1988 Mighty max 2.0 head gasket pointers and specs

[Hoghunter11]

I'm about to try and replace the head gasket on my 1988 Mitsubishi mighty Max 2.0 and I was wondering if anybody knows the torque specs on the bolts and any pointers they may could give this will be a first time for me doing this but can't spend the $1,300 to shop quoted

[geezer101]

Here's a page of engine specs for all of the truck engines. It show the yield on 2.0 G63B head bolts as 65-72ft/lbs. The G63B SOHC engines are pretty forgiving to work on. Use the manuals on the site for torque procedures and setting up timing. The trickiest part is making sure you have the balance shafts set correctly and all of the timing belt sprocket marks are aligned, then making sure the distributor is installed correctly. It's the distributor that seems to catch most people out (if you don't want to mess with the distributor, you can take the head + intake/distributor off together but it's a PITA to physically wrangle it). Use new belts and take the opportunity to check and/or replace any other serviceable part while you're in there (water pump, shaft seals etc) It's an 'easy' job to do, just time consuming.

*tip - take a heater hose off and blow the coolant out of the intake manifold while draining coolant from the engine to avoid coolant backlogging into the combustion chambers when removing the head. Be careful with undoing clamps to the bypass pipe that runs around the back of the engine from the water pump as they can get pretty crusty.

*tip #2 - use NON CAUSTIC oven cleaner and a brush to clean everything down before disassembly and hit it with a pressure cleaner if you have one. Clean engines are easier to work on and the oven cleaner method is a low mess/no stink way to easily clean off grime and crap. One can is generally enough to do the job and it's safe enough to clean your hands with