@03whitegsr.... interesting. I really wish a well known shop would chime in on this issue and shed some light on it.

@bkzproblem.... the car is still on stock valvesprings with hks272 cams.
while i understand its possible the block could be a 4g64 block, it is highly unlikely. number one reasoning is because my car has been highly maintained and documented through the first owners and myself, so i doubt the guy would have failed to mention or provide documentation of a 64 block when i purchased the car. The second reasoning is because we did not come across this problem unitl doing a TB and BS belt change along with all the oem tensioners, pullies, ect. A 4g64 block from what i have read utilizes a different water pump, and if a 4g63 pump is installed on a 4g64 block without a spacer it will leak water due to differences in cooling passages.... and i have no water leaks, as well as no problem with any of the other oem parts i had replaced that i ordered for a 4g63 03 evo 8. And again beating a dead horse, the mechanic who worked on the car knows mitsubishis inside and out, and would have spotted that i had a different block than what came factory and made mention of it. as much as i wish i had a 4g64 block to do a stroker motor, im 110% sure that it IS NOT a 4g64 block.

as for if the head has been shaved, I do not know if it has. I do know the head was removed by the previous owner to install a cometic gasket (that he felt was needed for increased boost) and arp headstuds to be installed. this was done at the 60k mark with the first timing belt job and to install the cams.

I recently found out that the fidanza cam gears have a dowel pin hole for eclipses and evos to be universal and to make sure that you have the correct hole for the dowel when installing. Im going to double check this but doubt it will reveal anything as i doubt the car would run if using the other holes, and highly doubt it would have been an oversight as much time as my mechanic spent under the hood rechecking his timing job over and over at my request when the car had the noise.

 

also as of now car still runs and drives fine no noise at all, yet cam timing is still set out via cam gears, and pulls like a raped ape. recently made 380 vd on 93, and plans this spring are to switch to sd and e85.

 

@03whitegsr, after rereading your post, i feel like your statement is probably unrelated to my problem do to the fact that what the knock sensor does. You could have very well been experiencing knock, and not an actual mechanical noise. it will pick up both, so its hard to say for sure if its related.

 

It was not detonation. 100% certain on that...

Further...adding timing advance sure as hell would not reduce the noise if it was detonation.

 

Could you by any chance post the pictures of your timing marks? That's what I really want to see

By the way, if you bought a evo 8 water pump and installed it without an issue or additional parts, you do not have a 4g64 block.