misnomer

OK, my digital camera is pretty much dead, so I have no pictures for y'all, but I did promise a writeup of sorts :-)

This is for the DOHC ('91-98) KA motors ONLY!

My motor had been making a steady rattling sound at idle, went away at higher rpms. I had already removed my upper timing chain guide for more annoying prior rattling. Before getting into this, make sure the rattling sound is coming from the valve cover towards the front of the engine. No point ripping everything apart to find the issue is something else. Use a big beefy screwdriver or a solid metal pipe to verify this.

Tools: Ratchet, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm sockets (you may need other sizes, dunrecall for sure).

Parts: RTV (silicone sealant), valve cover gasket (optional, only replace if the old one seems dry or was leaking profusely).

-Start by removing the valve cover, four bolts along each side, three on the top, 12mm iirc. Losen and remove the vacuum tube at the top.
-Unscrew the black injector connection housing (doesn't need to be removed, just loosened). Pull out your spark plug wires. You can mark them if it makes you feel better, but they are labelled on the distributor cap (cylinder 1 being at the front of the engine).
Lift up and remove the valve cover. You will now see your timing chain at the front of the motor.

If you still have an upper timing chain guide, it's a good idea to remove it now.
-Remove the guide over the top of the chain by losening the two bolts into the block (10mm iirc). Pull out the guide and hang it on your wall, or discard it, or something. In some cases (mine) the guard will have already been snapped, just pull it out and chuck it.
It's quite possible that this guide is your only problem, if you think it is, skip down to the *, save the effort of getting into the upper timing cover.

Now you must remove the distributor ('91-94 models, this may have changed for '95 and later. if it has, you have to be the clever one, I can't do all your work for you ;-) ).
-Remove the distributor cap. Nissan caps already have the cylinders numbered on them, so don't worry so much about keeping the wires in order if you have to take them off. Use a flatblade screwdriver to losen the plastic wire cover.
-Unscrew the two screws at the top right and bottom left looking head on at the distributor.
-MARK THE POSITION OF THE ROTOR! Use a felt tip pen to indicate where the rotor is pointing before you remove the distributor. If you don't, you will have to reset the spark timing (as I did). A lot of hassle that is easy to avoid.
-Remove the distributor by unscrewing the two 12mm adjustment screws and pulling the whole shebang out, it helps if you turn the cap counterclockwise a bit to remove it from it's gears.

Pull off the upper timing cover. I don't recall how many bolts there are, but some are 12mm, some are 10mm (those into the head are smaller).
-Unscrew the bolts on the upper cover, check where they come from first :P Don't forget the bolts into the head and the two bolts behind where the distributor was.
-Pull off the cover, probably easiest to grip from the distributor hole. If it doesn't come out relatively easy, double check to make sure you have all the bolts.

Check your tensioners. The upper tensioner is on the left side of the chain, use a flat bladed screwdriver to compress and extend it. If you get the urge, you may want to replace it. Do the same with the lower tensioner (you can't reach it to replace from here, but you can test it).

Remove the lower guide on the upper chain, it's on the right side of the chain.
-remove the two 10mm bolts and pull it out.

And I'm out of time, I'll add "putting **** together" in a couple of hours.

Cliff notes: Screw you and read the whole thing, hippie!

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