VTC rattle? no fix?

[ladiesman8527]

me and my brother put a s14 SR in his s14 and upon the very first start up, there has been a rattle under the valve cover on the intake side towards the front. it usually only does it on cold starts, but lately its been happening while driving the car reving the motor at around ~1500-~2000 rpms. i assume this is the notorious VTC rattle that a lot of S14 SR owners have been dealing with for a while. ive searched and searched and havent been able to find a solution to this problem. all threads dedicated to this problem just end with no solution. so my question is, has anyone come up with a solution to this problem? is this damaging to the motor in anyway? any help will be appreciated.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Solution: Change the assembly or pull it all out together, effectively making it into a glorified S13 engine. Almost every non-stock S14/15s Ive seen out here dont run that POS. Plus look on the bright side, without it, you can run more aggressive cam profiles...

[ladiesman8527]

thats cool. do i simply remove the VTC solenoid, or is there more to disabling this system? i'd change the solenoid out, but i hear even changing it doesnt do anything. is there any damage being done to the motor by simply just ignoring the noise?

[fliprayzin240sx]

thats cool. do i simply remove the VTC solenoid, or is there more to disabling this system? i'd change the solenoid out, but i hear even changing it doesnt do anything. is there any damage being done to the motor by simply just ignoring the noise?

When you lift the valve cover, you should see the solenoid attached to the intake side cam gear. Take the whole assembly off, just cant remember if you have to change the cam gear too. Im running some HKS adjustable cam gears.

[Goldeneye9mm]

hetis that sound you hear like only when it's from a strait cold start then it goes away almost completely? and also for fliprayzin240sx do you loose any hp by doing this. i plan on caming it but until then i dont wanna loose hp.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Stock setup, yes you'd loose a bit of torque. But for a modded setup, you gain alot more by running a more aggressive cam setup up. Think Tomei Poncams 264-272 stagger on a bigger turbo setup like a GT3076.

[ladiesman8527]

so i did some more searching, and apparently you can use a VTC solenoid from a VH41DE (Q45). its a different part number and a newer design, but it works perfectly according to a dude on FA. if we just ignore the noise until we replace the solenoid, will it do any damage to the motor?

[C0NAN]

You have to replace the intake cam gear. If you eliminate it with adjustable cam gears you'll lose low end torque.