4G69 Tear Down Detail
 

So I mentioned possibly making this thread a while back and a few people seemed interested in it. Just up front this wont be an entire tear down. But it will show most of the engine and I will be trying to collect as mush information about it as I can. Keep in mind I might not always have the best grammer or writing because I'll be doing the write up as I am working on the engine and trying to take pictures. So forgive me ahead of time please. I am also not a professional mechanic so If I do something weird or dumb let me know politely, this is a big learning experience for me too, and I figured sharing it with everyone would be useful.

I'm planning to follow the Factory Service Manual as closely as I can. So I'll break this down into chapters in a similar way that the book does. If its not against some rule I dont remember I might try to post some screenshots from the FSM to explain things a bit better from time to time. Also the AC compressor, header, and starter have all been previously removed so you wont see details on that in this thread. However I might add them and a few other details whenever I am assembling the engine just to try cramming as much info as I can into this thread.

I want to apologize ahead of time for some crappy pictures. Im currently using my cellphone and it sucks. I had a small nikon camera I was going to use but it seems to be dead... I'll have some better pics once I get ahold of a camera.

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::CHAPTERS::
1// Accessories, Pulleys, Ignition system
2// Timing belt
3// Fuel and Emissions Parts
4// Intake Manifold and Water Pump
5// Sensors
6// Cylinder Head Removal
7// Oil System Removal
X// QnA Section >>Open<<

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>: THE PROJECT :<

This engine came out of the car the previously belonged to Smike and Otter. It lived its life up north for a long time so there was a lot of rust. At this point I had dropped the engine and tranny from the car together, split off the tranny, and got the engine up on the stand. I went ahead and soaked the engine in PB blaster, and WD-40 to try penetrating some of the rust and lubricating the bolts and nuts. I brushed it down with a wire brush to etch up the rust and then sprayed it with some acid to eat away the chunks of rust. It still looks a little rusty here but trust me the big hunks and flaking pieces are all gone and it already looks much better at this point. Im excited to see the final product after I get the engine back together!

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>: CHAPTER 1 :<

:// Accessories, Pulleys, and Ignition

Lets get to work!

FSM first addresses removing the Generator and Ignition system. This involves the Dipstick and guide, the auto tensioner, all the pulleys, some brackets, the alternator, coilpacks, spark plugs, camshaft position sensor, o-rings, and camshaft position sensing cylinder.

Before I get started I want to get a few things out of the way. Namely these hoses that arent going anywhere and the oil filter.

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Alright if we follow the directions of the FSM the dipstick, tube, and its o-ring are first. But there was one small issue. I removed the Power Steering pump with the engine when I dropped it. So I'll have to get that out of the way first. So lets just focus on the PS for now. This is actually pretty simple. A few bolts and the PS pump and a bracket all come off as one.

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It will take a 14mm socket to get the horizontal bolt at the bottom of the bracket loose. Then 12mm socket and a short extension on the two just under the pump. Peck the long bolt the the 14mm nut was on until it comes out. Wiggle the bracket and pump back and forth until it comes free. This is what you should end up with.

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This is probably as good a time as any to mention that you should be organized when removing parts, bolts, nuts, anything that you plan to use again. I learned the hard way on my old Eclipse that no matter how organized you think your mess may be, it never stays that way. You may come up with your own solution. Mine? Ziplock bags and a sharpie.

Now to the dipstick. There is a single 12mm bolt holding it in place. Now unless your engine is as rusted as mine you should be able to pull and twist to pull the tube out of the lower block. However mine is rusted in place and wont move. Plus its not in my way for what I will be doing so Im just freeing the tube from the Intake manifold then leaving it in place.

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Next step is the pulleys. FSM starts with the auto tensioner. There is a 14mm bolt in the middle of the tensioner, and a 12mm just below and to the right. In this same pic you can see the 4 12mm bolts that hold the crankshaft pulley on, those are next right after the tensioner comes off.

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Tensioner came off easily, just remove the bolts and it falls off. However I need to make a note here for myself and anyone else who might be thinging about using the light weight crankshaft pulley. Please, use antiseize before installing the pulley. The bolts came out no problems but it was seized on still. Took a heat gun and an angry hammer to get it off.

