timming?

hi all... i have an 87 200sx that i bought a few months back... haven't driven much because of engine probs and i had another car to use... but i'm going to start needing it soon... it has a slight ticking sound when running it somewhere around the engine.. i had a car before that knocked, and it's nothing like that....
my question is, can this be from bad timming?
i'm going to work on it this weekend and would like to know what all it could be so i can try different things to see what it is.....



ps. i know "somewhere around the engine" isn't much help, but a friend said it could be a belt, then he said it was the distributor cap, but it sounds like it's comming closer to the firewall than front of engine....


thanks,
mai0f

Its probably a lifter problem-change oil and filter and c what happens and get back to me for more advise

OR it could be the small beginning of a knock. Just not quite a knock yet.

well... when i bought it i changed oil, oil filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, put like 80 miles on it and changed the oil again (didn't run for 4+ months before i bought it)..

it ran crappy, and i noticed the #3 fuel injector cable coroded so i cleaned it with a wire brush and now it runs smooth.... also i changed the gasket where the headders connect to the pipe going to the cady converter and it runs quiet....
but after that i noticed that it ticks...


thanks,
mai0f

Check for an Exhaust leak where u did the repair

Check for an Exhaust leak where u did the repair

how can i do that?

Well, there's probably a better way to check, but an easy way would be having someone else sit in the car and you stick your ear next to the repair area while he throttles between 50-80%. If there's a exhaust leak severe enough to create a timing/idle problem, you'll notice some air escaping making a kinda "putt-putt" sound.