This is a long post but I wanted to post here for anyone who might be doing their timing belt/balance shaft belt change for the 4g69 SOHC 2.4 mivec in their outlander or whatever other vehicle with this engine.

Mitsubishi told me my 2004 Outlander timing belt change interval is 105k miles or 7 years. Mine has never been changed, and has 88k miles, but it's been over 11 years! I want to share what I found that is contrary to the factory service manual and my past experience with timing belts.

I've done about 15 timing belts in my life, never involving 2 belts like this, but they've all been pretty straightforward, time-consuming, knuckle-skinning pains. I purchased the gates timing belt kit from Rockauto.com which comes with two gates belts and three pulleys. First impression was that these belts are much thinner than I'm used to. They appear flimsy and I have no idea how Mitsubishi thinks these belts will last even 50k miles. I have the factory service manual in pdf form and printed out the relevant pages. I was happy to see that the outlander has easy access. No need to raise the vehicle or remove any tires at all, just parked in the garage and turned the wheels to the right.

Remove the spark plugs if you like, not necessary, but makes turning the engine over very easy. After getting all the splash shields, serpentine belt and pulleys out of the way, remove the timing covers. Lots of belt residue noted and checked water pump. Water pump was solid, no play, no leaks so I'm leaving it. Line up ALL your timing marks turning at the crank. You have 4 of them, Cam gear, crank gear, oil pump and balance shaft. Line them all up. Funny, I found you have to turn the engine over 6 times to get them all to line up, otherwise your balancers will not be timed and you'll end up with a wobbly engine. You can line up the crank and cam every 2 revolutions, but you need 6 revolutions to get all timing marks aligned again. KEEP IT THERE, all aligned.

Problem #1: special tool MD998738 needed to compress timing belt tensioner. Don't have it, can't buy in a store, and can't borrow from the dealer, even though the vehicle was purchased there for 20k dollars brand new and I offered to give them a cash deposit (they said they don't even have it, yeah sure, thanks anyway bud!). I read about making your own by using a long battery bolt with 8mm x 1.25 pitch die, but all my battery bolts are too skinny for that die to do anything, and after opening everything up, I saw that I wouldn't need it anyway. I used a better tool, wide-jaw locking pliers. Cost me like $2 at harbor freight. (see pic). Before you even compress it though, take note of how much of the piston pin is exposed. Try to insert the holding pin before you compress, it might be ready to go right in. If you need to compress, don't snap-lock the pliers on the tensioner, just keep adjusting the screw until you get a nice bite at the base of the tensioner and close to the end of the arm that holds the pulley. Be careful. It feels tight, but in a second, the tensioner compresses, and you can easily lose footing on the pliers. From initial looks at it, I thought the tensioner pulley was bolted in place and that the tensioner was overkill, only there to make the initial tension. Not true, that arm rides on the tensioner forever, giving constant tension on the belt. If the hydraulic tensioner isn't present, that tensioner pulley will flop around on it's hinge. Anyhow, these pliers will continue to compress when you turn the screw. Turn the screw very slowly (FSM states you can turn the real tool at 30 degrees per second, you can do just about the same with the locking pliers, I used another set of pliers to turn the screw on the locking pliers but you can almost do it by hand. It will work better than the special tool because you can do it all from under the vehicle and watch it happen while you try to insert the pin. I compressed and released several times, fishing with a pin for the hole in the piston before giving up and just removing the hydraulic tensioner. It will not fly apart in pieces, it only extends like a centimeter or so. Off the vehicle, I found that my piston was turned like 45 degrees, so the hole wouldn't have lined up regardless of the tool I would use. I turned the piston by hand easily to straighten it out and used a benchtop vice to compress it very slowly and inserted the pin and put it off to the side. Removed the cam timing belt, again verifying that all timing marks were in place.

