94 sentra timing noise after replacing tensioners

[Drivenyfz]

HI, I posted earlier today about what i should do to my motor while I have it out....and that was before I tore the front down to see what I did wrong when I replaced the tensioners...I was expecting to see something obvious like a seal out of place or something....I found nothing...back to the drawing board.

So I had to replace my water pump a few months back and read about the tensioners going bad so I decided while I was in there I would replace them as well. I took the timing chest cover off the motor replaced both tensioners and left chain guide and water pump and put it all back together with the motor still in the car. this was a pain in the butt due to the little room you have between the front of the motor and the passenger side fender. I got it back together and ever since then I heard a rattle when it first started, sounded like a diesel or a tractor sometimes. it would go away within a few seconds but still not good. I drove it a total about 4 hours like that just too see if anything would change and while it seemed to get better, as in it didnt do it for as long when i started it it would still do it for a split second. So i stopped driving the car. I went double checked both tensioners and found nothing wrong. I put them back in and same thing. It will do it when it first starts and then it goes away until it warms up. once the oil warms up and thins out you can hear the chain noise again but it is pretty quite...but you can hear it. I checked oil pressure before i pulled the motor with a psi gauge at the oil sending unit and it read 30+ so I think the old pressure is fine.

Only thing I can come up with is that I am guilty of over doing the rtv sometimes so maybe a piece fell off into the engine and blocked one of the oil passages? I uploaded several pictures with it torn apart onto photobucket so please view the pics and tell me if you see anything at all that looks out of place. I really need to get this car going ASAP as my datsun pickup is on its last leg(1/4 play in the crank!!!)

The only thing i noticed when I tore it apart was that it looked like the front main seal was leaking...which i replaced when i did the tensioners but it looks ike a slow leak not enough to cause a reduction in oil pressure and timing chain rattle.

Any thoughts/suggestions??????

here are the pics

http://s725.photobucket.com/user/livnda ... de%20motor

dont mind hte blue lines in all the pics...my camera has a couple scratches in the lens

[frapjap]

Now THAT is how you write a "I need help" post!

I'm not able to answer your question, but I am wondering if your torqued the tensioners to the correct spec.
We'll try to get you some more help.

[Drivenyfz]

I tried to give all the info I had! I can remember when me and my sister were first driving and something would happen to one of our cars and my dad would ask us to describe the noise it made when it broke and it never failed that with each description the sound we made for the noise would be differnt and dad would say wait I thought you said it sounded like this and now it sounds like that. Which one is it? Well it was like both dad, I dont know!!!!!! It was always a good laugh with him trying to diagnose a ar problem off of us making a bunch of noises that were probably no where close to the real noise it made!!!! Glad to hear my descriptions are improving!

[Drivenyfz]

I found the problem!!!! So one of the items I had replaced was the right side (tensioner side) lower chain guide which the lower tensioner pushes against to tension the chain. It is a peice of metal coated in rubber of sorts and there is a peice of rubber like nub or well about a 1/4 inch protrusion on the back side right where the tensioner pushes on it. That nub had broken off so the tensioner was pushing metal to metal against the backside of the chain guide. But the main problem being that with that nub missing thats a 1/4" less the tensioner can move the chain guide to tension the chain....thus my lower chain was loose all the time which is why I was hearing it. I have not put everything bck together to verify that this was the problem but it is very likely the problem.

Lesson learned: be very carful who you get your parts from. A more expensive timing chain guide would have saved me a ton of work and frustration!!! Buy quality or factory parts for peace of mind!!!!!!

[frapjap]

Wow! Good catch. Hopefully that is exactly what is wrong. Makes sense to me, anyway.
Can you share the brand that you bought so others can avoid having a similar issue?