engine rattle

[axekick]

My 94 240 has a rattle after it gets warmed up. The noise sounds like it's under the valve cover in the front of the engine. To describe it better, if you didn't pop the hood and check, you would think it was a loose pulley. Under the hood however, it almost sounds like something is hitting the front of the valve cover. Any ideas?

[rps13freak]

it may just be the lifters tapping. is it loud or kinda quite?

[Skylindrftr]

its the lifters i think, its a common 240sx ailment

[D-Bo]

^ i'd put my chips on it. its still gonna be driveable but i'd recommend replacing them..

[axekick]

You may be right, but the sound is not so rythmic. After I posted this, I searched the forums and found a few people who had problems with a timing chain guide. The symptoms match, It got low on oil, started making the noise, and I put oil in and the noise never went all the way away, exept that when its not idling you it sounds fine and when it's cold. But from reading similar simptoms I'm led to believe that it just makes the noise when the oil pressure is low. Someone said you can take the guide out and leave it out. Is that true? Can I take it out by just removing the valve cover? Thanks for your advise. If I'm just wrong, tell me. I'll take you're advise if you still think it's the lifters.

[nissan_240sx]

Yes you can take off the guides, there's 2. One on the top you could remove by just taking off the valve cover, and one more I believe on the distributor side ( lower right ) you have to take off the front cover to get to that one. Good luck

[orestes]

i never understood how you could take off the guides and it would still be ok, but that does seem to be the common consensus

[nissan_240sx]

Yup. Took mine out a long time ago, and the rattling was gone. To me the guides are pretty useless, the tensioner alone is good enough to hold/guide the chain

[blk91240]

hey: does the noise go away when you rev the engine, say 2500 rpm?

[Greenblurr93]

Old thread, please dont bring up dead threads. Any questions, please refer to the forum rules and guidelines.