Hi everyone, just got my 90 coupe last week and I love the thing! It's got 15k on a rebuilt motor which def. puts me at ease, except for one thing: on startup, there's rattling for about .5 seconds, maybe a bit more that immediately goes away. I used the search and figured out that the tensioners go bad in these things and that on the DOHC (which I don't have) you can just remove the upper guide to make the rattling stop. I'm assuming that you cannot just remove the upper guide on the SOHC? Also, is this noise consistant with a tensioner/guide failing?? Or is it just the rocker arms waiting for the oil pressure to build? I don't here any noise while driving or under load, so I'm just curious. (FSM is on the way, I just wanted to ask/ introduce myself). Thanks!!
Alex
First post and a question
You are probably correct about the noise. It is probably just the lifters waiting to recieve oil. You can actually see the timing chain guide if you remove the valve cover and get a flashlight and look down past the cam sprocket. And no, there are no upper guides, we just have one tensioner and one guide. And hopefully whoever rebuilt the motor replaced them with the updated set.
Yeah, I hope so too...I'm going to call him and ask. I read on the 240sx.org faq about the guy who replaced the belt abo 50k after the noise started so I'm not too terribly worried. I never hear any rattling at other times, just on startup (and then only on startup after at least 20-30 min of sitting.
Alex
Alex