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Next up is the water pump pulley, and idler pulley. Unless you got something to hold the water pump pulley still use a socket gun to get the 10mm bolts out. Idler pulley took a 14mm socket and a bit of muscle to break loose.

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Next step is to get the alternator off. Takes a 14mm socket, nut and crush washer on the bottom, bolt on the top. Peck out the bolt on the bottom with a hammer. There is also a bracket right on top of the alternator that the FSM says to remove it has two 10mm bolts holding it on. Then just wiggle the alternator free.

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Next step is the coilpacks, spark plugs, and camshaft position sensor unit. Im leaving the spark plugs in for now, because for some illogical reason im afraid of dropping something into the combustion chamber... lol And I'll be leaving the camshaft postion sensor housing on, just removing the sensor. So to get out the coilpacks it takes a 10mm socket for each of the 4 bolts. And holding the camshaft position sensor itself is another 10mm bolt, which I forgot to get a picture of. Sorry.

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And that it's it for the first section of the FSM, so thats the end of Chapter 1 of our tear down. Next up is the timing belt and all of it's goodies. Here is a pic of the progress made so far.

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I'm diggin' this already.

I've always wanted to get down & dirty under the hood in my RA but its my only vehicle and I can't afford having it out of service. DIS GON' B GUD.

sub'd and in for progress{thumbup}
(in more way than one...haha)

Awesome, I can't wait to see more...mostly because there's no way I'd be able to do any of this without ending up with a heap of metal that was once an engine...but I'm more than happy being a spectator.

>: CHAPTER 2 :<

:// Timing Belt Removal

Alright diving right in today. We have a lot of stuff to cover. According to the FSM this is actually Chapter 3. But I already had the exhaust off so I skipped that part. Removing the timing belt and all of its components actually involves 26 parts. Instead of listing them all lets just get started. This one might be longer than I expected.

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So starting from here we can see the black timing belt covers. The upper and lower. So we need to start with the upper cover and the metal bracket that holds the wiring harness where it goes over the engine.

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This is a very simple process. The cover and bracket are only held on with three 12mm bolts. Remember the one on the front side is the long one.

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Interestingly enough I expected to find the timing belt broken, shredded, or tucked down in the lower cover. But its not. It doesnt even have much play. Im actually beginning to wonder if I was told the right story about this car having bent valves because a bad tensioner caused the timing to skip... Well we will see when we get there. Moving on!

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Now we need to remove the lower timing belt cover. It looks like it should be held in place with seven 10mm bolts around the outside of the cover. However I think I might be missing one right under the water pump... there is also a 10mm nut just to the upper right of the crankshaft in the middle of the cover.

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So here you can see the top right bolt and the is the longest, the bottom right is slightly longer, then the rest are all the same size. Also if we flip the cover over we can see there is a connector that runs along the inside right down to where the 10mm nut was removed.

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Ok now to remove the timing belt. To do that we need to loosen the tensioner pulley bolt to give the belt some slack. The tensioner pulley is the one in the middle with the blue ring on it. To break it loose use a 14mm socket. when it gets loose enough the pulley will rotate back due to the tension being released from the belt. From there I just pulled the belt off of the tensioner pulley and started following it around freeing it from the rest. Viola timing belt. I'll be ditching this one for a new one.

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Next up is to remove the tensioner pulley and its arm. To do this there is a 12mm bolt to the right of the pulley we just loosened. Once that bolt is removed it took some prying but the arm came off. I went ahead and removed the tensioner while I was at it.

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Next up is to remove the auto tensioner. Which you would have noticed by now pushing up on the tensioner arm. It involves removing two 12mm bolts and the auto tensioner just falls off.

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Next up is the idler pulley. In the pic of the tensioner arm and pulley it is the one on the right with the orange bolt. Remove the 14mm bolt in the middle of the pulley then just pluck the pulley from its place. Done.

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Alright. Rememver the wire I told you about that runs along the inside of the lower cover? Well now its time to remove the sensor it connects to. This is the Crankshaft Position Sensor. Two 10mm bolts and the sensor and bracket fall off.

