Petrol 1989 v6 3ltr now sounds like a diesel!

[4ePikanini]

is it possible that you can take a pic?

Align the cam pulleys as accurate as possible and then look at the crank pulley. Then align the crank pulley as accurate as possible and look at the cams.

[sikhabib]

do you guys think he cant get it lined up because he had the heads shaved which would have changed the distance between the cam pulley and crank?
even if that is the cause the "desiel" noise your hearing wouldnt be from the cam being out by half a tooth, it might cause the engine to be down on power and use more fuel but thats about all it would do.
it would be safe to say the noise is just from the lifters and if you run the engine for a bit they should settle down.

have you double checked to make sure all the cam bearing/valvetrain bolts are done up tight?

btw how much was taken off the heads when you got the machined?

[luva69r]

Had 1mm taken off the heads. Everything has been cleaned and bolted down with a torque wrench. The thing thats frustrating me is that no matter what I do, soon as I release the tensioner, the crank pulley stays where it is and the right cam pulley does what I want it to but the left (tensioner side) is either half a tooth forward or behind. I'm a bit of a fussy bastard so it's annoying the crap out of me!

[just_sam]

If it makes you feel any better... I was putting mine together and found that there was NO WAY to get anything to align correctly using the marks on the cam sprockets. Instead I looked to photos in the workshop manual, checking the location of the cam shafts themselves.

When that looked correct it all went perfect, even though one of the cam sprockets is almost 60 degrees out (going by the markings at least). yeah, I know.

I also replaced all of the lifters with new items (after doing nearly 1500km from rebuild). Painful, took the best part of a day, but a lot more quiet afterwards.

[4ePikanini]

I'm no expert but I think taking 1mm off a head is way too much.

This is from the Mitsubishi manual

[martin7]

on this engine 1mm of each head is as far as you could expect to go and as thought the gears wont line up due to the amount machined of the head face. ACL used to do a oversize(thicker) head gasket to correct this though its not going to affect things to much now its back togeather. also it personnel choice weather to set it advanced or retarded by that half a tooth.
also if you got the rocker covers off check which rockers can be pushed down with your finger these will be the noisey ones. to check all of them you need to turn the motor over by hand and check which ever cylinder isn't on the rock. once you know which ones are noisey check the arm its self for wear were the lifter sits into it. if the arms are worn even new lifters will be noisey

[Bernoulli]

It is emphasized by the experts on 4X4wire.com that when re-assembling the engine, head bolts must be measured, holes must be bottom tapped and measured. When a head is shaved, it is possible for the bolts to bottom out and you'll reach your torque value without properly securing the head. The head bolts can also stretch a bit. The 2mm/.008" is an absolute max.

[PajeroDude]

According to the workshop manual the most that can be taken off the heads is 0.2mm and if both the heads and block are shaved then it's 0.1mm each.
The head bolts can be reused as they are not yield to torque type bolts.
I have replaced a few head gaskets on these motors and always reused the bolts as long as the bolts and thread holes are in good clean condition.