Thank you so much!
Sorry for the late reply (forgot password)
Decided not to play with diffs and such things unnecessarily. If i ever plan serious off-roading, apparently brake locks and double hand-brake levers (one for each wheel) work fairly well if the Interwebz can be trusted. After all its the manual version of EDL (electronic diff locks)
On a different and slightly troubling mechanical note, can you/ anyone here recommend a good mechanic in Lahore?I have a problem with head gasket. Any advice will be greatly appreciated as well.
Problem: very small bubbles and foam in coolant after driving for more than fifteen minutes, plus gurgling sound heard from around radiator pipes.
No oil in coolant or noticeable amount of water in oil. Seemed to pass the "crackle test" of taking a few drops of oil in a spoon and heating it, and hearing water crackle just as the oil begins to smoke. It did crackle a couple times but around when almost half the oil had evaporated. However blotter spot test (discovered on Bob's the Oil Guy website nearly 10 years ago: has been very helpful: place a drop of oil on a bit of chart paper and see how it disperses after 24/ 48 hours) showed a lot of gunk creating a ring around the oil drop (or rather where it was originally dropped) showing either broken down additives (not very likely for not-overheated Helix HX7 2000km after oil change) or small amounts of water.
Regular mechanics I visit plus their accomplices adviced against opening the head except one. finally after a few months (perhaps 1500-2000 km), one mechanic told me replacing head gasket is too much work, and mechanics are advicing against it for this reason (plus also recommanding engine replacement).
BTW the engine in is in excellent condition.
Finally took on the retired mechanic who'd told me it was head gasket at first sight and he agreed to come home and do the head. Sadly he's a bit advanced in age although very good and a bit set in his ways and times (he learnt his trade on old British bikes and cars, prefers leaky Triumphs to Hondas, Vauxhails and VWs to anything Japanese (except Toyota), etc. etc.
After 6 days of very meticulous work (superbly cleaned the head, took great care, removed old gasket remnants and polished the head and block with 5 sheets of 1000 grit sandpaper wrapped around a bit of flat glass (I wanted him to start with 500 or so grit and work his way up but he insisted on only using 1000) etc. etc. and polished the valves with jeweller's rouge (red polishing paste made of rust particles) by hand instead of Chemco girding paste and valves slotted in a drill (took him all day only for exhaust side).
Discovered engine (94,000km, three previous owners) had original head gasket (with help of internet) BUT the problem was one of the previous owner(s) had the head bolts tightened. And stupidly his mechanic tightened one side rather too much causing (thankfully small) indentations in the block under fire rings. The fire ring in cylinder two had burnt out. Otherwise the gasket looked in perfect condition. The internet (again) says burnt/ broken fire ring is caused by either over-tightening or piston hitting the ring. There was no sign on abrasion. Again it says gasket with broken/ burnt fire ring will leak compression without showing obvious signs.
However, my man didn't like the only slightly different looking but similar quality (the graphite layer was the same colour and as smooth as on the original) Chinese gasket available because the holes around the dowel pins were too large and he didn't trust my method of sticking it on with a bit of Hylomar Blue at the edges, and wouldn't use RTV Silicone. This was a the last moment when we were ready to fit everything back together and in a rage of rash stubbornness, he biked off to Montgomery Road (Lahore's car part market) with both old and new gaskets and my electronic Vernier to buy a better one. The replacement he got did fit well around the dowel pins. Fire rings on all three were of equal size. However this new replacement was extremely poor quality: grey flakey graphite, fire rings that looked painted to me (but he, the mechanic didn't agree), etc. etc. Thought at this stage with half the car open in my garage, I can't afford a direct confrontation (because he was getting quite that edgy...). Finally had him agree to coat the gasket in Hylomar instead of his trusted motor oil method (a very thin bead around all holes). Then he proceeded to ignore my recently aquired torque wrench from a "chor bazaar" which we'd tested against a travller's weighing scale (the sort you'd hang your suitcase from just before rushing off to the airport and hoping to find a slightly corrupted porter who'd ease your luggage past the check-in scale with a wink and a toe or two). it was not inaccurate (nor was my method very trusty...)., but still by loosening and tightening numerous wheel lugs, I'd worked it out to be fairly OK for Mitsubishi's recommended range of 59-69 Nm of torque. Anyway after hearing a lecture on how his arms are torque gauges, etc. etc. and working back through the length of his ratchet, figuring he'd need to put around 18kg of pull weight to get near about the right torque setting, had him test it against the same weighing scale, and pull. He did surprising manage to pull first 17 and then 20 kg. Good enough I thought. We'd agreed he'd do about a 1/4 turn more IF he felt there were too lose at his torqued arm/ hand.
