Anybody know what is causing this noise? [Soundclip Included]

[AdamP]

Redtop SR20DET

I put a screwdriver to the valve cover and listened and I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. The car seems to drive fine as well no funny noises out of the ordinary. When I give the car a bit of throttle under the hood the noise dissappears. The sound can be described as similar to when you stack two dinner plates together.

http://members.shaw.ca/fivelitermustang/VOC008.MP3

Here is one with a little bit of throttle.

http://members.shaw.ca/fivelitermustang/VOC010.MP3

Anybody have any idea?

[Katapl]

Bleed your HLA's. That sounds awfully similar to what happened to me.

[Chrischeezer]

whats ur oil pressure at?

[Dream240]

It's the classic timing chain rattle. Common problem. Just rem ove the valve cover and front cover, and take the two upper chain guides out. Hopefully they haven't started falling apart already.

I changed the upper tensioner while I was in there. And get a new valve cover gasket.

Oh and try not to drop the guides in the oil pan......that would be bad.

[AdamP]

Dream240, thanks for the advice, I think you've pin-pointed it. The noise doesn't exist when the car is cold, only when it has warmed up and only under idle.

http://www.sr20forum.com/showthread.php?t=88199. Would the procedure be similar to this?

-Any negative long-term reperscussions?
-Can I get away with just removing the guides themselves?
-Is this just a nuisance issue or would it be beneficial to remove the guides as soon as possible.

I won't have time to do the change until the weekend. Would you suggest a person with limited mechanical ability such as myself to do the change? The furthest stuff I have done myself are just bolt-ons. This doesn't look too bad (just gotta get the cover off and back on using proper pattern and torque).

[AdamP]

Just some follow up questions here. I'm going to do this tommorow.

I think I'm going to take off the top valve cover and have a look. If the timing chain guide is on there tight then it would mean that there is some loss of tension which means that the oil pressure may be a little low.

Do you think that putting in an engine stop-leak would contribute to significantly lower oil pressure? I put it in a month ago as I had a minor leak (like 2-3 drops a day) which was fixed up easily.

Also, with taking the valve cover off what do I do with the hoses attached to it? What do they do? What about the spark plugs? With the valve cover gasket, do I reuse it? How about the application of a sealer.

I have little mechanical experience but I'm willing to learn. I've read the FSM for the S14 but I don't think it says specifically what to do when pulling the valve cover off. I have an S13 redtop, btw, which I haven't been able to find a guide for.

[Katapl]

On a lesser note, you should be able to find the FSM you need right here (http://www.bumnah.com/fsms/).

[Dream240]

okay, well unfortunately the timing rattle I was refering to was for the KA engine. As far as the SR, just follow that write up and remove it. Sounds like it's not needed anyways. But you could have a timing chain tensioner problem. If it's easy I would replace it while you're in there.