Ever since I did the head job on my Nissan truck, the timing chain has been making noise. Before I did the head job, I could hear a little noise, but nothing like now. So, looks like I'm going to be doing a timing chain repair over the Christmas holidays, which gets to the question. Nissan doesn't have a kit that I can find and when I put all the parts in the cart, it's well over $300. They are quite proud of their stuff. I can find all kinds of aftermarket kits from $60 to $120 . Anybody know of a quality aftermarket kit worth a hoot? I've seen some by Cloyes, which I also heard were good, but the pictures of the kit show some potential issues for me (like no silver chain links to align the chain to the sprockets). NAPA has a set for around $120. I saw one kit on fleabay for aroud $80 that was "Japanese mfg", but no mfg name was listed.
Anybody?
I used one from rockauto, but I don't remember the brand
The last one I did was a cheapo kit from ebay. The quality seemed pretty good, but the painted links of one of the chains was not marked properly. Since the old chain was totally broken I had to look up pics online to find out how many links between the marks there were, but once I remarked the chain it all worked out fine.
I used a cheapo rock auto kit on my 2.2L pos sunfire, it held up fine.
16vCorey wrote:
The last one I did was a cheapo kit from ebay. The quality seemed pretty good, but the painted links of one of the chains was not marked properly. Since the old chain was totally broken I had to look up pics online to find out how many links between the marks there were, but once I remarked the chain it all worked out fine.
this. just remark it, even if it they are visible right now. I'd remark one of mine with a color that is actually visible just in case I had to do anything involving lining marks up. All the ones in the Nissan Classes I took were marked in purple and pink, colors thta stand out a good bit more than the "slightly less shiny silver" and "slightly more bronzey silver" that nissan uses
and i'm guessing its making whining noises? make sure the kit has new guides as well. very common problem.
It's sad but I saw a certified pre-owned altima come in with chain whine, at 20k miles. Dealer-No-Fixey because it's easier to warranty if the customer complains about it when it gets worse.
Its making a rattling ish noise.
When I did the head job, I had to jam a piece of wood down the front gallery to hold the chain in place. I may have jambed it so hard, it pushed the guides back a little. The first piece of wood was too long and I could not get the upper sprocket off, so I had to remove it and go with a shorter piece. I had a hell of a time getting the sprocket back on and got some slack in the chain. I also suspect it may have slipped one link, because the engine seems to have lost some power.
spitfirebill wrote:
I also suspect it may have slipped one link, because the engine seems to have lost some power.
I would go look at this first before spending any $$$$$ on new parts.
dean1484 wrote:
spitfirebill wrote:
I also suspect it may have slipped one link, because the engine seems to have lost some power.
I would go look at this first before spending any $$$$$ on new parts.
Even if it did, that's not going to fix the rattle. That's usually indicative of the plastic coming off of the guide. Now that the chain is running against the aluminum guide bracket it will be toast soon if it's not replaced.
A tip I saw the Master Tech down here do last time he did a vq engine: put a socket (idr if what size, I wanna say 10mm but whatever fits tightest in there) under the chain wedged in @ the crank pulley. do it with the marks lined up like they are supposed to.
the bottom mark will stay where it is supposed to and you can get the top marks lined up easily because you aren't fighting keeping the bottom in place.
and ditto on chain+guides both, these things go south VERY quickly.
usually in my experience it makes a whining noise as the chain rubs on the piston for the guide tensioner, but a rattle also makes sense
SkinnyG
HalfDork
12/11/12 9:49 p.m.
When I did my Nissan pickup, it turned out that the (all plastic, thanks Nissan) guides were gone, and chopped up by the counterweights as they fell into the pan. I bought all "Nissan" parts, and it ~was~ expensive. Both the Nissan replacement guides and the aftermarket guides are now metal-backed instead of all-plastic,
There is talk that Nissan's parts and most "jobber" parts come from the same factory. Considering the time/labour involved to do this, I didn't want to gamble that.
Be sure to clean out the oil holes that feed the tensioner. And get a new tensioner.
Wasn't paying attention when I took the pic below - the tensioner guide is placed upside down. Just a "damage" shot:
