Intrepidor
Probationary Member
- 17
- 18
- Sep 23, 2022
-
Greenbush,
Michigan
Hello! Vehicle in question is an imported 1991 “Mitsubishi Delica L300 Star Wagon Super Exceed” with a very rough running 4G64 engine and a long story so I’ll just summarize my questions. I currently have 3 engines and will be rebuilding one of them, but after reading here about the whole 6-bolt/7-bolt thing, I’m a novice and just getting into rebuilding my first engine. Looking for some advice.
Here are the engines:
Engine #1: 4G64 6-bolt 166k miles. In van and running, but very rough, smoky and guzzles oil. Shop said it’s got decent compression but has oil leaking past the cylinders (esp. #3 cylinder)
Engine #2: 4G64 7-bolt only 30k miles. Bought as our replacement, but install shop discovered it was DOA. “spun balancer shaft” is what they told me.
Engine #3: 4G64 6-bolt Unknown milage/origin. There’s damage to the block and looks like it’s been sitting outside for years. Mainly using this to practice tearing down/rebuilding.
Here are my goals:
Priorities in order of importance: Reliability, fuel economy and anything I can do to smooth out/quiet the ride (we sit on top of the engine, so it can be a bit loud/vibrat-y). Mostly interested in a stock build and not necessarily increasing power/torque unless it benefits the priority goals.
Here are my questions:
Question 1: I’d prefer using the “new” low mileage Eng #2 but am I better off avoiding it because of the 7-bolt crankwalk thing?
Question 2: Is crankwalk even an issue if you’re keeping the engine mostly stock and driving “conservatively”?
Question 3: Since I’m going to the trouble of rebuilding everything, are there any “must-do” upgrades I should consider?
Question 4: Is there a favorite rebuild kit/company you guys prefer?
Full story (in case you’re not into the whole brevity thing):
We bought the van a couple years back with the goal of camperizing it, knowing it had a rough engine but near perfect body. It had starting issues, lots of white smoke on startup/acceleration and went through about a quart of oil every fill up, We always intended to replace/rebuild the engine and living in Seattle at the time, we knew finding a shop wouldn’t be a problem. We finally bought a low mileage 4G64 through a reputable source and had it shipped to the install shop. Perfect.
The shop removed the oil pan to start replacing seals and found chunks of metal inside. Further investigation revealed damage to the balancer shaft (what they diagnosed as a “spun balancer shaft”), so the engine was a no-go. Contacted the seller who refused to return my money or take the engine back. Lots of back-and-forth later, he ended up sending a “replacement” engine (engine #3) with supposedly 160k miles (same as our current engine) but no way to verify.
While all this was going on COVID happened, which (like many) changed our plans and we ended up relocating to Michigan. The van was still sitting in Washington and I had very little confidence in finding a shop near us that would even look at our rig (we’re somewhat rural here, and it’s clearly the land of Chrysler and Ford - even our Outback gets funny looks!). We resigned ourselves to selling our dream rig at a loss because - while I’m mechanical - I felt an engine rebuild was waaay outside my wheelhouse, but the Delica forums convinced me otherwise. I’ve got time, indoor space and two out-of-vehicle engines plus a third running engine in the van. What a great time to really learn about your vehicle and the engine that runs it! so… here I am.
Couple weeks ago I was looking at engines 2 and 3 side by side and noticed one of them had a 6 bolt crank and one had 7 bolts. I did a google search on what the difference was and boy… what a habit hole! But it also led me directly to this forum which Im already learning a ton from.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Here are the engines:
Engine #1: 4G64 6-bolt 166k miles. In van and running, but very rough, smoky and guzzles oil. Shop said it’s got decent compression but has oil leaking past the cylinders (esp. #3 cylinder)
Engine #2: 4G64 7-bolt only 30k miles. Bought as our replacement, but install shop discovered it was DOA. “spun balancer shaft” is what they told me.
Engine #3: 4G64 6-bolt Unknown milage/origin. There’s damage to the block and looks like it’s been sitting outside for years. Mainly using this to practice tearing down/rebuilding.
Here are my goals:
Priorities in order of importance: Reliability, fuel economy and anything I can do to smooth out/quiet the ride (we sit on top of the engine, so it can be a bit loud/vibrat-y). Mostly interested in a stock build and not necessarily increasing power/torque unless it benefits the priority goals.
Here are my questions:
Question 1: I’d prefer using the “new” low mileage Eng #2 but am I better off avoiding it because of the 7-bolt crankwalk thing?
Question 2: Is crankwalk even an issue if you’re keeping the engine mostly stock and driving “conservatively”?
Question 3: Since I’m going to the trouble of rebuilding everything, are there any “must-do” upgrades I should consider?
Question 4: Is there a favorite rebuild kit/company you guys prefer?
Full story (in case you’re not into the whole brevity thing):
We bought the van a couple years back with the goal of camperizing it, knowing it had a rough engine but near perfect body. It had starting issues, lots of white smoke on startup/acceleration and went through about a quart of oil every fill up, We always intended to replace/rebuild the engine and living in Seattle at the time, we knew finding a shop wouldn’t be a problem. We finally bought a low mileage 4G64 through a reputable source and had it shipped to the install shop. Perfect.
The shop removed the oil pan to start replacing seals and found chunks of metal inside. Further investigation revealed damage to the balancer shaft (what they diagnosed as a “spun balancer shaft”), so the engine was a no-go. Contacted the seller who refused to return my money or take the engine back. Lots of back-and-forth later, he ended up sending a “replacement” engine (engine #3) with supposedly 160k miles (same as our current engine) but no way to verify.
While all this was going on COVID happened, which (like many) changed our plans and we ended up relocating to Michigan. The van was still sitting in Washington and I had very little confidence in finding a shop near us that would even look at our rig (we’re somewhat rural here, and it’s clearly the land of Chrysler and Ford - even our Outback gets funny looks!). We resigned ourselves to selling our dream rig at a loss because - while I’m mechanical - I felt an engine rebuild was waaay outside my wheelhouse, but the Delica forums convinced me otherwise. I’ve got time, indoor space and two out-of-vehicle engines plus a third running engine in the van. What a great time to really learn about your vehicle and the engine that runs it! so… here I am.
Couple weeks ago I was looking at engines 2 and 3 side by side and noticed one of them had a 6 bolt crank and one had 7 bolts. I did a google search on what the difference was and boy… what a habit hole! But it also led me directly to this forum which Im already learning a ton from.
Thanks in advance for any help!