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Now we are supposed to remove the Oil Pump Sprocket. However apparently in the FSM they have already removed a few brackets that are still on my engine. Let me do a quick before and after of this.

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Everything pictured here was removed with a 14mm socket.

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Now back to that sprocket. The FSM says to remove a "plug", looks like a 14mm bolt to me... lol

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Then it gets very specific about a type of screwdriver that you need to insert into this new hole in the block. "Philips Screwdriver [shank diameter 8mm (0.3 inch)]. Well I wasnt to sure about that so I just eyeballed it.

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Looks good to me! Moving on! Now we can remove the 14mm nut on the sprocket.

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And here is the sprocket, nut, and "plug" we removed. I put the plug back in place after taking this picture.

*somehow lost this picture... sorry*

Well we are about halfway through the list of things the FSM says we should remove at this point. And I am planning to remove the oil pump in order to do the balance shaft delete. So now we need to remove the Crankshaft Bolt. This proved interesting. The FSM says you need a special tool to hold the crankshaft still on the flywheel side, wouldnt you know it. I dont have it. But what I do have is a balance shaft timing belt that is still in place. So I put a 12mm socket on it to provide tension against the crankshaft turning. Then I put a big adjustable wrench on the Bolt and put my back into it. It broke loose and I cut my hand on the camshaft sprocket, watchout for that thing if your following along at home. LOL If what I am reading is correct Im going to need this bolt in a few minutes. So Im leaving it in place but loose for now.

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Ok, in the FSM the next part involves special tools and is broken down into three parts. I did the simple thing, put the bolt we just removed in far enough that I couldnt see the threads, then pulled the washer, sprocket, and blade all off by hand together. TADA!

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Now we can remove the secondary timing belt for the balance shaft on the back of the block.

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Same process as last time. Lets remove the tensioner pulley by pulling its 12mm bolt. Then the belt should come off with ease. I went ahead and removed the tiny sprocket here once the belt came off. Again I didnt have the special mitsubishi tool so I improvised. I stuck a screwdriver into one of the 4 holes on the sprocket and used a socket gun with a 12mm socket to remove the bolt holding it and its spacer in place.

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Kinda cute aint it. Like a baby timing belt. Too bad this pulley, this belt, and its sprocket will all be getting trashed... LOL The balance shaft eliminates all of this and some. Removing a point of failure that this tiny belt presents as it is often over looked by mechanics when changine the timing belt on 4Gxx engines. If this little belt snaps it will tie itself up around your crankshaft pulley, get pinched by the main timing belt, which will then skip and bend valves in your head. So say goodbye to the tiny belt!

We are going to once again disregard mitsubishi's use of a special tool to remove the sprocket on the crankshaft that spun the balance shaft. Grab that thing and give it a pull. It should come right off!

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Finally all that is left is the passenger side engine support bracket and the rear timing belt cover. However Im looking at it and not seeing a need to remove it at this time. So Im going to skip it for now and wrap this chapter up. If I need to I'll remove it later looks like 3 bolts 14mm bolts are holding it on so its no big deal.

Progress picture!

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Next Chapter is the Fuel and Emissions Parts. See you then!

Josh, this is awesome...i'll try to do something similar for the transmission if you don't beat me to it...

This is great! I am geeked!

good progress man...
just wish i could see the pics(all blocked at work...)

meh, i may be seeing it in a few days/weeks anyway...
not too worried..haha

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys! I really appreciate it. It makes doing this worth it. Plus Ive found that when I have to stop and write every so often it makes me stay organized and patient. Normally I'd have tools everywhere, parts everywhere, and be in a mess already but Ive stayed really on point so far. Im going to try to keep the ball rolling tonight, hopefully I can get the fuel and intake manifold taken care of. However I just remembered that my wife is off tonight and tomorrow so I might have to break that into two parts afterall. That or just wait until its all done before posting again... IDK we'll see. LOL

Thanks again!!

>: CHAPTER 3 :<

:// Fuel and Emission Parts

Decided to break chapter 3 into the two parts it should have been instead of another massive chapter. We are going to be removing the Fuel and Emissions Parts as according to the FSM. This involves the Throttle Body, a few Vacuum lines, Injectors, Fuel Rail, Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve, and a Solenoid Valve.

