Oil pump, timing chain guides, or ......??

[csdcowboy]

Okay, I know there's a lot of threads about the timing chain guides stuff, and I've read a lot of them, so don't bother telling me "SEARCH NEWB." Unless you really want to anyways.

FYI: '90 sohc coupe w/125k mi.

So I have what seems to be common - the startup rattle, which I heard is because there's no oil on stuff till the pump gets going. That makes sense to me. Unfortunately, I put 10w-30 before I knew that it would be better to put in 5w-30 or whatever. Next time, for sure.

In addition to the startup rattle, I have a rattle that starts about 2500rpm-ish till I'm not sure where. Once it gets past 3500rpm-ish the motor's louder than the rattling, so I don't hear it. I read on a thread (might've been on northwestnissans.com or freshalloy.com) that that could be caused by a not-so-good oil pump. I'm hoping that's right because that'd probably be easier to do than the timing chain guides.

You fellas have any recommendations? Anything's appreciated!

[aznpoopy]

iirc the sohc timing rattle is very different from the dohc problem; i.e. its not just a matter of taking out the timing guides (that's a dohc solution).

i *think* on the sohc a common problem was the tensioner and guides failing, as they are made out of plastic instead of metal (unlike the dohc). don't quote me on that though. at any rate, it's generally a more serious problem.

this is probably whats going on with the start up rattle
http://www.240sx.org/faq/articles/startup_rattle.htm

[csdcowboy]

Yeah I know taking out the top guide is the dohc fix.

Thanks for the link though, don't know why I never found it! :)