My new (old) 1992 Mitsubushi Mighty Max

[xboxrox]

Looks great fushi, good job..! Glad to know you & your truck are still trucking along... Best wishes for your Christmas and New Year...

[geezer101]

Thanks for the update. If the lash adjusters are still noisy after putting it back together, give the engine an oil flush. It'll free up the adjusters so they actuate properly again.

[fushigikaze]

Heya,

I did a full oil change/flush and switched over to blend or high millage oil.
When I had the adjusters off, some of them where definatly bad. Springs not pushing them out anymore. Mostly around the exhaust set. The intake set seems ok but I bought 8 of them anyway to just do them all. Last thing I am probably going to do is run seafoam through before the next oil change to really get as much grap out as possible.
Running on a blended oil now and she leaking and using oil now....
Over haul time I guess, never hurts anyway for an engine with over 200k miles.

I did something else "dumb". We have deers around here and in the dark one of them was on the middle of the road just past a blind spot....
Sent the poor critter flying and reworked my front at the same time. The deer stumbled and walked back to where I hit it almost to be hit again for a second time before it crossed the road and went in the woods. My little truck is still running. Lot of fender bender damage but nothing got taken out. Other then the plastic grill piece and the head light on the right got bent pretty bad.
Still hoping to find the time soon to shape all the metal back and look for a new grill piece.

[geezer101]

Oh damn, that was bad. You aren't the first member who has fallen victim to the kamikaze Rudolfs. Well, if you're taking it off the road for an engine overhaul at least it's not getting laid up just to do body repairs. Still sucks though...

[fushigikaze]

Heya folks,

I gots a little bit of time again and posting the damage I did to my poor little truck . So far I was able to bent the front somewhat back to make the head light shine ahead of me again instead of almost straight to the ground.
I bought the lash adjusters quite some time ago but have not found the time yet to pull the head cover off again and install them. The oil leaks I am finding are kind of holding me back waiting for the new seals ( That so far I have not even ordered yet.... )
These little trucks sure take some work when they are not maintained well. So far the engine still runs strong for having over 200k miles on it.
Still have to fix the EGR ( currently its blocked and thus running without ), the solonoid ports broke.

I got a question for you all. Should I just focus on replacing all the rubber seals on the block to stop the oil leak or should I do a full rebuild on it already. I know there is a small oil leak somewhere in at least one of the cylinders. Burns a little oil on start, not sure if it continues after that. I would like to keep this little one around for quite a few more 1000s of miles and keep it as my daily driver for quite some more years.

Time to go back to work for me, for now. See below for the damage of my running across a kamikaze rudolf, did not have a red nose.....

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[Salteen]

F for that light, you can find a sport grille online for cheap. the first owner to my truck had a sport grille installed after someone rear ended him at a light and he hit the car it front (the torsion beams were worn out and the front end was dipped. mine are worn out again. as for the oil leaks i would fix it and drive it. if it still runs good why rebuild it? get the most out of it if you can. keep it clean, keep fluids in it and replace regular parts frequently and you should be good to go.

[Salteen]

and i know where a straight bumper is if you want it.

[geezer101]

Me personally, I'd take the head off and give the engine a once over. The oil going into the cylinder is a bad valve stem seal and if you're doing one, you're doing them all. At this point you'll need a timing belt kit and to make your life easier, pull the engine. You can replace the bad seals and have a look at the engine bores. If they're not ripped up and you don't have a bad lip on the tops of the bores I'd drop the rods, give them a once over with a honing tool or do what I did and use a scotchbrite paint removing ball on an extension just enough to deglaze them. Leave the crank in place, clean up the pistons, install stock size rings and bang it back together. You'll get an easy 5-10 years out of it. If you find something more sinister in the engine while it's apart, you've caught it before the big kaboom and saved yourself some headaches.

