On another topic.... Looks like I'm going to have to pull the head off a 2008 Pajero with the 4m40 turbo lump, my sister-in-laws vehicle .
A year or so back I mentioned the turbo was developing little boost (totally flat from idle to 4500), and had play in the bearings. I recommended starting to look for a replacement turbo. I also mentioned it'd be worth getting the injectors checked whilst checking stuff.
Unfortunately, the Paj is owned by work (family business), and so back in July of last year the head of logistics was told to sort it out. He took it to one of his 'contacts' who proceeded to bugger it all up. Has allegedly changed pistons, rings (+0.25), timing chain/guides/tensioner, valves/guides, big end and main bearings, water pump, oil pump, only fitted 2 new glowplugs of the 4 bought, the thing leaked from everywhere, cooling system full of dirty water and gawd knows what else. He made a pigs ear of everything, even fitting the chain tensioner incorrectly. Changed a bunch of stuff that wasn't necessary, fitting cheap aftermarket parts, and not changing what was needed, the turbo. Amazingly it ran, but sounded like a bucket of nails. They then took it to Mitsubishi, who did the bare minimum to make it run, getting the timing gear sorted and changing a few gaskets. It then ran, until it didn't.
Last week I got a call that she was on the Pan Americana and it was overheating, it had dumped all of it's coolant, just as it got into the red she'd rolled into a service station, turned it off and let it sit 20 minutes. Header tank was empty - got a helpful guy to put a gallon of coolant in, temp started to come off the red, and set off again. A mile further on and it skyrockets again, she pulls over straight away and switches off and calls Paul. It's a non-pressurised header tank, so I reckoned the rest of the system was probably empty, and I was right...I got her to carefully remove the radiator cap and it was bone dry inside. Thankfully a helpful "Rutas Lima" (basically breakdown rigs that patrol to shift stuff out of the way that break down/crash and block the PanAm) came along and put a few gallons of water in to see if it'd get her moving. I got her to fire it up and low and behold the temps started to come down. She then went to carry on, and straight away temps started climbing, I got her to stick the heater on full (in the full summer of Lima 
) which helped abit, but as she got to the slight climb up to Lima, straight to the red again. She then limped it back to the in-laws workshop stopping every 5 mins to let it cool off a bit.
I went down there on Wednesday (it's a work vehicle, so I went in work time!) to see. Radiator empty, header tank full, oil below minimum. Topped it up and fired it up, and straight away the header tank fills with bubbles and smoke, but no external leaks. So we've at least got a blown headgasket. Looking back through the receipts for the first clown who ripped the engine open, he used a local Peruvian gasket company for the headgasket, who don't even offer the 4 different thicknesses of headgasket that the 4M40 can specify. I can't find a receipt for head bolts (stretch bolts on this motor).
I've got 0 experience with the 4M40 lump, but I reckon the original problem is the clown who fitted the local head gasket and reused the head bolts, and it was just a matter of time until it popped. My worry is the likelihood of other damage (lots of reports of 4M40s with cracked heads). I seem to have volunteered to at least the head gasket job, but from there we'll see what the damage is. My SIL and her partner are some of the good people in this world, so I'll do what I can to help them. First things are drain the oil and look for bits, and get the head off and see what we've got. I've already said I can't guarantee anything, if it pops again I'm out, as goodness knows what else the 1st guy did. If this was elsewhere, work car, work problem, and you'd go after the first guy for messing it up. We're not elsewhere, we're in Peru, and as it's a family/business mix, work won't really do anymore, as it is more of a personal vehicle than a work one.. Only help might be if I get to do the job in work time (I wear many hats at work).
Anyway.... the actual question - does anyone have experience of the 4M40, any gotchas with a HG job? Special tools (I see it's an angular final torque on the head bolts, so need to sort that)? I've had a look through a workshop manual for the job, doesn't seem too bad, but it has been 10 / 15 years since I last did a HG!
