but is no more worse than it already was.

I've ordered a camshaft sprocket spanner in order to disassemble the camshaft assembly when I remove the motor mount bracket. To remove this I plan on jacking up the engine as high as possible and working it off that way.
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Motor mount bracket off. Pictures for the position of everything for any future reference that might need to be looked upon. Now waiting for camshaft spanner to get here so I can remove sprockets and take the cylinder head off.
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Now all you need is the cam tool to hold them in place and take those gears off. Make sure your number 1 cylinder is tdc before you do anything else to prevent piston to valve contact. That's interesting how did you get the timing cover off the mm bracket is still in place ? Or you put the mm bracket back on after you took it off. I remember when I did this some years back and that bracket had no clearance for the bolts to come out so I ended up taking the suspension apart sub frame an all and to do it that way can be done but isn't worth it unless you dont have a hoist. Just keep us informed.
 
I got frustrated and ripped apart the timing cover. I didnt plan on reusing it and honestly I probably shouldn't have done that... but what's done is done. Tool should be coming by tomorrow. I'm gonna get cylinder 1 to TDC tomorrow when I have daylight to work. Cant really do much until I get this cam sprocket spanner wrench or whatever its called.

In thinking ahead I might put the crank pulley in boiling water for a bit so it will go onto the crankshaft easier. Other than that I have no idea how I'm gonna get that thing on.

EDIT: I do remember seeing something about getting the pulley on a little bit and then tightening the crank bolt until the pulley is on. Not sure how effective that is though.
 
Also I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to resurface the head, I don't have a machinist straight edge either to check. Tried calling a shop and they didnt answer or call back to give me pricing... I'm gonna clean it up as well as I can, my engine didnt overheat much when the gasket blew out but it did overheat so that has me worried. I know the TTY bolt threading in the block wasn't drilled deep enough and the bolts bottom out so I've heard of people cutting them a couple threads down the bolt so they can grip and stretch fully.
 
Here is a tip. If you are reusing the timing belt. Mark the belt to each gear and crank pulley, you don't have to retime the motor, just line the marks back up and it will be right. Just make sure to put the gears back on correctly. Don't mix up the intake/exhaust.

Also do not run with the timing cover off. I cut the top of mine off 12 years ago and haven't had an issue. But mine is still covered up past the motor mount.
 
Here is a tip. If you are reusing the timing belt. Mark the belt to each gear and crank pulley, you don't have to retime the motor, just line the marks back up and it will be right. Just make sure to put the gears back on correctly. Don't mix up the intake/exhaust.

Also do not run with the timing cover off. I cut the top of mine off 12 years ago and haven't had an issue. But mine is still covered up past the motor mount.
The only piece I have left is the bottom which I'll put back on. The rest is broken, I will be using a new belt that you for that +1 tip though!
 
Bless your heart dude if you can't get it this way just hit me up and ill walk you threw but it sounds like if you don't at least get the head resurfaced all you just did was for nothing. 420As are very unforgiving if you skip one step on a rebuild.
This isn't a forever car it's just a DD point a to point b. I don't want to skip resurfacing but idk what else to do. Its gotta get back on the road, I do have an MLS gasket and the correct TTY bolts. Hopefully the odds are in my favor.... wish I at least had a machinist straight edge...
 
I also have the idler and tensioner bearings brand new to slap on the engine. Cant wait to finish this up but not trying to rush it. I'm confident I can do the rest now that all the hard stuff is done. Not looking forward to putting the motor mount back in place though haha
 
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