[Salteen]

That's true it's so much easier to pull the engine and redo it. If its alot of work may as well. And while you have it out do all the work. As for me I dont have the money for gaskets and stuff so its gonna be new chains, guides, valve spring (exhaust spring broke) and water/oil pump as well as a bearing check. And a good deep clean and my intake off the 87 and the custom grind cam

[Salteen]

That's true it's so much easier to pull the engine and redo it. If its alot of work may as well. And while you have it out do all the work. As for me I dont have the money for gaskets and stuff so its gonna be new chains, guides, valve spring (exhaust spring broke) and water/oil pump as well as a bearing check. And a good deep clean and my intake off the 87 and the custom grind cam

[xboxrox]

Me personally, I'd take the head off and give the engine a once over. The oil going into the cylinder is a bad valve stem seal and if you're doing one, you're doing them all. At this point you'll need a timing belt kit and to make your life easier, pull the engine. You can replace the bad seals and have a look at the engine bores. If they're not ripped up and you don't have a bad lip on the tops of the bores I'd drop the rods, give them a once over with a honing tool or do what I did and use a scotchbrite paint removing ball on an extension just enough to deglaze them. Leave the crank in place, clean up the pistons, install stock size rings and bang it back together. You'll get an easy 5-10 years out of it. If you find something more sinister in the engine while it's apart, you've caught it before the big kaboom and saved yourself some headaches.

Ouch geezer, you really do love being a wrench head

My 2 pennies:

I liked Salteen's idea best, put fluids in it & go; free bumper included... Spend as little time & money on your daily driver as possible BUT keep saving your money for something newer eventually... Then, keep your truck as your toy to wrench on... Go shopping for another vehicle at government & state auctions NOT car dealers... Avoid buying a brand new vehicle at all costs, don't ever buy brand new... Lastly, don't be too concerned about buying a used vehicle with high miles on the clock UNLESS it has a high horsepower engine... Be more concerned with an ashtray that was never used & car with no animal or tabacco smell AND a brisk startup without gobs of oil or smoke coming out the tailpipe... Learn how to tell the date of manf on a tire AND look for matching sets of tires on all four corners.... Avoid vehicles needing new head lights tail lights or missing parts as these are expensive... Look for telltale leaks under the hood & on drivetrain avoid vehicles showing signs of coolant leaks & oil leaks... Paint & body work is super expensive, don't buy these beaters... Check the oil on the dipstick, place more concern on low or no oil than dirty oil (oil is supposed to get dirty)... Blah, Blah, I think you get the idea here... Buy a vehicle you need NOT something to modify or joy ride or hot rod... Blah, Blah
Hope we are still friends..? My big mouth sometimes cooks up A-Lot-Oh trouble...

Your time & money is too precious, life goes by real fast & then it's over...

REF: (auctions)

GSA Auctions
Go Dove
GovDeals
Public Surplus
+ most states have their own auctions

[geezer101]

In my experience the amount of time you can spend trying to work on an engine while it's still in an engine bay vs on a stand - taking it out is more efficient. It gives you a chance to give it a really thorough clean and makes it faster to work on (the truck bay is so much nicer to pull and engine out of compared to a FWD). And I'm not even close to being a 'real' mechanic. The first time I'd done a bottom end overhaul was last year on the Hung Dog and I have to say I was nervous with disconnecting EFI and messing with the block (heads and carbs - all day, any day...) but my engine is running strong and all of the fluids are staying inside of it and aren't trying to swap places so I must have done something right. I wish I had the resources to do what I want to but this is reality

[fushigikaze]

Thank you for all your advice and info. I think I have made up my mind. I did something else also. I bought an other :D
http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...2017#post72017
Its going to cost time and money, it sure will. But I would rather tinker with both these gals and keep them running for an other 15-20 years.
Screw new cars, they not worth what I would have to pay for one, dealer used cars usually are no better. I like the older square like cars better anyway instead of all these rounded way too futuristic luxury boxes on wheels.
If I am to drive a car, I want to drive it. Standard drive ( Stick shift, manual transmission ), ohh year.
Not have it tell me I left a door open while I am loading groceries or some other crappy alarms they all have today. Hate my wife her 2006 Taurus for all the dings and dongs it gives you, cant even have the radio play with the doors open without you being annoyed by the constant beeps.....

