I recently bought a 94 J30, I have noticed a ticking noise coming from the engine bay at idle. Engine pulls har, no oil, no smoke. 187K. Could this be a timing issue?

Lifters tend to tick on high mile VG30's. I have seen them tick on 300zx's for 60,000 miles without causing a problem.

nsrZ32 wrote:Lifters tend to tick on high mile VG30's. I have seen them tick on 300zx's for 60,000 miles without causing a problem.

I questioned that or maybe a sticky valve. If I were to resolve this, providing it is the lifters, how much would I be looking at? Roughly

9 times out of 10 some good cleaning synthetic oil will clear it up if that's the case. something like marvel mystery or the like.

[QUOTE=nsrZ32]9 times out of 10 some good cleaning synthetic oil will clear it up if that's the case. something like marvel mystery or the like.[/Q

well, did the usual tune up today, oil, air filter, fuel filter, cleaned the MAF etc. . . Pulled the autolite platinums someone had installed and replaced them with NGK's, swapped the pennzoil with Valvoline and no more ticking. . . It does idle a little rougher than I would like however. When you raise the rev's to 2K it smooths out. Any ideas?

BG makes excellant PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS to rehab older engines:BG44K in gas for injectors, valve stems, piston crown depositsBG QUICK CLEAN FOR ENGINES in oil for lifter and ring varnishBG INDUCTION CLEANER [spray] for throttle bodies, plenums and runners

* PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS are [very strong] for those who read and follow directions precisely as opposed to discount store products which are so weak that the typical shade tree can do no damage even trying by using double or triple the amounts. Techron is a good example of a consumer product.

Most engines are just dirty and new to be cleaned to as new conditions.....hard to accomplish and always takes time and multiple applications no magic bullet just lots of hard work to overcome 10 years of neglect.

[QUOTE=Q45tech]BG makes excellant PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS to rehab older engines:BG44K in gas for injectors, valve stems, piston crown depositsBG QUICK CLEAN FOR ENGINES in oil for lifter and ring varnishBG INDUCTION CLEANER [spray] for throttle bodies, plenums and runners

* PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS are [very strong] for those who read and follow directions precisely as opposed to discount store products which are so weak that the typical shade tree can do no damage even trying by using double or triple the amounts. Techron is a good example of a consumer product.

well i took it to an engine shop and was going to buy the BG products since the company is local for me until engine tech at american engines told me that it wasn't a lifter or a rocker arm and that it was a valve hitting a piston. he said the timing belt probably skipped a tooth and a valve was hitting a piston and he was 100 percent sure that it had cracked a piston and that i needed a new engine. i asked him if the piston was cracked, and a valve was bent than why no smoke?? he just sad that he had heard that sound before on this engine and that there was definitely a cracked piston.

Any thoughts

hmmm thats odd.... have them do a compression/leakdown test on all the cylinders and find which one is "CRACKED" A cracked pistons is pretty serious and thats a tough call for him to make by just listening to it run....

I did a

wild_maxx wrote:hmmm thats odd.... have them do a compression/leakdown test on all the cylinders and find which one is "CRACKED" A cracked pistons is pretty serious and thats a tough call for him to make by just listening to it run....

I already did that. The guy at the engine shop is full of it. All Cylinders are within 165-175. I took it to nissan to find out the VTC Sprockets are bad and that is what the ticking noise is coming from. They also said I needed a timing belt tensioner and recommended I do the timing belt kit, belts, seals water pump, thermostat etc.

I am pretty resonable with tools but have never done a timing belt, let alone on one of these, is this something I can do myself?? What all is involved in changiung the belt and the VTC sprockets?

well I have never worked on the VG motor. I have experience with the SOHC KA.. which isn't much help for ya.

If you have another car for your DD then why not give the T-belt a shot? Get a FSM and read the whole procedure before you start. I know there's a few people on nico that can help ya out during the process.

Hey, you're in Wichita? Go to http://www.nissanofwichita.com and we can setup a tech day sort of thing to help you out with your car. There are quite a few Z32 guys there so they should know a thing or two on working with the VG's. Plus... more members the better... we need a lot more.