96 hard body 2.4 engine rebuild i need some advice

[94HRDBDY]

i just got a 96 hard body with a 2.4. i got it for cheap expecting to do the rebuild. when i run it i get a loud metal on metal sound almost like piston slap. i went ahead and pulled the valve cover to take a look and found that my lifters werent pushed out and there was almost 1/4 inch of space there. i also nticed some heat marks and some pitting underneath the rockers. i found some new rockers / lifters and rocker cams snd im putting them on tomorow. im just looking for some advice on what else i should be on the look out for. another thing is that i found a pretty bad oil leak that might be coming from mt rear main. with that in mind it makes me wonder what my crank, bearings, and sonnecting rods might look like. im thinking whatever abuse caused my lifters to colapse might have caused another major problem making my lifters a side effect of whatever happened. any advice would be awsome!

[NissanhardbodyKa]

Hey man.. Sounds like you are having some fun with that rebuild. I got my self into the same thing years back .. But it turned out ok..Before everthing is said and done I would take a look at the cam lobs.. make sure that there is no wear on them. Every one that i have seen so far has wore out the cam lobs. The one that i got a few years back to rebuild had that porblem. I thought it was going to trun out to be a connecting rod or something but I pulled the valve cover and there it was.. full of aluminum shavings. Just replaced the hole head and cam set up.. and then didnt some bottom end work such as crank and bearings and timing components. But it all truned out good.. Yeah I would check the main bearing. If the seal is bad You might be loosing oil presure cause of that .. thats most likely why it fried you rockers.. good luck .. let me know what you cam up with.

[94HRDBDY]

i tossed the new rockers on and the sound got better but its still clacking. when it starts to warm up my idle drops to abut 500-700 rpm which makes my il pressure light come on. you said to check my mainbearing and im going to do that. i think it may be a chain reaction. i dont have enough pressure to fill my lifters, which wont let my valves open all the way, which makes it idle lower wich drops my pressure, wich wont fill my lifters, and so on. there has to be a loose link somewhere and i cant find it. i tryed a seafoam with the thought that my oil gallerys might be cogged and then i talked to someone who reccomended doing another flush with transmission fluid. the seafoam helped but the ATF didnt do much. any ideas on what to do and/or where i can find a good head assembly for cheap would me great.

thanks for all your help!!

[NissanhardbodyKa]

Yeah it sounds like you are on the right track.. Look to make sure that there is no leaks around the oil pump.. The main seal leak may be enough to set your oil pressure off its its bad enough.. And I had this problem with a engine I got. Someone put RV Gasket maker on the oil pump and timing chain cover.. A little piece got in the pump and made it drop oil pressure bad.. Look into that too and tell me what you come up with.

thanks for the reply man..

talk to you soon.

[94HRDBDY]

i didnt get a chance to look at thet main bearing but i got the chance to at least get some fresh oil in it. i did a seafoam and it helped alot but i still have an idle at about 600-650 with ticking lifters. it will level out at abut 700 after a while but my oil pressure light still comes on and off. i figured that shouldnt be on even with the low idle so i have a new one on the way. i noticed that it boggs down real bad and the lifters act up when i give it some throttle and im hoping the lack of power is from the same problem.i know the prevous owner did a timing job on it and from the looks of it he liked silicone so im gonna pull my old pump and check it out. i hope its the same issue you had before.

thanks again for the advice and talk to you soon

[94HRDBDY]

well i didnt check my oil pump yet but i did talk to this old nissan junkie and he tolld me i might be able to take the rockers off and "gently" wrk the air out with a pair of channel locks under some ATF. so i went home and tried it and it kinda worked. i found that the lifters that were solid that i thought had oil in them realy didnt. after squeezing the crap out of them they loosed up and ALOT of air started comming out. after freeing them up i just kept pumping them and eventually air stoped comming out. i tssed them back in and they started clacking louder than before but after it got to operating temp they stoped. i still have valve tick but it wont make people turn their heads as fast. im still having a rough and sometimes low idle, and it boggs down real bad if i hit the throttle and i dont know if its from the same issue or somethin else. any more helo would be great! im gonna try to get a video on here some time soon so you can see what its doin.

thanks again!

[94HRDBDY]

update from last one. i just let it run for about 40 min and then went out and checked it. i idle leveled out at about 700. it accually sounded a lil worst and my oil pres. light was steady on so i have the fealing my pump is bad. im gonna wait to check my presure before i buy anything. any ideas on how to make a cheap oil pressure gauge, or where to get one for cheap would be great. thanks for your help!

[NissanhardbodyKa]

Did you look for any debrees in the pump?? If so yeah that sounds about like what it could turn out to be.. If you want one man heres some that i am going to get my self. It is from JDM>. They are actully really good for how much they are.. http://www.advancedjdmparts.com/home.php?cat=260

[94HRDBDY]

so i finally got a il pressure gauge hooked up. the fitting you need to go into where the pressure sending unit is a 10 mm british pluming thread. it took my 4 days to find one and i had to have a brake line made to convert it to the 1/8" compression to get it to the gauge. ill have pictures of the contraption soon. Alaska rubber and rigging (907) 451-0200 made it.im pretty sure someone might be able to work a deal to have them ship one if you cant find one where you are. they charged me $30 for the contrapiton all the fittings, 10 ft of 1/8" high press. line and a bunch of extra comp. inserts. well after it was all hooked up i started it up and i had like 60 psi at start and it leveled out ad about 22 psi after it warmed up. i guess thats ok, theres realy no such thing as too much oil pressure i guess.i went ahead and seafoamed my intake manifold and the orst time it didnt even smoke. it took 2 more times to get something out of it and it still wasnt that bad. if you have any input hit me back. thanks