Meh, I can rant and rave on for days about all the crap technology today is doing to us all. That is however not the purpose of this forum neither my intend at this time. Happy thoughts, let go back to cars.


I will be spending time and other resources to at least keep either of these gals running for me. I will focus on the Macro for now to change out the inmediate need so she passed inspection here in Texas and conforms to my requirements for driving around.
That will give me the possibility to take the engine out of my little single and do a full job here. New seals, gaskets. Maybe bearings and hopefully not find anything that can not be repairs or fixed.
When the engine is out I also will have easier access to the front where the radiator mounts to straighten that all out again. Rudolf did a bad hit and bent the whole front when I further inspected it last time. It is also noticeable at night as both head light not aim to the right.
I go have an other reason to pull the engine also. The original altenator, umm. Burned out. quite literly. I now know why all the altenator wires where toast when I first looked into it. I changed part of it out with #0 copper and now seem to have burned out the main copper line inside the altenator. For now I stole the altenator from the Macro to keep going and bought a 75A for Macro to get her running again.
I found grills online, they are still easy enough to find. The bumber, well. I was going to try and take the dents out. I may also redo the whole bumber and put a nice bull bar bumber on it. Custom made as I seem not to be able to find these at all for these little trucks. I do have to be more careful of the living critters around here but that would protect the whole front of the truck. Aside from the dents to the plate work, the right most I beam took most of the bump and it is still intact and straight.

Here are some more day light shots of the damage, made on the same day but with my actual camera instead of the phone.

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Good thing I like tinkering and such. I just need to make sure to keep something around that I can drive with that is not the wife her car

[Salteen]

i don't know, if you can find a car that is reputable for high miles and cheap, I would buy it. Dad has a 1991 Ford Festiva with 400k on the clock and its never been worked on other than fluids and such and I am confident it will peg that 85 speedo because it is STRONG. the clutch is still good (knock on wood) and its never leaked or smoked, and never even sat, exception the fuel pump burnt up because some woman in my house didn't keep gas in it and she burnt it up when it wouldn't start. smh mom is not mechanically inclined to any extent beyond the battery and the air filter. I remember once the Yukon was making a noise in OD (gear was ate to shit) and she suggested I check the BATTERY when I get home. like mom its turning 14 volts does it NEED a battery?

enough ranting. there are really good cars for really cheap. mitosis don't run forever, plus some of those cars will save you a TON of money, like dads festiva that gets 45 mpg with a 285 lb man and the A/C blowing going 65 down the road. or that V6 avalon we had that got 31mpg if you drove good and could easily do 145 mph (I witnessed it once)

as for the damage to your truck: adjust the headlight and move on until you find a deal on a grille and bumper and hood.

[Salteen]

i meant to say mitsus but my phone hates me. mitosis is part of biology, mitsus are part of automotive engineering

[fushigikaze]

Hehehe, I hate phone auto correct. Never have it on and for that, I do really miss a keyboard with real buttons instead of the touch keyboards.

I am pretty confident I can keep this little ones going for quite a while more. Personally I am not all too worried about aftermart or none Mitsu brand items either. I have not checked local scrappers or anything yet. But with rockauto I have been able to find plenty of the more normal wear and tear items from other brands. Heck, the distributor ( The whole thing, cap, rotor, the sensors in there and the part that goes in the engine ), fuel pump, starter, EGR and a few other items are already other brands.
I will just have to keep it all clean. As long as the frame does not rust away from under me and engine and such parts can be found. I will keep going to make em run. Just like I did my 1984 and later the 1994 ford escort convertibles I had when I was still living in Europe. I should ask my lilbro again about the 94 model, think he is still driving it ( He better still be ).

