hey magna club!!! i have recently re-aquired my magna from my mum, i had sorta permanantly lent it to her... and over the span of two years she has proceeded to drive it into the ground...

so ive reclaimed the mighty magna wagon!!!

but its got an oil leak... its dumping about 1 litre of oil every 5 mins of driving... and it goes allll over EVERYTHING.

i have replaced the rocker cover as the old one was fractured, when putting the new one on i did it up too tight and fractured this one as well...

it looks like its leaking out from under the rocker cover as well as from the fractures themselfs... it leaks quite badley and its leaking out onto the water pump pully off the cam and its spraying EVERYWERE!!!

Do you guys have any tips or tricks to stop my 2.6l 4-banger leaking oil?? if i use my torque wrench what should i torque the rocker bolts up to to ensure it seals but to ensure it also dosnt leak??

now onto the missfire, its manily when its cold and its bloody hard... iver never felt a miss fire so hard its like the engine cuts out for a split second and its felt thru the whole car. the car once totally cut out on me, i lost spark. i wriggled the CAS wiring with the ignition on and it sounded like a relay triggered as i wriggled it (or something arc'ed out lol) and then the car was fine for a while. the plugs are fairly new. and ive replaced the dizzy cap.

and its totally gutless... to get up my driveway (about a 25 deg incline) i need to flat floor it and it treuly struggled where as my gazelle gets up no worries and thats got about half the torque of the magna lol)

so ive got lots of issues, i know LOTS about nissans, but nothing about mitsu's... so i need some advice and more importantly tips and tricks to get this all right...

i know i could just replace the busted stuff but i want to do it the best way, first time

New rocker cover, when you are tightin up the bolts, tighten each one up a little bit at a time. A trans flush might help with it being gutluss.

a guess
If the car is gutless all the time the tranny computer
may have failed ....get a good one from a wrecker

or timing on the motor may need to be checked

oil leak you need to use good heat resistant silicone with the gasket

yeah it usually shifts a bit funny, like it decides to change gear but then changes its mind half way thru lol.

im waiting on quotes from a wrecker on a few bits, including the rocker cover and a dizzy.

I had used a good quality silicon gasket and let it set for 24 hours this last time when i replace the cover, but its still leaked and im quite sure its becaues its cracked

im half tempted to just replace the engine... it has a bit of blow by any way.

does any one have a FSM on the 2.6 EFI? so i can check the torque on the rocker bolts???

update: getting a new rocker cover tommorow for $35 - i will report back on the result of the leak!!

does any one have a FSM on the 2.6 EFI? so i can check the torque on the rocker bolts???

The manual for my first gen. says 5 to 7 nm for the valve cover bolts/nuts. Yours should be the same as they are both Astron 2.6.

If it shifts, the TCU is fine.

You mention a miss at idle, this is most likely related to the lack of power as well.

The oil leak, fix what you can confirm you know about, ie the rocker cover and then give it a real good clean and check for leaks from there

ok so ive given the rocker cover a clean and replaced it with a non-busted item from a wrecker. i used silicon sealant and tightened down the cover bolts so that yanking on the cover just moves the whole car without moving the cover at all... but it STILL leaks (not nearly as bad mind you)... its evident its leaking out from underneath/between the seal and the head, seems to be particularly around the water pump pulley side (back of engine, driver side).

i noticed cyl 4 plug was a bit grimey so i cleaned it up and the miss at idle is gone but under load its still there. it comes and goes and sometimes, dosnt matter what load or RPM it will miss badly for a second or two and front-fire :-( I took it for a run flat to the floor and it went great, came back 2 hours later and drove to the shop, and its carrying on and missfiring.

short of replacing the dizzy im not sure what could be casuing this...

could the front-firing and leaking problem be related?? perhaps the front firing is over-pressuring the cam case and squezing out the oil??

im going to do the plugs and try some different leads tomorrow i reckon and this should help the missfire but i dont see how poor spark could cause a front-fire :-( ive never had a car that front-fires on me... and ive had about 13 cars so far :P

i think i might need an actual mechanic to fix this one for me lol...

is the oil leaking from the cam seal that
is behind the cam pully running the waterpump

14mm bolt to undo to get the pully off

what are the cylinders compression readings

if the rocker cover is good but still leaks indicates that perhaps the problem is with the head, maybe warped. Has it ever overheated?

For leak; Obtain a long METAL ruler. Place it along the head where it seems to be leaking and it should sit flat. If there's a dip in themiddle or something, then the head is damaged and needs machining. Else, it may be that you are in fact overtightening the rocker cover, possibly causing the outer edges to flare. I used to tighten mine hand tight then a full turn with the spanner. it never leaked. As for the sealer, use Copper RTV which is better and higher temp rating than Blue Gasket Silicone and use a decent amount. When you use the RTV, make sure its at least touch dry before starting/driving. make sure you've got a new rocker cover gasket.

for slowness; replace all your spark leads and go from there. If you're saying lead 4 was grimey and the problem eased after it was cleaned there's a possibility the lead/s are damaged. It may also be as previously posted, ignition timing might be an issue. ensure it is at 13degrees BTDC and running between 750 and 800RPM on idle.

ok the leak appears to have been solevd by correctly torquing the cover, i assume it was flaring.

and the miss-fire and gutless performance was resolved by replacing the CAS... the plug was very loose/wobbily and upon inspection the cirut board had actually fractured due to this. im amazed it kept going!!

whilst i was there i did the plugs, and leads.

the shifting problem is still there, under light load shifting from 2nd into 3rd its like it picks 4th and then goes back to 3rd or something and is not very smooth, if i add a little more throttle it dosnt happen. could be the TPS???

EDIT: Also, setting the timing, is there any trick to it? any pins i need to short? i played with the timing but ti didnt seem to make a change to the idle so im assuming it need to be set wilst in some kind of diagnostic mode?

Yep, TPS - also responsible for allowing the car to start off in second, then dropping into first with a clunk. Try having the overdrive (4th) off around town and see if that improves it.
Adjust or replace the TPS.

Timing - short the round capped connector at the firewall behind the distributor to earth with a piece of wire. Idle timing should be 5 degrees. Remove the wire and it should go up to 13 degrees. (Don't short the other flat connector, it is the fuel pump test connector which has to go to battery positive - earth this and you smoke the wiring!)

If you have bad blowby you may never stop the oil leak. The pressure has to go somewhere. Make sure your PVC system is working, as this relieves the crank pressure from a normal engine, but will struggle with blowby from a worn engine.

I had one of those sudden missfires a couple of year ago. Replaced everything to do with the ignition, but it wasnt untill I got a Dizzy rebuild that it stopped. And thankfully has never appeared again (touch wood)