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We will start with the Throttle Body. You can see from the pic there are four 12mm bolts holding it onto the Intake Manifold. There are also 2 coolant lines that attach to the bottom on the back side. If you grab them with some plyers and twist it will break the hose loose and it will come off much easier. Remove the hoses and bolts and the TB and its gasket will come right off. Remember if you are installing a TB gasket they can sometimes be real picky about their orientation. In this case the tab goes up and on the top rear bolt hole. The picture on the bench shows the orientation.

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Next up is the Vacuum Line and Hose. I'm also going to leave the Solenoid valve attached and remove them all as one piece. To do this you need to remove five 10mm bolts, make sure the hoses are no longer attached, and it should fall right off.

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Now let’s go on to the fuel rail. With everything else removed you should be able to reach two 12mm bolts holding the fuel rail in place quite easily. Be careful when removing the rail because all the injectors, their O rings and the spacers for the rail will want to come off at once. Make sure that all injectors have their O rings and none are left in the intake manifold. If you need to remove the injectors from the rail, wiggle them slowly while pulling and they will eventually pop out. The end of the injectors that sits inside the fuel rail also has an orange O ring so make sure not to lose those.

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The final step in this chapter is to remove the exhaust gas recirculation valve. This too is held on with two 12mm bolts. You'll want to use a long extension to reach the bolt closest to the plentum, or you could squeeze a tiny socket down in there. Once the bolts are removed, just lift the valve out, the gasket will probably come with it. The FSM specifies a direction for the gasket -see picture for orientation-

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That concludes this chapter, but I changed my mind about removing the engine support bracket from the end of Chapter 2. To do so remove the four 14mm bolts holding it the engine, you may have to put some muscle into it. Remember that the upper right bolt is slightly longer than the rest. Apparently sandwiched between the bracket and the block is the rear timing belt cover so it will come off at the same time.

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That’s all she wrote for tonight. Literally. This chapter was written by Josh's wonderful wife while he did all the manual labor.

XOXO
-Christeen

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Next time we'll cover the Intake Manifold and Water Pump.

Awesome!!! Tia!

>: CHAPTER 4 :<

Intake Manifold and Water Pump

Removing the manifold and pump involves quite a few parts. Hoses, Pump, Gaskets, O-rings, Pipes, Supports, Gauges, Fittings, Thermostat, Housings, Sensors, the Manifold, and Switches. But we'll probably get through this one pretty quick.

First order of business. Remember those hoses we removed from the Throttle Body? Let’s get those off first. You probably know the routine for these guys by now.

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Now we go straight for the Water Pump and its gasket. To do so remove the five 12mm bolts holding it in place. I had to wrestle with it a bit to get it off of the water pipe, but it eventually let go. The gasket however split, half on the pump, and half on the block. I had to scrap the pieces off the block. Also there are 3 different bolt lengths please refer to the bench picture on where they go.

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With that done we can go ahead and remove the Water Pipe. This is only held in place with a single 12mm bolt, I used a long extension to reach it. Takes some wiggling but the O-ring in the Thermostat housing will eventually come loose.

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Next is the Intake Manifold Support. Four 14mm bolts hold this in place. There is also a small plastic clip that supports the wire for the Knock sensor. Pinch it form the inside with some needle nose pliers then pull it free from the wire side.

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The next parts we will remove will be the Engine Coolant Temperature Gauge Unit, The Water Inlet Fitting, Thermostat, and Thermostat Housing.
Instead of breaking this down I think I will just remove them all together. To do so we will just remove the Thermostat Housing and everything will come with it. The Housing is held in place with three 12mm bolts. There was a lot of RTV holding it on, so I convinced it do come off with a rubber hammer. BTW in the first pic does anyone know what that hole with all the RTV is supposed to be? It goes on into the head and I don’t remember removing anything from there...

