KA24DE rough idle/low power arghh

[driftaholic]

for the last maybe 5 months my car (s13 w/ka-de) has had occasional rough idle/low power when it's first started up (warm OR cold) and then pretty soon snap out of it. recently it's been doing it more often and for longer periods of time, and all day yesterday that was the only way it ran all three times i drove it. i was thinking i had a problem in one of the cylinders, so i went ahead and replaced the plugs, wires, cap and rotor, and fuel filter about 2 months ago and those didn't help. i added some of that engine restore stuff to the oil and injector cleaner to the gas a few days ago and it didn't have a problem the rest of the day, but now it's just plain out of control. yesterday i noticed some hardcore grinding sound coming from the front of the valve cover so maybe my timing chain is fuxxored and threw off my timing?

the thing sounds like in between a harley and a '60s muscle carbwa-bwa-bwa-bwa-bwa-bwa you know

</life>

any help would be greatly appreciated. :help

[NISTECH]

get the timing cover off and check you guides,mechanical timing, and chain tensioner. I dont believe the noise under the valve cover is associated with the run problem over the last several months. that could be IACV for idle control or the coolant temp sensor is out of range.