I rebuilt my 2.6L less than 10k miles ago. Recently started burning coolant.
Yanked the ( brand new improved casting complete) head off. Have the head at the engine shop checking for warpage or cracks.

The (solid annealed copper ) head gasket is fine. Number two piston top looks steam cleaned compared to the rest. I noticed that the inner most head bolts were noticeable looser than the outer head bolts, despite a torque, and a re-tourque 300 miles later. I'm sure thats my problem, as the engine again is a fresh rebuild and has fresh new 50/50 coolant in it. Sure nothing froze.

Tomorrow or the next day I will be putting the head back on and buttoning things up. But I can't find My Hane's manual for the truck regarding sticking the distributor back in timing it and all that...

So need the reference: what is the spec/sequence on putting the distributor back in the head?

Front piston at TDC, what valve(?) or both valves closed? or?
Rotor in distributor pointing it at what plug? front piston??

Which socket in the distributor cap goes to what piston? (firing order?)

Thanks so much. Cant find my book anywhere and none of the stores around me have one on the shelf.

Tres

#1 to TDC (of the compression stroke). Insert distributer, line up the marks, and position rotor to the #1 spark plug position on the cap.

Thanks!

What is the firing order?-- which plug position on the distributor cap goes to what cyl?

What are the head bolt torque spec?

Thanks!

Mitsubishilinks.com will not load for me. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

EDIT: was able to get the Haynes manual file to finally open on mitsu links. Thanks.

PM me an offboard email address and I'll forward the 2.6L FSM section. Burn the Haynes manual.

if you can find some nuts that fit your head bolts, you may want to put them on, thread them up to the top of the threads. If you have a die, put that on next, then grind the last couple threads off to shorten the bolt a bit.We used to do this on VW motors that we cut down for compression. Then run the die off, and then the nuts. That should give you clean threads, and hopefully alleviate the possibility that the head bolts are bottoming out before they get to full torque. It might help

Better than head bolts, get some ARP studs...

Heck yeah, if they make then that would be the ideal thing to have

ARP does make them. I had a set for a while, but sold them a couple years ago.