With all the more or less freeway driving I do I am pulling in 27 ish mpg. Which is about the same as the 94 Escort did for me. With the lower gas prices in the US though, it costs me about half to fill the tank up. Last time I bought fuel in EU it costs me € 80 or so to fill the tank. Single cab MMM only have 13 gal worth of gas and costs usually around $ 30 to fill from near empty.

If LPG was as much cheaper here as its in EU, I would be finding ways to convert over to that. Not really worth it out here. LPG costs more per gal then LPG does and LPG makes less miles or at least usually does.

Anyway. I am trying to find headlight adjuster screws on the net somewhere. The plastic pieces are gone due to the impact. I have found both grill and bumper online. Holding back on that to for when I take the engine out and work on that. That way I can clean the engine bay and straighten that out before I purchase and install a new grill. I am still in for the idea of making me own bumper bull bar combo. Have yet to draw something out for that though.

I do not seem to be able to write short answers :D
Its past time for me to clean up and head out for work, yet again.

Happy reading

[Salteen]

that seems pretty cool! post pics when you have an idea ready, or you can contact me. i am a 'professional' artist and image manipulator (aka I work with photoshop and people pay me. its a spare time thing

that was my 5 minute break, lol first day of real work

[fushigikaze]

An other update here also.

I messed with the Macro for a few days and seem to have some nice results there. Same engine so I should be able to mimic most of the things on the single cab also.
The EGR has been messing with me since the start. I seems to have that mostly figured out on the Macro so should be able to make the single do that too.
Reconnected the parts for the EGR and altered the timing to -15. Unlike last time when I put the EGR back on, I had a power issue. Seem not to have that this time, starting the engine is off now though so not I have something else to figure out.
I found a rather large puddle of oil on the shop ground after having worked on both trucks, pretty sure its the single that put it there but not fully sure. All the more reason to get the Macro set to be driven on a daily basis and over haul the engine of the single. This will also give me the ability ( when the engine is out ) to find the issue with the clutch. It feels like its stuck sometimes and I have it set way higher then I like and its still refusing to let go sometimes. Mostly after having been driving for a while and everything it warm.

Well, found that neither the Wife or the son really like these little trucks. They don't feel "safe" in them or they not compfy. Meh. I hit a deer with this one before and I had no scratches. And I am sure, unlike if this would have been the wife her own car. This little truck is still trucking along, just has a few dents and dings added.....

You all bee good folks and have a good weekend, I am off to make some off of mine too :D

[fushigikaze]

Well, I posted an update on the Macro. I do suppose I have to do the same for the single now as both have had ( and still do ) have there little qwirks.

I did it again here also. Yet an other radiator hose blew. Happened around June and again I only noticed it because the engine was getting warm. No over heating this time. Other luck I suppose is it happened near work where the Macro was stored. Thus the easy fix is what I did and was forced because other reasons too, I swapped daily drivers. After a while I pulled the single up again and found the leak, cab heater hose blew. I seem not to be able to find the molded and pre-shaped versions for this anywhere anymore. Thus for now I cut the still ok hose and made a bypass with it. Who needs heat in Texas anyway. Just now means that both heat and cooling in the cab are out.....
Filled up radiator again and drove it for a while, temp goes way up again but no overheat. My guess is I damaged the thermostat with having it sit with low fluid for a while. I found the Macro had the same issue but here the thermostat was stuck open instead of the singles suggestion of it being closed. That is an 10 fix from RockAuto ( exclusing shipping ). For the life of my I was not able to to find the hoses after 5 months to I bought a roll of hose that fits and some new clamps. I have heat again :D.
Winter proof now.
Still have to do the thermostat though but I can drive both yet again.
The gals are older and shall keep me on my toes for many more years with having small things break on them just so I am forced to give them some extra TLC.

