Special tappet romoval tool doesn't appear to help
 

Got everything from the top side of motor required removed/disassembled except the rocker arms and tappets and I'm now stuck. I bought the special tool for $28 that I believed was used to lift the rocker arms and remove the tappets without having to remove the rocker tubes. Appears I'm wrong? From looks of it remove the 4-5 bolts from the locations down the rocker tube and pull the rocker arm assembly up and out? They're isn't a location I can see to use to pry up on the rocker arms to remove the tappets with the special tool. Am I missing something?

It looks like cylinder #1 (passenger side front cylinder) is open. I have to turn the motor to Top Dead Center right? Is the only way to do that by using the front Crank Bolt? Clockwise right?

Not sure what "special tool" you have. I'm guessing the on engine valve spring compressor which is useless for what you are trying to do.

Yes you need to loosen the rocker shaft bolts which will allow the open valves to seat taking the tension off the rockers. Then remove the exhaust rocker shaft as an assembly (the VLA's will fall out, so tape them to the rocker arm first), then remove the intake rocker shaft as an assembly.

Carefully take the components apart preserving the order, clean everything. Install the new VLA's in the intake rocker arms, use rubber finger tips to hold them in place, install the intake rocker shaft assembly and tighten bolts. Repeat for the exhaust.

More info here starting at posts 94 thru 102.
https://mitsubishiforum.com/forum/mi...-48920/page10/

The cams are where they are. As long as you leave the timing belt alone you can unbolt the rocker shafts, do your business, then reinstall. No need to rotate the crank. As you tighten the rocker shaft bolts, the rockers will engage the lobes that are off their base circle (i.e. On lift") and start to open the valves.

TDC not required to find
 

OK thanks for clearing that up because I was about to post a question about it. So when I loosen the rocker shaft bolts nothing will release and spring at me...gotcha. I haven't messed with the timing belt at all.

I'm a novice at this motor work stuff if ya haven't noticed. Decided to start doing all the this stuff for knowledge sake, and to save money.

Correct nothing will spring at you. Loosen all the rocker shaft bolts. Prior to lifting the rocker shaft assemblies, you will be able to slightly rotate the arms away from the valve stem tip. This allows you to use masking tape or the finger tips from rubber gloves to hold the VLA's in the rocker arms. The VLA's will fall out when you lift the assembly out if you do not do this. I don't know if the cylinder head oil drain back holes are large enough to pass a VLA into the pan which is certainly what you want to avoid.

Be very careful in keeping the shafts, rockers, etc in order and marked as to proper location. I did one head at a time.

Nothing wrong with being a novice. We all where at one time. Key is being confident and careful.

Amen to that!!!

Lifter failure findings
 

So I removed the passenger side rocker assembly furthest to wheel well...it had 7 or 8 bolts, the double rocker arms, and of course 6 lifters. This is the passenger side exhaust assembly from what I know. I used some masking tape to keep the lifters in place. I loosened all the bolts a little at a time until I could finger turn them. When I reinstalled I used the rubber glove finger method (works like a dream), tightened all finger tight, and then began wrenching on the highest bolts and worked my way a little at a time up and down the rocker tube until all where tight and then torqued to spec of 23 ft-lbs.

All the lifters were firm and looked okay, except for one that's end rests on the rod/spring was smashed in a little bit. Is this typical of the failure sign for them? I put about 300 miles on this Montero after the noise started. Some people said the lifters should give easily (be spongy or soft to compress by hand) and some say they should be firm to the hand (as in can't compress by hand). Which is it?

All of the used 6 were firm. And the new six I replaced them with were also firm, except two of the new ones gave slightly, but hardly at all, maybe 1/64", if not half of that.
The tube and head and rocker bearings all seemed good. All the small oil holes were clear. No sludge anywhere. This motor has 170,000 miles on it. No scarring anywhere on assembly or the head area.
Before I do the other 18 lifters (one tube at a time) I want to be sure I'm doing this right. I may find another as I go along but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure only one was tapping.

Can any other failure, related to that smashed lifter I found thus far, cause the lifter to be damaged? Before I do the other 18 lifters I want to be sure I'm doing it right and looking for the right signs of failure, related to the lifters or otherwise. Thanks for the guidance fellow mountain men!

My used VLA's were easy to compress significantly but then my engine had not run for about 1 year with the exception of a brief 10 minutes to warm the oil for draining then tear down. Several of the used ones had cracked seals.

The new VLA's would not compress.

The dented or hammered one may have contributed to the noise you heard. Look at the valve mating surfaces after you have the rocker assemblies out.

If it were me, I would do them all.

I was impressed with the finger tip method of holding the VLA's as well. I found that on some other Mitsubishi site.

The top of the valve stem the smashed VLA sat on looked and felt fine. Didn't seem to be damaged at all.

This motor only sat for a couple of weeks. I thoroughly tried the purging procedures several times so they should be primed and firm I would think, if they hold oil. Maybe the problem sometimes is the VLA stops compressing fully, can't excrete the oil (maybe due to debris?) so it gets beat up like this one? It would be nice to talk to one of the engineers of them.

Oh yeah I'm doing all 24 of them. This thing took me 5 hours just to strip down to the heads. I'm taking no dang chances!

I'll keep the old ones that look good as spares. I'm collecting used-good parts for these as test parts or to cannibalize if needed. I'm trying to get 4 or 5 of these early 2000s Montero's so I have enough parts to keep at least 2 running all the time if parts ever come hard to find. So far I have two 3.5L 2001s and this 3.8L 2003.

Hard to find in CO. Very few. I've noticed down south and east many more available. I need to make a trip down south or east and drive one back.

What I found so far that I thought was strange were the VLAs that were bad on the Passenger side head were both the third VLAs from the firewall. Not sure if strictly coincidence or if there can be a reason for that. The slightly dented one on the intake rocker tube wasn't as bad as the exhaust side, but still looks to be bad, due to dents on it.