1990 240SX engine issues

[Automatica]

Ok, so I've got a 1990 240 with the stock engine in it (5 spd), about 108k miles.

When I give the engine gas, the RPMs go up but the car feels really starved for power. Also, the idle is a little strange, it fluctuates low and high, epsecially when i turn on the AC.

Also, just recently its started making this strange noise.. this clicking/whirring. Sounds somewhat like a lawnmower or a semi truck does when its idle. This noise gets alot louder and really obnoxious when I accelerate. Any ideas?

Forgive me if I sound stupid, I'm not too good with cars.

[NISTECH]

Welcome to Nico.

I did a quick search. Have a look at some of these threads. Idle problems on the 240 are pretty common.

zerosearch?id=741737

[Automatica]

Thanks for the reply. My idle problems have more or less gone away, the thing that concerns me now is the engine noise. It sounds like a go-kart, is the best way I can describe it. Its coming from under the valve cover from what I can observe. It idles noisy, sounds like like a diesel truck. When I give it some gas it gets alot louder and alot more rapid, like a go-kart engine accelerating (all this on top of normal engine noise)

I'm going to take it in and have it looked at tonight, but I was curious if anyone had any ideas of what it might be. I hope its not going to be too costly to fix, I cant afford that right now >_<

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[navysnail]

do a search for "timing chain" as that is a fairly common problem with these cars if it has not been fixed allready. if that's not it, you can check out the write-up i did a while ago in 240sx tech about checking the lifters.

[Automatica]

Thanks for the replies. I did figure out what it was. Turns out I had a bad oil leak and I had no oil in the engine, so the lifters were tapping like mad.