G54B: Bird Seed & Oil Starvation Edition.

Over the weekend I acquired a mighty fine engine stand with a G54B engine attached to it.  For those of you not familiar with this Mitsubishi engine, it was the 2.6L that came in a variety of vehicle in the 1980’s.   Many people loved these single overhead cam 16 valve engines, but unfortunately….this one was loveless.  This one was roasted, toasted, and probably 2 rotations away from spitting connecting rods through the block at a very young age.  Before the engine was even broken in at just 46K miles, the engine lost oil pressure for some unknown reason, and promptly ate itself from the inside out.  The engine was then pulled out, set on an engine stand, and parked in the corner of a garage for the last few years.  Did I mention that it was sitting on a nice engine stand?  Well, that is the reason that this engine entered my life.  The price was free, and “POOF!” it landed in the garage as if from nowhere.

For my own entertainment, I tore the engine apart to see the catastrophic damage.  Here is a list of destruction:

– Timing chains tensioners ripped off the block, and chopped into many many small pieces. All hidden behind the timing cover.
– The crankshaft sprocket for the timing chain was missing every single tooth.
– The inside of the timing cover appear to be shot with a shotgun.
– The bearings for the balance shafts were blue, yellow, and black. The balance shafts themselves were blue around the bearings.
– The connecting rods were all loose on the crankshaft. The bearings fell out in multiple pieces.
– Then there was bird seed, so much bird seed. Once the engine became a fixture in my friends garage, it appears that a mouse or chipmonk moved into the upper radiator house. It was full, like 100% packed full.  Inside we found enough bird seed to probably feed all the birds in the Amazon for a month. I don’t know where it all came from, but it was epic.

So what now? Well, I am glad you asked. I am going to clean up the long block and use it as a base for a table. The engine stand was what I really wanted, and it wants an LS1 attached to it really badly.

…..updates on the coffee table will follow in the future 1A Auto Blogs…..

Jeremy Nutt

Hi, I'm Jeremy.

2 thoughts to “G54B: Bird Seed & Oil Starvation Edition.”

  1. Found nearly the same damage to the crank gear on an early ’90’s Olds I was driving. Tore it down in a gravel parking lot in Cimmeron, N.M., had the parts shipped to the nearest address, then rebuilt it with old geezers in lawn chairs supervising…and drove it another four years. I’m sure that was the topic of conversation for a while…no vermin though.

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