timing chain terror

[therealrayman]

okay, i know that the rattling noise when i start my car is the timing chain from it being slack. From what i've read, the 240 has a cheap plastic chain guard that breaks commonly allowing the chain to sag when the car is off, so it rattles until the tensioner tightens it. The only issue is that i've noticed that my car has starting making the noise when i'm just idling and sometimes in lower gears in the 2700ish rpm range. I can't afford another engine right now, so if it blows from that chain, i'm fudged. From what i've heard the job is very pricy....so how hard is this gonna be for me to do? And can it be accomplished in one day? I'm about to go price some parts, talk to you guys later >> got work tonight too .

Thanks gurus.

[nissan_240sx]

So you want to remove the guides?
If so, yes they can be done in a day.A couple hours if your pretty good with working on cars.
I'll post up a helpful link, with pics and steps.

-Matt

[nissan_240sx]

http://garage.projectraine.com/conte...inrattle01.htm

Here you go
goodluck

-Matt

[57r337.Dr1f73r]

lol where the hell was that when I had the noise!

[nissan_240sx]

lol you posted?

[57r337.Dr1f73r]

ya I did, right after I bought my car. I ran into a few problems though lol. Like when I was taking off the chain cover I accidentally messed up the part of the head gasket that runs under it, and I removed the top guide. So I threw the engine back togeather started it up an the noise was still there. It turned out that my chain was worn and just a tid bit longer than it should be so I replaced that and it fixed the problem.

I wish I saw that thing cuz now I know that I had to remove the guide off to the right side of the chain. Guess it looks like i'm gonna have to go back in there and fix that.

[nissan_240sx]

yup same here, I didnt see the side guide. Removed it when I changed the oil so it's all good. Good luck with the side guide

[therealrayman]

okay, it was a lonnnnnggggg day, and theres good news , and theres horrible news, . Okay, i took the valve cover off to discover that i had no top chain guide or even the holes, so i'm guessing the SOHC didn't come with one. I examined my chain and it looked fine. I didn't take off the side guides only because it looked like i was gonna have to go through pulleys,etc just to get the cover off. So i resealed the valve cover and stuck it back on. I got new bolts for the exhaust manifold and it fixed the weird ticking sound (yay..).

But when i went to first start my car, it was rumbling me outta the seat, so i checked my valve cover and the rear half-donut piece of rubber had not seated right and i had managed to shoot oil onto the firewall....So i tore the cover off again and resealed it, making sure to place the half-donuts correctly, this time the car idles at 750ish rpms like its supposed to but now it sounds like an old chevy or somethin, kinda choppy exhaust note, almost like its misfiring.....i never removed the distributor or anything so my timing should be fine. Can this still be from the valve cover leaking and i just can't see it this time?? I'm going crazy trying to get this car running right, but i refuse to give up .

A friend of mine was listening to my engine last night and said i had valve slap( or tick, i don't remember), and all i had to do was tighten the mounting bolt for it, but i don't know which bolts to actually check for my valves, can someone highlight the valve retainer bolts in a picture of the ka24e or somethin?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Skylindrftr]

valve slap as in its hitting the pistons or just coming back in too hard?

[240SXSlideStar]

You sure your running on all cylinders? A 4Runner came into the shop 2 days ago and was running on 4 cylinders (from 6), the engine had no power and sounded like a pushrod V8 with big ass valve overlap.

[therealrayman]

Originally Posted by 240SXSlideStar

You sure your running on all cylinders? A 4Runner came into the shop 2 days ago and was running on 4 cylinders (from 6), the engine had no power and sounded like a pushrod V8 with big ass valve overlap.

it idles somewhat okay, but when i go to give any power it gets truck choppy...i dunno, i'm at work right now (8:20am), but when i get home, i'll check my wires to make sure they're right, maybe i did'nt hook up the distributor cap right..dunno how i could, but just maybe

[therealrayman]

couldn't a leak in the valve cover gasket cause a loss in power?? Don't you lose compression or somethin when your valve cover leaks?? I'm gonna pick up a new gasket either way.