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I’m going to skip ahead a bit here and go ahead and remove the Water Outlet Fitting. I had to loosen a couple of brackets attached to this piece so that I could get to the bolt on the bottom. The two brackets use a 10mm bolt each, and the Fitting uses two 12mm bolts. Again there is a lot of RTV on this piece, I used my trusty rubber mallet to remove it.

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Now before I can remove the Intake Manifold I need to free it of the knock sensor. This simply in involves one 10mm bolt on a bracket. I removed the bracket and let the wire hang from the block for now. But I put the bolt back into the Manifold so I will know where it goes later.

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Now for the Intake Manifold. There is one 12mm bolt on the side with the dipstick, and three 12mm nuts with crush washers, one on top and two on bottom. Take those off and the Intake Manifold will be ready to fall off. Grab it and its gasket and we are finished with this chapter.

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With some close inspection we can see the results of the EGR valve, and the PCV valve. All the black is exhaust gases, and oil blow by introduced by the previously named valves... I have a solution to keep this clean and keep that gunk from clogging up my manifold, and valves. Another thread for another time though I suppose.

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So that’s it for the IM and Water Pump chapter. We are getting down to the basics now. I’ve been skipping on removing a lot of the sensors. I'll probably make a chapter to cover those in more detail soon.

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Holy king of rust :lol:

HA! You should have seen it before I sprayed it down with acid... lol

-------

Im hoping to get back out there tonight to write a chapter on all the sensors, and get them all removed.

Had an insane week at work so far. Lets just say that as of 11am Wednesday, I had put in my hours for the entire week...

Fabulous post Bakuro, the insightful details that only a hands-on build can reveal are gold.

Crans, you mentioned you might do a tranny posting. Mine is ready to be lowered from the engine bay, if anything I'm doing could help with your "how to" lemme know.

we could do the transmission disassembly...at some point I will do a shaft disassembly as well.

Thanks man! Yea Ive learned a lot by really tearing into it. For example I had some very wrong assumptions on how mivec worked until I really started looking at things. Now I understand it a lot better.

If I get time today I have two new chapters to post as well.

>: CHAPTER 5 :<

:// Sensors

So I thought it would be a good idea to make a chapter focused on the sensors still left on the engine. So we'll start at the top and work our way down.

Back in chapter 1 we were supposed to remove the Camshaft Position Sensor and its components. I skipped showing that back then so lets see it now.

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So we see there are quite a few sensors here. We are focused on the camshaft positon sensor it is the one sitting on the highest point. We will also take off the sensing cylinder and support while we are removing things. To pull out the Sensor use a 10mm socket to remove the bolt then the sensor should come right up and out. Then to remove the support that the sensor was inside of we will need a 12mm socket to remove the bolts holding it to the head. Then if your support is stuck in anything like mine its probably held on with some sort of RTV and you'll need a chisel to loosen it from the head. Then I just had to work it back and forth and round until i could pull it out by hand. Now we are supposed to remove the cylinder. You'll need a 12mm socket inside the Cylinder to loosen the bolt. But to keep the Cam from turning I used a 17mm socket on the sprocket side of the head to hold it all still. Also I ended up having to use some extensions cause there is a bit of torque on this bolt.

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Next up is the gray sensor from the top picture. This is one of two Engine Oil Pressure Switches. We will do the second immediately following this one. To get this sensor off I used an adjustable wrench and had to work as some weird angles. But it eventually came out.

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The other Engine Oil Pressure Switch is on the back of the block under the freeze plug closest to the tranny. Again I dont have any OEM Mitsubishi super secret tools so I just used the adjustable again.

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I was curious what the difference was and flipping them over you can see this.

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Now if we refer to the top picture again we will be removing the lowest sensor, which is the coolant temp sensor. Again I just used the adjustable to loosen it then removed it by hand.

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Next we will remove the Knock sensor from the back of the engine block. We mentioned this one in the Intake Manifold chapter. Lets go ahead an remove it now. Break out the trusty adjustable for this one as well.

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Last one. This one isnt so much of a sensor as it is a valve, but the head cant be removed unless its out. This is the Engine Oil Control Valve. Holding it on is a single 10mm bolt. Takes a bit of twisting and pulling but it will eventually pop out.

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And thats all for this chapter. Next chapter, we behead the 4g69!

