So I'm guessing half the problems with KA's are blockd oil passage ways. Some seem to be so damn durable and others fail after light abuse.
My friend and I just put a junkyard motor in his 240sx. The timing chain rattles like crazy. So we have 3 options, the tensioner is actually bad, the oil pump isn't pumping enough/oil is water thin, or the pressure isn't getting to the tensioner.
My last KA had a light timing chain rattle that never went away. Good oil, new tensioner, and good pressure. The only thing left was enough pressure to feed it.
But, the problem. How do I clean the oil feed the GRM way. Even with seafoam, it wont circulate in the passage since its closed at the end. The only thing I can think of is taking off the tensioner, and letting it bleed pressure off while spinning the engine/oil pump. But you can't turn the pump separate from the engine. And that would mean pistons eating valves. DOH. And no timing cover to contain the oil. DOH.
Maybe go at it with a needle and clean what I can? I donno any ideas?
~Alex
the engine in my D21 rattles pretty hard too.
I was just planning to put a kit in it(chain/tensioners/guides/gears/etc).
you're telling me that might not be all of it?
Thats exactly what I'm telling you, because my 240sx still rattled after I did the tensioner. I was tempted to stretch the spring or cut off coils, but never did it. I think I drove for about 25K miles like that, but my friends is worse.
Then again, it (my old one) also sat in an impound lot for 6 years before I bought it and every fluid was black and nasty, and there was a lot of baked/coked oil so I'm sure some oil passages got stopped up. And I did a lot of difting/autox/abuse on it and regular 3-4k oil changes and it never helped.
Sooo other then a complete tear down and hot tanking the block I have no idea how to solve it. But most cars wont have the 6 year sitting issue, so once we get to wrenching on my friends I'll report back.
~Alex
did you do just the tensioner or the whole kit?
I did the whole shebang on my D21 - I hate going back in to do the rest of the job later.
Found out my rattle was the glorious broken plastic chain guide chopped up by the crankshaft counterweights saga.
The bottom of the pan was quite clean - no sludge at all.
I did chain, both sprockets, chain guides, oil pressure tensioner thingie, fasteners, seals, the works, using all OEM parts. Pricey, but I'm not going in there again.
It was super quiet for a couple months, now there is a rattle for about one second on startup and that's it.
