Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

So as I pulled into a friend's house last night I caught the whiff of burning antifreeze...
Checked under the seat and nothing from the top view of the engine was leaking. I couldn't get a good view of under the driver's seat though and I haven't gotten a really good look underneath to see a leak.
This morning I took a peak and my coolant reservoir was low. Filled it up some, fired her up, and driving around im putting off some whitish exhaust and get that sweet smell of coolant when the winds are right.
It would seem to me I have a failed head gasket unless somebody can brighten my day and say otherwise. This gasket only made it 40k km too. Impressively bad.
I'm curious if it's a record? Maybe a consolation prize is in order.
Anyways, does anyone have any thoughts on this? It seemed like the van was running just fine. I was finagling with the boost compensator but was keeping an eye on egts as always.
Coolant was clean, cooling system was new, along with cylinder head and block, temp guage hardly moved (occasionally up to 1/2, maybe once up to 3/4) I've got a pyro pre turbo that i tried to keep at under 1200f.
If I decide to revive her I'd like to not run into the same problem.

Tough break Joe, was it a genuine OEM replacement gasket?

Yeah to my knowledge it was. Coobs replaced it when they installed the block.

Getting 40k out of it must be frustrating. If the head was warped or cracked when reinstalled I doubt it would have lasted that long. I suspect the head was stressed when it overheated previously (but not enough to show up when measured or crack tested), and has probably now cracked.

Definitely have the head crack tested, and measure both the head and block for straightness. Pay attention to the torque on the head bolts when removing them, if any are significantly looser than the rest then check the head and block for signs of damage near the loose bolts, and check the bolts for pitting or stretch.

Use new bolts when installing the next head.

Sad news Joe. Any hope of a warranted repair for premature failure?

Sad news Joe. Any hope of a warranted repair for premature failure?

I don't think so. It was a 20k km warranty and I have gone across the country and back.
Thanks Growler I'll take that stuff into consideration. Also should I/is there a way to test the water pump for failure or would I have been able to tell otherwise if it or my cooling system was at fault?

Finally took the head off after being down in Puerto Rico working and escaping the PNW winter. I didn't notice any of the bolts being loose, they were actually really tight on there...The diagnosis just came back from the pressure test and the head does have a crack in it (it made it maybe about 50k kms).
I'm shopping for heads right now and wondering what peoples two cents are on ebay or other sources cylinder head quality.

I fitted an Italian AMC brand cylinder head, the quality seemed fine. No idea about cheaper Chinese cylinder heads- I imagine it's like many things from China, it's difficult to tell the good brands from the junk.

True. I think I'll go with a Quantico head out of Texas. I can get it bare and reuse my old rock/valves, but I'm looking on Partsouq at the seals and it seems like intake and exhaust are interchangeable but in the substitutions it lists a few exhaust seals..maybe just for a different vehicle? Or are there indeed intake and exhaust seals on the 4D56?

https://partsouq.com/en/catalog/genuine ... =289600&q=