>: CHAPTER 6 :<

:// Cylinder Head Removal

It is finally time to sever the head from this 4g69 monster. This is kind of a moment of truth for me. This will show me the exact condition of the inside of my engine and let me know how I need to proceed from here for my build. Lets get right to it.

I didnt get a picture of this part but I removed the brackets that you use to lift the engine. This involved using a 12mm socket on the bolts that hold the brackets to the head. Nothing crazy im sure you can figure that out if youve made it this far.

First we need to remove the valve cover. It is held in place by six 10mm bolts and a small stack of washers. Remove those and lift the cover off. It may be stick somewhat, there is a gasket holding it on.

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Now we have a nice view of our valvetrain. This is where all that Mivec magic takes place.

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Now to get the head free of the block we need to remove the head studs. There are ten. To get them off use a twelve point 12mm socket, on an extension. Mitsu of course has a special tool for this but this works perfectly well. Looks like this.

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And here is what you are looking for inside the head. And if you havent already, now is a good time to remove your spark plugs.

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These will have quite a bit of torque on them to turn slowly lets not hulk it and screw something up. To do this I used a torque wrench so I could more easily manage the pressure i was using. Service manual also recommends installing the bolts from inside out working on opposite sides as you go. So lets do the opposite to remove it. We will start as the exhaust side bolt and the timing belt end, then go to the intake side on the sensor side, then back and forth till we reach the center.

Bolts removed.

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Here goes the head...

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Well some of the valves dont look like they close all the way. To be expected.

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Found that in cylinder 1. not sure what it is or where it came from...

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And as you can see every piston has made contact with the valves and has been scarred by them. Kinda makes me wonder if I should bother reusing them or not...

Well thats all it took for this chapter. Next we will remove the oil pan and take a look at things on the bottom end.

hey...if you say there's a stack of washers on your valve cover bolt/s...that may be where that one came from...somehow maybe you managed to drop it into the open intake or exhaust port and slid all the way into the cylinder...and that's y it looks so new and undamaged...
(unless it's too small for the valve cover bolts...
then Im still confused..)

I remember when I did my valve cover there were no stacked washers...(maybe one per bolt at most, but definetly no stacks..)

Nah that thing is way too small for that. Im starting to wonder if it fell out of one of the coolant or oil lines when I lifted the head off. Im at a loss as to where that could have came from. I inspected the piston and cylinder head and there is no marking that looks like it would have been in there when the engine was last running, plus I figured something that small would have been blown out of the exhaust anyway. So Im just going to ignore it for now.

Still slightly concerned about the pistons but Cranswick helped to ease that tension. Im just going to clean them up and run them anyway.

Also still needing to find a good cylinder head shop. I found a place near where I work but it didnt look like they had anything newer than a 1970's V8 engine in their shop so I was a bit thrown off by that. Google said there is another shop down in lexington that I might have to check out.

the most important thing for engine builders to understand about these engines is that the head needs to have an almost mirror finish to seal correctly.

>: CHAPTER 7 :<

:// Oil Pan and Pump

Alright here we are. Everything is gone except for the oil system and the pistons and crankshaft. And since I am not planning to remove the crankshaft and pistons then this will be the last chapter of my disassembly.

If you would like for me to go back and give you more details on anything at this point them please ask and I will make a follow up Chapter to wrap everything up. I wouldnt mind to go back and get you bolt/nut sizes on the stuff I didnt disassemble if anyone is interested. I'll also go back and try to get screenshots from the FSM so that you all can see the diagrams of what all has been done. Plus I think they will be a handy reference to have on the site. As long as our mods are ok with it.

Anyway lets get into this. FSM says Drain plug and Gasket first, Im going to leave them in so I can set the pan on my work bench and it not leak oil. Next is the Oil filter which we removed a long time ago, and I hope you already know how to remove... lol! Item 4 is the oil pan. Now we can get started. To remove the pan you need to take out nineteen 10mm bolts from around the pan. Mine are obviously rusty so im going to take some time on them, hopefully none break.

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To help me keep track of all the bolts and where they go since some of them are shorter than others. I found me a piece of cardboard and poked the bolts thru in the shape of the pan. That way when it goes back together there's no questioning what goes where.

