My winter break project (56K be warned)

[D1SR240]

Well, I decided that it was about time to fix that ever so annoying timing chain rattle. Since we have two weeks off from school, I decided to do it over winter break. Over all it went pretty well, besides the fact that it was a bit cold, and it took a little longer than expected but now it's finally fixed. So here's a few pics.

Here's a picture of the engine before I started. (I know it's dirty)

Engine with the valve cover off.

One of me working on the engine

Valve cover, and upper timing chain cover off.

I originally thought that i'd be able to do this with the engine in the car, however taking the oil pan off was quite a pain so I decided to pull the engine and transmission out. I didn't pull it all the way out but enough to comftorable take the oil pan off.

This is after all the guides and tensioners were replaced. I didn't take any pictures of the actual new guides and tensioners on the engine, because I just wanted to get it done and I didn't feel like stopping and getting the camera.

I decided to paint the valve cover and front upper timing chain cover. I did it in like 5 min. and didn't even really clean them before I spray painted them, that's why it looks so bad. But I just wanted to see how they would look in black.

And here she is, finally put back together.

I kinda had a hard time figuring out the whole timing deal (putting the distributor in, while it was set at the #1 cylinder and the #1 cylinder was at TDC on the compression stroke) but once I figured it out she started without a problem. And when she did she was rattle free.

Here's a picture of some of the old timing chain components.

Old lower timing chain guide. (tension side)

A close up of the old lower timinch chain guide. In case you couldn't tell from the picture above, but it was cracked and you could just take off one of the peices that's how bad it was.

And here's a picture of the car after a cheap carwash.

Overall the whole little project wasn't too bad. I'm really glad that i finally fixed it, and it doesn't make that annoying rattle noise anymore. I wish it was warmer, because it was kinda cold up here. But I'm satisfied that I finally got this over with.

If anyone has any questions about this, feel free to ask me.

[574-240sx]

Glad to see you got it done with. Its a pain. Crawling under the car to get the oil pan isn't too bad. Its always nice to have a engine hoist.

[D1SR240]

Ya it is nice to have an engine hoist. I bought it when I swapped in my 95 KA.

[nismofly]

so you said you sort of had to pull it out a bit, i dont have an engine hoist but i really need to do this, would you say i should look into renting a hoist or is it possible to do it without it?

[fightinchunk]

how much was the engine hoist?

[D1SR240]

its possible to do it without and engine hoist. The FSM shows how to remove the oil pan without lifting the engine. If you don't have an FSM you can download it from here http://www.zeroyon.com/TheSite/techservice.html Let me know if you have any other questions.

[D1SR240]

how much was the engine hoist?

It was $130, (it might have been on sale) I got it from Pepboys, it's a really good hoist, it's a 2 ton jack and folds up really nicley so it doesn't take up to much space. I'm really happy with it

[D1SR240]

so you said you sort of had to pull it out a bit, i dont have an engine hoist but i really need to do this, would you say i should look into renting a hoist or is it possible to do it without it?

I also recomend you do this asap, before things get worst

[DammitBobby]

You can pull the oil pan with just using a jack under the transmission. Remove the 4 bolts holding the sway bar to the frame. Remove the nut on each side of the motor mounts from the bottom. After removing all the bolts on the pan pry the pan off with a screw driver and let it lay there. If you have to remove the pan you only have to remove the oil pick up screen which is 3 bolts. I did this 6 weeks ago to weld an oil bung on the pan.