The Central Hub for DSM Community and Information

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. This is where the DSM platform history is documented and archived. Log in to help us in our mission, and to remove most ads from the browsing experience.

4G63 - JDM motor with nothing but problems - HELP! (PICS)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

crazyz250

Probationary Member
28
0
Aug 26, 2005
niskayuna, New York
Please read and Please help!

Okay heres the scoop. I have a 93 Laser n/a. It ran great but around 90k it aquired a rod knock. I purchased a 6-bolt JDM block/head/5-speed from a reputable site trough ebay. Block had between 35-45k and had 6 month warranty. I will list what it was advertised to fit once i find the papers tonight, but i e-mailed the seller and asked "will it fit a 93 laser?" and he said yes
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I then pulled the motor
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

and started swaping the accesories from one motor to the next - replacting gaskets, claning this, fixing that. New motor was Pretty clean all around
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Well the motor was ready to be put in:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Instantly had problems. First off, from the exterior, there were noticable differences from the two transmissions (I replaced mine because it grinded first and second) Everything bolted up as it sohould, but the lines on the outside of the case were different, and it had a few different mounting points that the orginal one did not. Upon mounting the motor, we soon realized that it was not going to happen. With the right side, front, and back mounts in place (tranny mount not bolted up) the motor looked like this:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

The hood would not shut, the IM hit the bottom of it.
This is how far off the tranny mount was:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Look how far off the bolts are from the holes in the frame. We managed to get all 4 mounts bolted up, but it vibrated soooo bad, and the right was puched forward and the left was ushed back, deff not right.
(we have since welded the mount where we wanted it)
I used the OEM mounts that were on the orginal motor. Everything else bolted up just fine.

WHY???????? Anyone know????????? :cry:

- Upon starting the motor once it was "semi" bolted in, we ran into problems. It was my mistake to not replace the water pump before the motor was put in. The gasket was rock hard and leaking. After replacing that, the oil pressure guage was going crazy. We traced that to a faulty sensor and fixed that. The cam seals were leaking, so we changed them out aswell. They to were rock hard (a sign the motor had been sitting around for awile) Both cam gears were wobbling, and one even broke (while motor was not running thank god) i simple pushed it to see if it was loose, and it broke! There were about 10-15 other probles we ran into, but i cant remember them all there were so many LOL.

- a 1G DSM is one hell of a good looking car - so why not fix it up ehh?
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

$1,200 maaco paint job - OEM green paint with added gold flakes - came out VERY good, people comment me on it all the time, very clean - i got lucky:p
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.



- Car was in storage from november to april - gota love NY weather


- Okay back to the problems - because this car has lots of them. So once we got it running for the summer, we instantly had problems! What else is new? New radiator was in need. Put that in and it was still burning/leaking antifreeze. I couldnt find where it was going, it didnt drip on the ground, but was eating about 1/2 a quart ever 100 miles. It ran OKAY, and i didnt see any white smoke. IM gasket was new and pluges looked fine. After giving up i brought it to the stealership and they did a complete leakdown test. Turns out i have good compression, and my head gasket was good (to my amazement) Once the cooling system buit up pressure, there was a pin hole leak under the thermostat housing, and once it hit the block it would burn it - thus leaking antifreeze w/o driping on the ground. Well that was fixed and i know i have a solid motor., and also know im an idiot for not seeing that:(

- The orginal motor mount job HAD to change - so we did the fallowing:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

We bolted the right side mount with a new poly mount. We then leveled the motor, centered it in the bay and welded thet f*&#er to the frame
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

We have the front mount bolted up, trany mount welded, and right mount bolted up. Problem solved ehh? wrong. Vibrates like a bi***!!!!! i figured it would, but not this much :barf:

- My power steering pump then shit the bed

- Okay long thread, but theres alot to this car. Here are the questions:

1. When starting car, it idles right at 1000 rpm's. Isn't it supposed to go to like 1500 then 1400 then 1300 etc. until it warms up? When warmed it idles just about 1000rpm

2. Why does the idle fluctuate? crusing at 50mph in 5th and push in the clutch it will drop to about 500, almost stall sometimes, then go to 1000. Sometimes randomly go up to 1200? wtf?