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Now the oil pan should be mated to the block using some RTV so it wont just lift off. I used a chisel and gently worked my way around until it was loose enough to lift off. Any idea what this pink stuff is?

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And here we can see our crankshaft, con rods, underside of the pistons, and oil pickup.

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Now we are going to focus on the oil pickup. To get it off remove the two 12mm bolts holding it on. The gasket on this think was totally dead. It just started falling to pieces whenever I tried to take it off...

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FSM now says we should remove the relief plug, spring, gasket, and plunger. However it doesnt appear mandatory to remove that so I'll just give you a picture of it for reference.

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Now we can remove the oil filter bracket, also known as "the part the oil filter hangs off of". LOL! Now three 12mm bolts hold it on, the one nearest the oil filter is the long one.

Attachment 273377

Attachment 273378

Now we are supposed to remove the "Plug", its o-ring, and a flange bolt. However it isnt necissary to remove the Front Case and I'll tackle that later when I delete the balance shafts. So lets focus on the front case. Hold it in place are seven 12mm bolts. Pull those and then GENTLY use a chisel to break the case loose from the block. I say gently because if your reusi ng the case you dont want to damage it since it is aluminum. Also keep in mind the bolts are of various lengths. I tried to place them in the picture near where they belong so you can see which are which.

Attachment 273379

Attachment 273380

Now as you can see the non-oiled balance shaft came out with the case as it is geared in place with the oil pump unit, the oiled one is still chillin' inside the block. Gently pull it out so you dont damage anything. These things are surprisingly heavy for their size. And knowing the butt dyno difference between our stock crankshaft pulley and and the light weight one. Its easy to see how deleting these will free up some wasted horses, along with removing a potential failure point. Its also been said that the shafts, during prolonged track use, can cause the oil to froth up. IDK how true this is but Ive heard it enough times for it to somewhat make sense. Either way this puppies are gone!

Attachment 273381

Attachment 273382

Attachment 273383

================================================== ======================

Well that does it for all the chapters I had planned to write on the tear down. Sorry I didnt go into detail on the crankshaft, head, and things. But I was never planning to dive that far into it.

Im trusting the head work to an experienced performance shop, and from there I will begin the rebuild.

Here is a shot of the finished stripped down engine block

Attachment 273384

Here is my workbench. You can see all the parts we have removed are bagged and tagged, the 5-speed tranny, my work space for the write ups and reference material, my fuel for this tear down has been Angry Orchard Hard Cider, and they have been kept cool by the coolest koozie ever given to me from Nekkidlad!

Attachment 273385

And finally in case you havent figured out what is in store for this engine here is a clue.

Attachment 273386

In closing I would like to say thank you to everyone for your positive comments and enthusiasm. Ive had a lot of fun documenting all of this for you all and it actually helped me to be more organized and think ahead before just ripping parts off. Thank you all once again I hope you have enjoyed following my mess.

-Josh

>: Questions and Answers :<

:// QnA Section

If you have any questions for me concerning this tear down, something I didnt cover well, specs, or just something you'd like to see a bit closer please ask. I made this as a QnA post which I will use to answer any questions I recieve, and have it linked to the opening post. This will of course only last until I start putting things back together so dont hold off on asking anything! I'll try to answer anything I can to the best of my ability. So ask away!

>: Question 1:
://

>: Question 2:
://

>: Question 3:
://

You going to install a crank scraper?

Yessir. I need to place my order for that soon.

i was just wondering that too...


figured if you're going through all this, might as well drop that into the reassembly bucket as well..

lol yep. my thoughts exactly.

I was just down by VW yesterday. Went and checked out that Cylinder head place I tried to text you about. Dunno if you ever got it or not I still cant text... :/ I woulda swung by to say Hi but we were in a hurry to get home.

Would like to thank you for creating this thread and taking the time to document each step of the dis-assembly. Over the weekend I took apart my 4G69 as well as I'm going to be doing a DOHC head swap with a built bottom end, and there were a few areas of your walkthrough that saved me some time (such as requiring the 12-point 12mm socket for the head studs).

