well today driving when I shifted from first to second I felt something snap tehn lost all power and came to stop (I didnt here any knocking or clicking of valves, when it died it felt like the car had just cut fuel to the engine), before realizing what happened I lightly cranked it over and it wouldnt start, oil pressure light is on and I found teh balance shaft belt broken in the timing belt top cover.

I replaced both belts about 40 000km ago, it must have been to tight?

what am I looking at here for a repairs? is the engine ****ed? what should I check first.

any help would be much appreciated so I can get to work on this thing...


thanks,
Mathew

 

Crank angle sensor probably got damaged and lost signal. pull the left side apart and check the bottom timing belt area. You will have to pull the balancer off the crank (4 bolts) among other things.

Josh

 

Yes it was probably to tight. Which means the timing belt was probably also over tightened or not put on properly.

Josh

 

possible internal engine damage? timing belt was stilll intact but ill replace both and double check the tightness when I do it this time oops

 

Your belt may have snapped from the balance shaft seizing in the bearing. This is why most built motors have balance shaft elimination. Removes a potentially weak problem from damaging a several thousand dollar built motor. Feel free to PM me or email me for more information.

Josh

 

pm'd

 

i do agree. I had fixed one like this before. No damage was done to the valves. Don't crank the engine anymore. GL.

 

yea I havent cranked it since I realized that teh belt had broken

 

if the balance shaft isnt timed in - cant the crank/rods hit it?

Im about 99% sure this was the case with the 6bolt in the dsm's...

 

The answer is no. However, if the balance belt went through the timing belt the timing belt may have jumped a tooth or few - another reason for not running balance shafts.

 

There are reasons why Mits. use balance shafts.

 

Balance shafts = Fail! The biggest issue with balance shafts is that they spin approximately 3 times as fast as your engine, which means that the shafts/bearing wear out faster than other engine components. As good as the shafts are the bad outweigh the good, I would definitely remove or eliminate them while you are doing this.

 

That is correct, Mitsubishi used balance shafts that are counter rotating and spinning at twice the speed of the engine in an attempt to MASK a 2nd order vibration that is inherent in inline 4 cylinder engines. The removal of the balance shafts will NOT harm your motor in anyway. The only side effect is more oil pressure and you may feel a very slight increase in vibration in the cabin of the car. Chances are you will never notice and since a lot of us already have solid mounts we could probably care less. Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Josh

 

so, sorry if this is a tad off topic, my 60k tune up is right around the corner. instead of replacing the belt on my balance shafts, should i get an eliminator kit?

 

You have to remove the front case cover to drive out the old bearings for the balance shaft elimination kit. It takes a bit more than just a basic set of tools to do it but it can be done in your garage if you have the right tools. That being said I almost always recommend removing the balance shafts.

Josh