Problem #2, special tool MB991367 and 2 pins MB991385 for removing the crank sprocket bolt. Didn't have and didn't want to buy it and see Mitsubishi dealer response above (thanks again guys!). Solution is not to bother getting it! I took an impact wrench to it, for no joke 10 minutes. It didn't budge. Worst case, I was going to cut a section of the old timing belt, wrap it around the crank pulley and lock another set of pliers on it and use a prybar. Took a better look inside and saw that it wasn't even necessary to remove that crank sprocket at all. I removed the crank angle sensor and there was plenty of room to remove the balancer shaft belt around the sprocket. The oem balancer belt was very loose on mine BTW.

I removed the balance shaft tensioner and made note of the offset of the bolt for initial setting of the new pulley. Adjusting tension on the balancer belt was a bit of a pain. At this point, the cam timing belt is off, and the FSM states to rotate the engine twice and readjust the tension on the balancer belt. This confused me. First off, I guess if you start at cam TDC, even an interference engine like this one will not hit valves, I don't know. Second, I feared losing my count for the 6 revolutions needed to align everything again, so I just turned back and forth 180 degrees at the crank several times and readjusted from there. I put a small plastic block between the balancer tension pulley and engine block lip and tapped a flat-head screw driver in there to apply tension to the belt. Then I replaced the two other pulleys for the cam belt. Take note of the holes on the tensioner pulley before you remove it and install the new one with the holes in the same orientation. I just tightened it right there, I wasn't planning on doing any kind of adjustment on that pulley unless absolutely necessary.

All three pulleys that came off the vehicle were oem Japanese bearings. All three of them had some twisting play and minimal noise on spinning. All three new pulleys in my gates timing kit were BMG brand (supposedly Korean, but country of origin was nowhere stamped on them), which made me let out a sigh. Korea is ok, but I like the Japanese bearings. Big let down was that the new cam idler pulley (not the tensioner pulley) also had some play, just about as much as the one it replaced. They'll be hearing from me very soon over at Gates.

Anyhow, I routed the new cam belt on and then reinstalled the hydraulic adjuster. Had to turn the engine clockwise to release tension on the belt on the tensioner side and the hydraulic adjuster was still a snug fit to get in place. With all belts and pulleys in place, I rotated the engine 6 times, and verified that all timing marks were in perfect alignment. As per FSM, you have to use the special tool again to get the right tension on the belt. If you can just pull the pin out with minimal effort, you're done and that is exactly what I got. Just for assurance, I rotated another 6 times and verified timing marks and pin placement in and out of the tensioner with very minor effort. If I needed to change the tensioner pulley offset placement, I could have done so very easily with the locking pliers again, but it wasn't necessary. I am confident that any settling of the belts were 99% done with all the times I rotated the engine. And there is MORE than enough range of the tensioner piston to convince me that I won't have any issues.

At this point I tightened everything down very snug and again set my sights on the balancer belt. FSM says you should have 5-7mm deflection on the straight side of the belt with 100 Nm pressure (22 pounds). So I fiddled my fat fingers behind the timing belt, and pushed close to the middle of the belt with what I thought was about the force necessary to move 22 pounds and I got about 10mm deflection. All good, certainly a far cry from the looseness I found in that belt to begin with, but I did another wedging of the balancer pulley and got it right.

BIG NOTE HERE: When putting the timing covers back on, make sure your gaskets are in place. I spent a few minutes looking for a lost section of this gasket only to find out it was oxidized and stuck to the block. Krazy glued it to the cover and reassembled everything. Gave a nod to God as if to say, "you're going to toss me this bone right?" and started 'er up and drove out the garage. Hope this helps someone.

 

please learn paragraphs!

 

"Good morning, class."
"Gooood moooorrrrrning, Miissterrr Aaakzle"

 

bad morning, wall-of-words.

 

Agreed and fixed, greetings from the other side of the world to you!

 

not a bad write up.

Finding 'the correct tool' is so often a pain in the ***.

You next mission is a balance shaft eliminator kit.