3. Motor mounts not working....

4. No power!!!! Seems to me that it is low on power, when you punch it the balls that is once had have shrunken severely. When reved in upwards of 5500-6500 rpm it just seems like it doesnt do anything but make noise

I searched around a little bit and have found the only difference in the JDM vs. USDM is the IM. I only bought the block/head so i should have no differences correct?

ANY insight to why my motor is not running correct, and doesnt fit my car LOL would be great - i am at a loss at this point and so is the dealership - they are stumped Thanks!
 

Attachments

You must be registered for see attachments list
- My power steering pump then shit the bed

- Okay long thread, but theres alot to this car. Here are the questions:

1. When starting car, it idles right at 1000 rpm's. Isn't it supposed to go to like 1500 then 1400 then 1300 etc. until it warms up? When warmed it idles just about 1000rpm

2. Why does the idle fluctuate? crusing at 50mph in 5th and push in the clutch it will drop to about 500, almost stall sometimes, then go to 1000. Sometimes randomly go up to 1200? wtf?

3. Motor mounts not working....

4. No power!!!! Seems to me that it is low on power, when you punch it the balls that is once had have shrunken severely. When reved in upwards of 5500-6500 rpm it just seems like it doesnt do anything but make noise

I searched around a little bit and have found the only difference in the JDM vs. USDM is the IM. I only bought the block/head so i should have no differences correct?

ANY insight to why my motor is not running correct, and doesnt fit my car LOL would be great - i am at a loss at this point and so is the dealership - they are stumped Thanks!

1 Shit happens and stuff wears out.
2 could be the isc or you need to adjust the biss screw on the throttle body
3 could have been wrong tranny or mount, different cars sometime have different mounts

Do you have a pic of how the motor sits now?

4 is it a turbo or non turbo motor. do a leak down and compression test, also does it stutter? may be a bad maf or your intake pipe is not bolted the the maf and tb tight.

You should have done the water pump when you did the timing belt, outside the car would have been easier.
 
1 Shit happens and stuff wears out.
2 could be the isc or you need to adjust the biss screw on the throttle body
3 could have been wrong tranny or mount, different cars sometime have different mounts

Do you have a pic of how the motor sits now?

4 is it a turbo or non turbo motor. do a leak down and compression test, also does it stutter? may be a bad maf or your intake pipe is not bolted the the maf and tb tight.

You should have done the water pump when you did the timing belt, outside the car would have been easier.

- I re-used all of my orginal motor mounts
- non-turbo car
- how can i tell if the MAF is bad?
- leak down and compression test was completed by dealer - came back with everything okay and in working order

Motor sits in there how it should rite now but i will try and get a pic for you
 
- I re-used all of my orginal motor mounts
- non-turbo car
- how can i tell if the MAF is bad?
- leak down and compression test was completed by dealer - came back with everything okay and in working order

Motor sits in there how it should rite now but i will try and get a pic for you

You have to check the ohms. A haynes box or vfaq.com will tell you how to.
 
You have to check the ohms. A haynes box or vfaq.com will tell you how to.

Sorry dude but i dont know what any of that means. I'm a prelude guy this is my second car and i dont know to much about it yett. If you could give me a little more detail that would be great! - Brian
 
Sorry dude but i dont know what any of that means. I'm a prelude guy this is my second car and i dont know to much about it yett. If you could give me a little more detail that would be great! - Brian

You need a multimeter, they are cheap and very useful. Sears etc. Vfaq.com is a sit with lots of dsm info, there is a lengthy procedure & checklist regarding the idle.

As for power issues, first get a vacuum reading at idle for us. Than, compression test it yourself, I would also suspect it's not an n/a block.
 