I'm having a tough time getting the center crank bolt off. I've locked the flywheel side but this thing is insanely tight; I'm even using a 3 foot steel pipe extension placed over my socket wrench and I can't break it.

How might this special tool aid in getting this thing off; what exactly does this tool do?

Thanks again!

impact won't take it off?

don't have one, but it probably would lol :(

should get one...lol


I got the Stanley impact tool set for $89 down from like $399, or $299 or something at Canadian tire there just before Christmas last year...not the best quality stuff, but comes with air impact, air ratchet, air hammer, die grinder and some accessories...comes in handy big time...one quick pull of the trigger on the air hammer will pop a tie rod end right out...now I just need a compressor that holds more than 3 gallons, and moves more than 3 CFM at 90psi, lol.

I think I should - just more money to spend lol :(. I'm going to be working a lot more on my car in the coming months. The air compressor I have is a 5 gallon I think...from Canadian Tire too. Everyone else is probably like wtf is Canadian Tire

i've seen them...never been to one tho...haha


basically it's like pep boys for anybody who doesn't know Canadian tire...
(it's like a parts store and repair shop in one...as far as I understand)


you could also go the cordless impact route...
they work quite well now, not like when they first came out where they were huge and useless...


kinda funny because on one of the vw forums I go to they're talking about this exact thing...what for air vs what for cordless

If I remember correctly Don all the Mitsu special tool did was bolt into the flywheel side to keep it from turning. You can see what I did in my pictures. An adjustable and a socket on the rear balance shaft. Took some muscle but it gave way. An impact gun is always a handy tool. But if you cant break it loose with a bar and everything I would try some penetrating oil and some heat then try again. Maybe that will help to loosen it up.

I have a framing square that I bolt to the fly wheel and and let it run into the subframe :D

lol that'll work - I stopped the flywheel side with a 28mm wrench fixed between 3 bolts lol; 2 on the flywheel side, and a 3rd bellhousing bolt.

i bought an impact wrench this evening actually; from Lordco (not that Canadian Tire wouldn't have worked just fine for my Canadian automotive needs, but Lordco is just 5 minutes down the road and they had ONE in stock!) ...it's a Chicago Pneumatic 734H - should work well with the little 5gal compressor I have. I started my vehicle project with nothing more than a shoddy set of basic hand tools, but slowly ive been building up a collection of essentials...figured now was a better time than ever to get an impact wrench as it will definitely have many, many uses as i plunge deeper into my addiction of working on this car.

I agree, bakuro, it is going to take some oil and/or heat I think :(

Wow, I am definitely not worthy!

Late to the party here but Cranswick, is there a TSC near you ?
When they have compressors on sale they're a steal. If you have a 240V supply, you'll be laughing all the way, but the 120V models are good too.

Sorry to bump an old thread guys. But I may be tearing down my other 4g69 engine soon to compare it with the one pictured here. The one in this thread was a timing belt skip, the other one was starved for oil. So we'll get to see the damages of both scenarios.

I wanted to add a chapter on removing the cradle, crank, and pistons. But I was wondering if there was anything else you all wanted to see in more detail?

Im thinking about adding all the bolt sizes and lengths, but that would get rather tedious. But I know there have been a few occasions where it would have been handy to know that info. So if that something you all would like to see please just let me know.

Removing/Installing the camshaft?

Not sure if you'll even touch that part but I should have the head/spare cams from Delta within the next couple of days. I'll be sending it off to a local place a cousin recommended to see if they can custom grind it.

Would be nice to get some info on the procedure since I'll be doing it myself.

I have the complete head from my old engine.

Very true! I didnt cover this cause i pulled the head and sent it off to be rebuilt. I could probably do a disassembly on this next one. We'll see how it goes!

Thanks for the good idea!

I'll take this comment as your willingness to donate to the cause if needed {thumbup} Thanks!

bakuro117 - Thanks for this thread. It has helped me a lot. I'm no mechanic but I tore the head off my engine, had it rebuilt and put it all back together. It's good to have information like this for reference.

CrAnSwIcK has helped me a ton as well, need to find out where to ship the keg of beer for him.