[geezer101]

You were lucky you caught it when you did. The 4G54 and G63B can handle an overheating issue a few times but for some reason the 4G64 heads aren't as resilient. As long as you maintain the flow of coolant around the back of the head you shouldn't get and 'hot spotting' around #4 cylinder. I bet Texas is rough on engine cooling...

[claych]

????
Sooo, the 4g64 SOHC 8 valve head is 'weaker' than BOTH 4g54 Astron jet valve head & the g63b Sirius jet valve head
????

[geezer101]

In a nutshell - YES. Both the 4G54 and G63B are known to crack through the combustion chambers into the cam valley or coolant galleries. But for some reason the 4G64 SOHC heads can warp to the point they bind cams and snap them in half. A characteristic that neither the 2.0 (G63B and 4G52) or the 2.6 experience. And the reason why #1 - I always recommend improving the cooling systems by installing an electric thermofan, and #2 - advise people to never mill a head true without first having it baked in an oven and pressed straight by a shop if it is out of spec.

[fushigikaze]

Those are a few nice pointer to keep in the back of the head.
So far the single overheated once pretty bad but since then I have had no major "new" issues. Damaged head gasket maybe but I still have no oil in the coolant or the other way around. Just oil burning ( bad valve and valve adjusters ) and oil leak ( upper head gasket needs replacing at least ). I plan on doing a rebuild on both my MMMs since they both have issues that need me to pull the head anyway.
As for the stress on the cooling system. I have not had any issues yet with either MMMs. Temperature is sitting just past the second mark on the low end usually. Single needs a new thermostat so that reached to about half way which is not bad either. Macro also had a bad thermostat but that one was open all the time preventing from the engine even from warming up and the gauge never really even passed the first mark even in summer.
By comparing these 2 pick-ups with my ( now no longer mine ) 1993 saab 900S these MMMs cooling works really well in the heat. The 900S always had high temperature, even when I by-passed the AC fan and had that turn on with the main fan. Then again what do you want from that. The 900S was build in a land where the daily max temperature in summer is the daily average temperature here all year around.

Plans are still to put an electrical radiator fan in the Macro, already put a new alternator in that on, 75A instead of the 40-45 original.
But plans are still plans and life seems to be passing me by on a lot of things lately so shall see. the NO1 is keeping them both running, driving and passing inspections.
So far that at least has been going ok.

[geezer101]

The primary cause of oil burning/consumption is bad valve stem seals. As long as you have decent compression, a head freshen up usually cures oil issues. These trucks hate heat. Anything to help dissipate heat is worth doing. The clutch fan doesn't work when you need it most like stuck in slow moving traffic in summer. At idle, they don't move enough air to bring coolant temps down efficiently. Installing a bigger output alternator is a solid plan too

[fushigikaze]

I have not checked the compression on the Macro yet. Single I have and its a bit over the specs on 3 of them and just over the specs on the cylinder 2 I think it was.
For having 240k on the clock and 30 years old. If its just the valves then its not bad. I know the pick-up sat somewhere for a while though as the gas tank was all rusted and the filter was nicely packed with rust particles. That has all been tended too now.
The alternator is a must for sure if you want to do more electrical in them. Currently with 45A if you where to drive at night with all lights on, a radio going and the AC you pretty much cap out the 45A already. An electrical fan is going to be somewhere between an other 10-20A load you have to find space for.

Hehe, my lilbro had a 4x4 a few years ago he put a light bar on ( halogeen no LED or power savers or anything ) but no adjustments to the power plant. Put all the lights on and the car started stuttering due to lack of electrical power for the sparks. Them old days where he did all these "funny" things. Always had to be bigger and brighter :D

Alternator regulates its output anyway to having the extra power for todays gadgets and such is a nice thing to have available anyway. I still plan on putting a power inverter in there also.

Sooooooo many plans, soo little time, money, and too many other "things" that prevent me from doing much at all.