robtheturbopric
10+ Year Contributor
- 136
- 1
- Jan 21, 2011
-
Joliet,
Illinois
Back with another adventure to share of my 93 N/A Eclipse build, Code named "Zero Dollar Fighter". But first id like to thank you guys for your views comments and PMs. Its really awesome to so much support from my fellow DSMers
But enough with the pleasantries, as i have very bad news to start off this blog entry. The zero broke down in a big way. It is in every way my own fault, but here is a list of excuses for why i forgot to, change my oil and spun a balance shaft bearing
. Started a new job, got wife pregnant!!! , left my brain at home, dog ate homework, world was said to end soon........
so with head hung and feeling dumber than, an automatic non v-tec civic with a huge wing and some neon's plugged into the lighter socket, i gently drove it to my garage and let it sit for a week. After i was done crying over spilled milk, i put my big boy pants on and set to working out a plan as to how i was going to make some thing once again out of nothing. Im sure most of you are aware that there are a number of kits for eliminating the balance shafts from the engine. However spending 50+ dollars for one of these is defiantly not my style. or should i say price range. so i set to work and yes i did it for zero dollars... almost. i had to buy a few parts i needed an oil pump gasket set and a new timing belt. There is no way around it these must be replaced when doing this mod. whether it be my way or there's. i also recommend replacing your timing pulleys, tensioner, and water pump if your budget always its all going to be apart anyway. trust me, there is no better time than now to do maintenance. altogether it was about 65$ from advance auto parts.
i started by pulling off my timing components and removing my oil pan, i then removed all motor mounts except for the tansmisson side. when doing this make sure the motor is supported in some way to take the pressure off the mounts and so it doesn't fall on your face. then i slowly lowered the motor down as far as possible to remove the oil pump and balance shafts. There are two balance shafts in the 4g63. The one that went bad on mine is closest to the fire wall, and connects into the oil pump gear. at first i was hoping on just replacing the spun bearing since there is only one on that side. however the shaft had widened the bearing race a little more than i had hoped for. so it left me with only one option a BSE kit. the basics of the kits seem very simple. use a oil pump stub shaft from a 4g61 (1.5l dohc) or 62 (1.8l soch) and then block off the forward shaft with a metal plug and some over sized bearings. What i did instead was this. i simply measured and cut the rear balance shaft, i then welded the oil passage in the middle of the shaft shut, to prevent oil leakage. also the stub shaft from Mitsubishi dose not have a hole either. For the free elimination of the forward shaft i removed the set screws from the out side of the block (behind the headers just below the water pipe) and put in longer ones to hold the shaft in place and block off the oil passages that runs behind them. I apologize now for not having pictures. at the time i had only 2 days to get everything done and no clue what i would find when the engine came apart. but hey i got it done, just no pictures. i got it all put back together using liquid gasket to reseal the oil pan. and i think i triple checked the timing before starting her back up.
The zero has been running great ever since. It has a little more punch at the low end now but is a little louder too
. it has become my daily driver to and from work. And i gotta tell ya the drive to and from work is my favorite part of every day. Long Live DSM.
total coast 65$ and 10 hrs.
But enough with the pleasantries, as i have very bad news to start off this blog entry. The zero broke down in a big way. It is in every way my own fault, but here is a list of excuses for why i forgot to, change my oil and spun a balance shaft bearing
. Started a new job, got wife pregnant!!! , left my brain at home, dog ate homework, world was said to end soon........so with head hung and feeling dumber than, an automatic non v-tec civic with a huge wing and some neon's plugged into the lighter socket, i gently drove it to my garage and let it sit for a week. After i was done crying over spilled milk, i put my big boy pants on and set to working out a plan as to how i was going to make some thing once again out of nothing. Im sure most of you are aware that there are a number of kits for eliminating the balance shafts from the engine. However spending 50+ dollars for one of these is defiantly not my style. or should i say price range. so i set to work and yes i did it for zero dollars... almost. i had to buy a few parts i needed an oil pump gasket set and a new timing belt. There is no way around it these must be replaced when doing this mod. whether it be my way or there's. i also recommend replacing your timing pulleys, tensioner, and water pump if your budget always its all going to be apart anyway. trust me, there is no better time than now to do maintenance. altogether it was about 65$ from advance auto parts.
i started by pulling off my timing components and removing my oil pan, i then removed all motor mounts except for the tansmisson side. when doing this make sure the motor is supported in some way to take the pressure off the mounts and so it doesn't fall on your face. then i slowly lowered the motor down as far as possible to remove the oil pump and balance shafts. There are two balance shafts in the 4g63. The one that went bad on mine is closest to the fire wall, and connects into the oil pump gear. at first i was hoping on just replacing the spun bearing since there is only one on that side. however the shaft had widened the bearing race a little more than i had hoped for. so it left me with only one option a BSE kit. the basics of the kits seem very simple. use a oil pump stub shaft from a 4g61 (1.5l dohc) or 62 (1.8l soch) and then block off the forward shaft with a metal plug and some over sized bearings. What i did instead was this. i simply measured and cut the rear balance shaft, i then welded the oil passage in the middle of the shaft shut, to prevent oil leakage. also the stub shaft from Mitsubishi dose not have a hole either. For the free elimination of the forward shaft i removed the set screws from the out side of the block (behind the headers just below the water pipe) and put in longer ones to hold the shaft in place and block off the oil passages that runs behind them. I apologize now for not having pictures. at the time i had only 2 days to get everything done and no clue what i would find when the engine came apart. but hey i got it done, just no pictures. i got it all put back together using liquid gasket to reseal the oil pan. and i think i triple checked the timing before starting her back up.
The zero has been running great ever since. It has a little more punch at the low end now but is a little louder too
. it has become my daily driver to and from work. And i gotta tell ya the drive to and from work is my favorite part of every day. Long Live DSM.total coast 65$ and 10 hrs.
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I loved reading about this build in the old DSM blog section. Keep up the good work!!
