Hey guys. Our winter car is a 97 Eclipse GS and after sitting most of the summer, we just got her back on the road. Parked in the driveway last night and a couple hours later noticed some coolant leakage. Im a Lincoln tech so I brought it to my shop and put her up in the air and the coolants leaking from the top right passenger side of the motor. Cant really pinpoint the location though. Ive heard a lot about water pumps and head gaskets needing replacing on these cars. My question is does the motor need to be yanked to replace the water pump and head gasket. I also plan on replacing all the belts and tensioners when this is done. Just trying to figure out what Ill need and if Ill have to do it at my shop. Im not familiar with the 2.0 in these cars but Id hate to have to bring it to a Mitsu dealer if its something I can do myself.

 

motor dont have to be pulled,but you will have to take the mount off of course.. its just a little tight to work on

 

Are there any special cam holding tools needed, or special tools needed to set up timing? All Ford OHC motors have quite a lengthy list of T-tools for engine work. Thanks for the reply.

 

Also, are there any other common things that I should get done while Im that deep? Im doing the head gasket, water pump, belts/tensioners.

 

ive never had to use any special tools on them except a 3 finger puller for the harmonic dampner / crank pulley on the 420a,i dunno if you have that or a 4g63 - i forget what years had what anymore - i would reccomend replacing the tensioner and idler pulleys for the timing belt also, the 420a is especially bad about the bearings on the idlers crapping out or locking up & trashing a belt and i had one pulley fall off due to a bad bearing coming unglued - i dont replace tensioners very often though it should be done

 

you can get a timing belt/water pump/idler bearing pretty cheap off ebay - 120shipped http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/95-01...QQcmdZViewItem as for the work, obviously you will have to pull the head off to change the head gasket, get a chilton manual so you can set the timing back to where it needs to be once ur done with the timing belt. you don't have to pull the motor but like the other guy said. . . it's a tight working quarter!!!

 

I HATE chilton's manuals. They all say the EXACT same damn thing. If you're doing the water pump and belts I'd say also think about the filters and obviously the oil change. (Air and fuel filters), head gasket PCV valve, check your hoses to see if any are spongey or in bad shape. tensioner, water pump, might want to flush the coolant system as well as do spark plugs and wires.

 

I had it up on my lift for the oil change and thats when I first noticed a little oil leakage. Once I finished that I had it running so I could do the tranny flush and then I was going to do the coolant flush. About halfway through the tranny flush I noticed coolant dripping. At first I thought it was from when I opened the cap earlier and it was just drips from what had come out but as time passed it was pretty obvious it was a steady leak from somewhere. I couldnt exactly see where it was coming from just a general area. And my parts department was already closed so I couldnt throw dye in. Either way once its torn down, if thats the route we take, Im going to do everything I can including checking the head for any warpage. The girl might just want to sell it and get an SUV so Im leaving it up to her. I wouldnt mind rolling up the sleeves to do it, gives me something to do.

 

Check your hoses first. Also look at the freeze plugs. If you have it up in the air it should be fairly easy to do. Try squeezing the hoses see if any feel like jello or if any leak when you squeeze.