rattling problem in head
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 6
rattling problem in head
Hello, I'm new to this forum of course and I just bought a 90 240sx fastback last April. Didn't know anything about 240's before I bought it. Not only that, I've never worked on cars before. I should have checked out the car more before hand, however, I now own it and have to deal with its problems (plus I'm learning a lot along the way, which is good).
As I started putting more miles on the car I noticed a really nasty rattling coming from the head- particularly at 2,000 rpms. Had a friend listen to it, we resolved that it must be the tensioner or timing chain guide rails. I decided to get some quotes and the best one was $800 to fix the problem. So I painstakingly spent three days and replaced the timing chain, tensioner, rails, and top gear with the help of a friend and the Chilton's manual. I'm kind of proud of myself since the most I've ever done on a car is change the pcv valve and fuel filter.
With all that done I still get a rattling from up in the head. It happens at idle and all up through the rpms' until about 3500 and then it goes away. The engine does idle a bit rough which I'd still like to take care of. It revs fine, it cruises down the highway just fine with good compression, no oil burning...
The rattling doesn't seem to affect the performance (unless my car has always been performing bad) it is just an annoyance. My friend mentioned it could be a rocker arm that needs to be adjusted up. Is this possible?
I also posted this on the general discussion form (help! problem with timing chain) but then realized that might not be the best place to post this problem. Someone did reply and mentioned that the cam timing is off- but that doesn't make sense to me because the car starts just fine. I mean, she started up great the first time after the timing chain job, and my friend said the timing was right on the marks. From what I understood, Nissans won't start if the timing is off a gear. Is that true? Or could the cam gear be off enough to where the engine still starts but things are rough and rattley?
I like my 240sx- it's not extremely fast, but handles really nice. It has the factory front spoiler, very little rust (a rare find in Michigan), 130,000 miles, and has the 5 speed manual transmission.
Anyways, thanks in advance for any help!
Cheers!
Brooks
As I started putting more miles on the car I noticed a really nasty rattling coming from the head- particularly at 2,000 rpms. Had a friend listen to it, we resolved that it must be the tensioner or timing chain guide rails. I decided to get some quotes and the best one was $800 to fix the problem. So I painstakingly spent three days and replaced the timing chain, tensioner, rails, and top gear with the help of a friend and the Chilton's manual. I'm kind of proud of myself since the most I've ever done on a car is change the pcv valve and fuel filter.
With all that done I still get a rattling from up in the head. It happens at idle and all up through the rpms' until about 3500 and then it goes away. The engine does idle a bit rough which I'd still like to take care of. It revs fine, it cruises down the highway just fine with good compression, no oil burning...
The rattling doesn't seem to affect the performance (unless my car has always been performing bad) it is just an annoyance. My friend mentioned it could be a rocker arm that needs to be adjusted up. Is this possible?
I also posted this on the general discussion form (help! problem with timing chain) but then realized that might not be the best place to post this problem. Someone did reply and mentioned that the cam timing is off- but that doesn't make sense to me because the car starts just fine. I mean, she started up great the first time after the timing chain job, and my friend said the timing was right on the marks. From what I understood, Nissans won't start if the timing is off a gear. Is that true? Or could the cam gear be off enough to where the engine still starts but things are rough and rattley?
I like my 240sx- it's not extremely fast, but handles really nice. It has the factory front spoiler, very little rust (a rare find in Michigan), 130,000 miles, and has the 5 speed manual transmission.
Anyways, thanks in advance for any help!
Cheers!
Brooks
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 131
From: san diego
I dont know if this will help, but it couldnt hurt to check.
when i first got my 93 240 it made a buzz/rattle noise right around a certain RPM around 3k or 2k and that was it, I just kinda lived with it for a while but I figured out that it was the heat shielding on the down pipe rubbing against some other heat shielding, well, after I put my headers on the car the buzz was gone.
when i first got my 93 240 it made a buzz/rattle noise right around a certain RPM around 3k or 2k and that was it, I just kinda lived with it for a while but I figured out that it was the heat shielding on the down pipe rubbing against some other heat shielding, well, after I put my headers on the car the buzz was gone.
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