Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

As the general consensus appears to be that I do not know what I'm talking about, and cause more harm than good, I am removing this post so that others are not tricked in to following my ill-advised instructions.

As the general consensus appears to be that I do not know what I'm talking about, and cause more harm than good, I am removing this post so that others are not tricked in to following my ill-advised instructions.

I find when I drop anything while working on the engine it ends up on the ground below or in a skidplate. The skidplates like to catch things.

Have you got a magnet on a telescopic handle? They are handy for finding/fetching that sort of thing. Mine has a shield on the sides so it can be lowered into an engine and not stick to the sides, yet pick something up at the bottom. Came with a mirror of similar design.. cost $2.

A friend dropped a valve feeler into a motorcycle engine once while checking valves, ended up leaving it in there with no ill effects.

Good luck!

A friend dropped a valve feeler into a motorcycle engine once while checking valves, ended up leaving it in there with no ill effects.

well that part makes me feel a lot better anyway!

as for magnetic pickup, I have one, but I haven't figured out where to use it...

in his case it dropped into the oil crankcase, I am sure it just lived at the bottom of the crankcase after that. You probably dropped this in the top/head of the engine right? I haven't had the valve cover off a delica personally so I'm not sure how scary that would be

Hi Green 1: just typed this from my Russek Manual for L300
Quote:

Valve Clearances (warm)
Petrol engine: inlet valves 0.15 mm. Exhaust valves 0.25 mm.
Diesel engine: inlet and exhaust 0.25 mm

Endquote.
Regards, Christine. (sorry didnt see your post till now).

yeah, my russek says the same thing, but the mitsubishi service manual says 0.15mm
of course the russek says hot engine, the mitsubishi says cold, so I'm not sure if that accounts for the difference.

Hi,

It's 0.25mm (0.010 inches) for intake and exhaust at cold.

It's 0.25mm (0.010 inches) for intake and exhaust at cold.

manual quotes 0.25 at warm.... (not sure how much (if any) difference the temperature will make on those measurements)

the clearance is to account for heat expansion....therefore it make ALL the difference. If the valve clearance is set to tight you'll bleed off compression at temerature which equals a lack of power or in a worse case scenario valve to piston contact or valve to valve contact. As far as having a foreign body floating around in the top end......can be catastrophic!! I've had a few customers come in with their bikes AFTER they've dropped something either into a plug hole or left something under the cam cover and they've run the bike only to have it grenade on them.
My advise is be 100% sure the bit is not still under the valve cover....if it lodges in the valve springs or similar it will cost you big time.
GOOD LUCK

the clearance is to account for heat expansion....therefore it make ALL the difference.

yes, I understand this, however I have 2 different books, one says 0.25 hot, the other says 0.15 cold, what I'm trying to figure out is if those are the same measurements, or if one is wrong.

As far as having a foreign body floating around in the top end......can be catastrophic!! I've had a few customers come in with their bikes AFTER they've dropped something either into a plug hole or left something under the cam cover and they've run the bike only to have it grenade on them.
My advise is be 100% sure the bit is not still under the valve cover....if it lodges in the valve springs or similar it will cost you big time.

I'm 99.9% sure it's not under the valve cover, what I don't know is if there is somewhere else it could have gotten to from there that I can't see.
I realize that a foreign body is bad, and I am praying that it ended up OUTSIDE the engine, but if someone knows of somewhere else it could have gotten from under the valve cover, please let me know! (ie. other than the valves themselves (where it wouldn't fit) are there any other holes big enough for a screwdriver bit, and if so, where do they lead?)

Hey green1 ! HOw's it going ?
I can't say on the valve clearance issue what the correct answer is. Try caling glenn at coombs.

As far as the bit goes. In my experience at loosing bits........which is vast !!! ...... ............i would try looking in a 8 foot radius around where you had the van parked.
Sure enough every time i spend hours looking for a lost bit and i start to panic it ends up being under a tire or tool box or piece of paper 5-10 feet from where i was working !!!

good luck

cheers isaac

mitsubc wrote:Hi,

It's 0.25mm (0.010 inches) for intake and exhaust at cold.

What I had mine set at on the Paj and all Delica's in the past few years. Smooth as butter.

well I'm set at 0.15mm now, when I started some were tighter than that, some looser, seems to be running quite well, but I do find it frustrating that one manual would say one thing, and a different one something else.

It's still not starting very well at all, but I didn't really suspect the valve clearances in that problem anyway, it's just something that I knew I could tackle and that can have an effect.

I now have to decide whether to spend more money in Calgary trying to find someone who can do something about it (I've already wasted about $1600 on mechanics who refuse to admit when they are in over their head!) or whether I just bite the bullet and find time to take a trip to the coast where I can take it to a shop that I KNOW will be able to fix it right...

As for the screwdriver bit... well hard to say for sure, but in the past 300km the engine hasn't seized, so I'm taking that as a good sign...

Green1 wrote:yeah, my russek says the same thing, but the mitsubishi service manual says 0.15mm
of course the russek says hot engine, the mitsubishi says cold, so I'm not sure if that accounts for the difference.

I personally would have gone with what both mitsubc (CVI) and jesse said wich was .25mm cold, but that is me as you said it's running fine.