Except it wasn't. He cheekily admitted he'd sneakily re-tightened them three times more (to almost a full circle he said), every time I went in to bring him tea or use the toilet. To prove it, he'd put a 200W bulb on the head to warm it up, and the tried to tighten the bolt it wouldn't budge. Perfect, he declared. Damn.
Judging from the tiny bit of an "ear" of the gasket that stays out (front right hand corner), he'd really dug into the gasket so much that a tiny little bit Hylomar bead I'd applied and then flattened had piled up outside the head. Aaagh....
Of course, results are inevitable. Fist start OK (took 4-5 cranks to build oil pressure, with me wishing each time I'd forced him to use some moly grease around rockers...). Then he proceeded to flush out my cheap "flushing oil" (bottled but unbranded motor oil at Rs 900/litre) because I shouldn't put load on that oil (agree), and put in the very dear Helix HX7 (while me praying the gasket or rather Hylomar to hold up for at least these 4000km) Warmed up with fan on (unplugging the water temperature sensor) at idle for half hour, all good. Mechanic leaves. Go for a drive on a route without signals at 11 at night, drive very gently at 50-60 kph. Perhaps a 6km circuit, or 10 (max). First half of the drive, newly cleaned radiator and new (cheap) coolant hold up marvellously: temperature needle never budges past half (or a hair over half when seen from driving position) but Torque app and an OBD adapter tell me that the hair-over-half reading on temperature gauge doesn't change between 82 (thermostat opening temperature) and 97-98 (fan on temperature).
So since I've had the car (6 months) i drive with one eye on Torque (the android app with various gauges), mostly on the fuel average, but also water temperature, intake temperature, and occasionally boost. Despite a not very clean radiator (possibly very old coolant), temperature never goes above 88 when driving on open road (say 40kph or more), but shoots up rather quickly when in stop-and-go traffic or at very busy intersections. Now, hoowever I stopped a the side of the road to simulate a busy intersection for 4 minutes and temperature still remained below 90. This was first half of the less than 10km long route in reasonably mild temperatures for June (perhaps around 28-30). however, suddenly and while driving it shot up to 94-95 and then triggered the fan WHILE I was still driving on relatively empty road at around 50 kph. Switched on the heater (and rolled down windows) and heard water swishing around the heater core. did flush the radiator and cooling system with water numerous times, but not commercial radiator flush liquid.
Arrived home, let the fan run again, waited until it cooled down to 89, switched off the car. Same dreaded gurgligng sound form radiator hoses. this morning, checked coolant was down about 2' from in the bottle. it was fine in the radiator, except the radiator cap made a popping sound (as if slight pressure under it). AND there was a very...." un-oilly"scum floating on top of the new red coolant. Note, previous green coolant never showed oil/ scum under radiator cap. Tried to see it from numerous angles and with phone light as well as a yellow torch for the "rainbow effect" indicating oil, but none. Possibly due to coolant colour or lack of natural light at dawn?
So here we are. I'll pay my dear old mechanic who despite being stubborn, and quite frankly a dangerously moody old man, is an old friend and the best of the best for working an my ancient BSA motorcycle. Paid off, no hint of problems (unless he asks to see/ test drive).
Next steip: find a mechanic who works specifically on or has plenty of experience the Pajero Minis to do a quicker gasket repalcement. Quicker of course because it'd be in a workshop, and there won't be the need to grind valves, wash the head, change seals, change/ re-lubricate pulley bearings, etc. etc. Not cheaper. in fact twice as expensive. I do have ot pay my friend for his 5 days of labour plus an assistant mechanic. Charity perhaps not, and while very expensive for the way prices are rising and incomes falling behind, I'd try not to think of it.
Now: where to find that mechanic who knows Pajero Minis and is decent enough to not do too bad a job, and also listen enough to not drill new holes or enlarge existing ones in head gasket, not remove thermostat, tell me to do the fan on direct, and most importantly use a torque wrench I'd be generously supplying which I still hope to return and exchange for an orbital sanding machine.
Thanks for the patience of skipping through this extremely long story. Not terribly entertaining either, but a proper comeback, i believe for reading 7 years worth of postings (and promptly forgetting half, and not being able to find the other half
On a different note yet again, I'm half way through assembling a google translated version of the entire Russian workshop manual. I intended to get it out a couple of months ago, but time is scarce. So with new documents service in google translate, I managed to break the manual into compressed secions of less than 10MB each (translators limit) assemble the translated sections together, do some brief editing on portions I needed (e.g engine): this involves checking format as well as figuring out what some completely preposterous phrases mean back in Russian to back in English. Remains: the most time consuming of all: cut-pasting many distorted images, and translating some labels in those images. If all goes well you'll have it by end of the year, or sooner if I'm that bored/ free.