OT - Mitsubishi L200 bump clearance
Turbo Mini Forums

A bit off topic but...I have been asked to have a look at the inlaws car as my father in law is having some engine problems. To cut a long story short the situation is:

The exhaust had lots if white smoke coming out of it, so the head was taken off, inspected, and found to be craked so a recon head was then fitted.

Since then, a cam pulley bolt has sheared off. After beaing replaced a cam bearing cap cracked, and cam bent, and once replaced the engine only rotates 270 degrees either way.

I haven't had a chance to look at anything on it yet, but after chatting with another friend he asked me if the bump clearance had been checked. With deisels being new territory to me, I had a read into bump clearance and it looks like it could be a likely cause as the engine ran fine from cold but after a little while of running all the problems occured?

Assuming that the cam timing is correct does this sound like it could be the problem with the cams jamming up? (Im guessing valves hitting pistons due to the head skim)

How do I go about measuring bump clearance? Is it just a case of measuring deck height, valve lift, gasket thickness, then working it out?

Does anyonne know what a typical bump clearance would be for 2.8L Deisel engine would be or if anything else could be the problem?

Im looking at this next weekend, and it would be good to have some idea of what to look for. Its not one of my favourite jobs, taking over from where someone else left off as there are soo many unknowns!

Cheers
Matt

Edited by matty on 7th Oct, 2012.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

I've had this before it was cam timing being out it go round but valves touch pistons and then wont allow any more turned by hand that is. and personal would of just changed engine for another unit buy sounds of the problems you have had.

Try retiming and make sure everything is turning freely and no locking tools have been left in either.

The odd thing was that it ran fine for a while then once warm it stalled and then wouldn't start again, thats when all the problems were found.

I think you're right it defintely seems to be valves touching pistons, and the belt could have jumped a tooth. But as the head has been skimmed it would be nice to rule out the bump clearance whilst its apart.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

My mate had loads of problems at the top of the engine, once it started it never stopped, bit his was worked hard host days. Its gone now because it cost toouch to keep going

common fault on an l200 i was told by a dealer when i dropped one off that the l200 engine was a marine engine and they never got the cooling right in the car, not sure if thats true or not there still better than the navara engines imo

Matt, I don't know the answer, but highly recommend you join up to www.pocuk.co.uk forum, helpful bunch of folk on there that know the Mitsu engine etc well, I am sure they will have some answers.

We had one in which snapped the timing belt, new belt and a set of rockers and it was good to go, tbo tho from your description it could be a foreign object in the cylinder.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Cheers for the advice guys. Tom I'll check that website out.

Wolfie - Yep they were designed by caterpillar. Apperently there are thousands of these engine that were built but never fitted due to the shocking reliability issues. I know of three seperate engines that have suffered exactly the same failure of the 4th injector leaking and causing bore wash and wiping out the bores, all of which have covered no more than 70k.

I have been trying to avoid getting involved as they seem to be very temperamentle (read as shit) engines.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Are all the valve heads still attached to the stems? Like Denis said, could be forign debris in the cylinder.

My brother had a Vauxhall Omega that snapped the belt, which bent nearly all the valves, snapped a cam and broke both timing sprockets. We changed the engine as it just wasn't worth the time or trouble. I pulled the head on the damaged engine when I had time, and found all but one valve bent, but that one valve had infact broken its head off and was rattling around the cylinder. Bottom end didn't look as bad as we thought it would though.

Check one of the inlet valves from that engine, I was impressed lol.

Attachments:

840.73kb

Edited by Sprocket on 8th Oct, 2012.

Im surprised you got that out of the guide!

My first look at it will be on the weekend, I'll probably pull the head as it seems quite likely something has contacted something it souldn't.

It could well be a head thats snapped off of bent soo bad in the closed position its still touching the piston. To be honest for it to bend a cam I'd be amased if the piston is still usable!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

most diesels of this age have the valve stems exactly parallel to the piston bore, i have seen them snap rockers/camshafts/cam carriers when the timing belt goes as the piston just shoves the valve straight up till the weakest part gives out. never found a bent valve yet. Like i say that L200 just ate its rockers for breakfast. BUT, it cranked fine (though no compression obviously) hence my assumption of foreign object damage.

i have also seen diesels when in the course of destroying the above, wipe out the keyways in the timing belt pulleys, so check them, even if the bolts are tight etc. your timing could be out. i doubt you have lost/bent a valve, and hopefully jus tlifting the cam cover off will reveal the problem (fingers crossed!)

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Denis makes a good point.

I had a camchain snap on a Merc diesel and it just punched the cam off its carriers, fracturing them all. No bent valves and hardly even a witness mark on the pistons.

New camchain amd four used cam carriers and it ran fine.

maybe a bit of valvetrain broken and wedged under a lobe on the cam?

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

I used to work for mitsy. Worked on many of these engines. Had lots of heads crack in the chambers. Also had bottom end problems. Never heard of the cams going though. Had a few balance shafts breaking free of the block.

Well I found the problem. It turns out that the recon head has valves that sit proud of the head where the old ones sit flush. There were marks where the valves have touched the pistons. Strangely it ran for about a day before the problems started to I can only assume that maybe the head gasket had compressed slightly and with the expansion of everything getting hot it made the difference in the clearance.

Ive toyed with the idea of grinding the valve seats back, but it still may not be enough, so looks like it needs another head with the correct valve type.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Can you get thicker head gaskets?

tdi defender engines have different thicknesses to take into account if a head has been skimmed.

They do different thicknesses but unfortunately the one fitted was the thickest one available.

Ive had a look on ebay and you can get a new head with cams,valves etc for £300 odd quid which surprised me!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Check out the Pajero forum, some of the heads are better than others, they also swear by using ONLY a genuine Mitsi gasket.