You need a multimeter, they are cheap and very useful. Sears etc. Vfaq.com is a sit with lots of dsm info, there is a lengthy procedure & checklist regarding the idle.

As for power issues, first get a vacuum reading at idle for us. Than, compression test it yourself, I would also suspect it's not an n/a block.


ahhh soo the n/a block is supposed to have higher compression then the turbo block. My ECU thinks it has an n/a block (oem ecu). So with compression numbers you could then tell me what block i have? I have a tester at my house i can get the numbers tonight. Also, how do i do a vacuum reading? I know there are a shit load of vaccume hoses on the car. sorry im such a noob i dont know anything about :laser:'s
 
What model transmission did you install? I'm assuming you bought a JDM motor/trans set, right? Maybe you ended up with a F5M33 and not a F5M31. Off the top of my head, I can't recall which one, but there is a difference between NT and Turbo engine/trans mounts. I not sure if it's the AWD or FWD, but one of the two has an offset in it to off set the assembly. The engine mounts are the same. Physically, the mounts can be swapped and bolted up, but you get the condition you encountered.
 
What model transmission did you install? I'm assuming you bought a JDM motor/trans set, right? Maybe you ended up with a F5M33 and not a F5M31. Off the top of my head, I can't recall which one, but there is a difference between NT and Turbo engine/trans mounts. I not sure if it's the AWD or FWD, but one of the two has an offset in it to off set the assembly. The engine mounts are the same. Physically, the mounts can be swapped and bolted up, but you get the condition you encountered.
Thanks for the info! Where is the model number on the tranny? Can i just check the model number on the block instead of doing a compression test? Going along with what KRRZ350 said i am begining to thing i got screwed and the dumbass sent me a 4G63T motor instead of a 4G63 - :notgood:

I will post up any number i can find on the motor tonight around 10

Problems like this caused me to buy this:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

:)
 

Attachments

You must be registered for see attachments list
Top of the trans as shown:
 

Attachments

You must be registered for see attachments list
ok heres the results!
Transmission numbers - A14 and below that it says 420151
Engine code - Where do i look?
Compression test - 105 across the board (+/-5)
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Here is how the motor sits right now
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Here is a vid of how it idles on a cold start:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Someone PLEASE let me know if i have a n/a or turbo block/tranny. That will then verify the reasons i have been having all of these problems


What i "bought" -
"JDM block/head/tranny for 89-94 laser/talon/eclipse non-turbo direct replacment" that was the header from the ebay page (or something like it) So was i sent a turbo motor/tranny?!?!?!?!?
 

Attachments

You must be registered for see attachments list
With only 105psi i think you got a turbo setup. In my n/t im stock and i have 145 +-5. Turbo set ups have lower compression pistions so that it can handle the boost safely. Sry man :cry:

Thats what i figured so with 105 compression that is somewhere around 8:1?

Can anyone else tell me what tranny i have?
 
1G US turbo motors have 7.8:1 compression and perfect compression is 164psi per the Haynes and Chilton Manuals. so which ever motor you got those pressure numbers are pretty low. the service limit is in the 120's or so. the N/A motor should have higher numbers for service limit. if its still under warranty i would hit up the seller. technically the motor is bad since its not within specs.

good luck to you
 
The maff is a 3 wire sensor right, the three wires are power ground and signal. Check the signal wire if you have good signal then you know you have good power and ground. Best way to check the maff in my opion.
 
Did you have the motor warm and the throttle open when doing the compression test?

No i did the test on a cold motor - how much of a difference can it make?

Can anyone tell me about the tranny? Do those numbers make sence?

I am DEFF going to contact the seller. It has been more then 6 months which is the length of the warrenty. But he sent me the wrong motor to begin with - i can and will get my money back if need be, all i want is a reliable car dammit
 
Add Value - Be Respectful - No Trolling - No Misinformation - Participate Often!
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community

Build Thread Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top