I just changed my timing chain on my '93 Nissan Truck. Only had 200k miles on it! I had someone help me, so far things are good, but I believe the timing is off. It makes a little bit of a clattering noise when I accelerate. I have been told that this means the timing is off a little. I have no real knowledge or understanding of the timing concept.

I can get the timing adjusted by my friend Monday, or try to do it myself. I did most of the work on the timing chain, just had to have someone tell me what to take off, and do some stuff for me. My question is this, is it bad to drive a vehicle slightly out of time? Will it tear stuff up, or is it just something I need to get fixed monday. I will not drive over 30 miles including the trip back to the shop this weekend, is that a problem?

Thanks.

E

Quote: Originally Posted by Fred_G I just changed my timing chain on my '93 Nissan Truck. Only had 200k miles on it! I had someone help me, so far things are good, but I believe the timing is off. It makes a little bit of a clattering noise when I accelerate. I have been told that this means the timing is off a little. I have no real knowledge or understanding of the timing concept. I can get the timing adjusted by my friend Monday, or try to do it myself. I did most of the work on the timing chain, just had to have someone tell me what to take off, and do some stuff for me. My question is this, is it bad to drive a vehicle slightly out of time? Will it tear stuff up, or is it just something I need to get fixed monday. I will not drive over 30 miles including the trip back to the shop this weekend, is that a problem? Thanks. E

This can be very bad for your engine. The clatter you here is detonation in your cylinders, wich is not good at all. It's harmful to several things. The pistons or the valves, the valve guides, I could go on. When you changed the chain, were you sure to line up the marks on the gears? Are the tensioners correct? Is it only during hard acceleration? Is your distributor cap OK? Just a few things to consider and check. Bailey.

As Beetle said any new noise it's making is probably not a good thing. To ask another question if you might know, does your engine have a distributor and did you re-time that to the engine also. If the new cam chain is slightly out of place it will also change the timing of the distributor and that can cause the noise your hearing also.

Thanks for the info. I did a lot of the work as far as changing it, but I had a mechanic, well 2 actually, that did the timing part. They also adjusted the distributor because the noise was pretty bad at first. It is a slight clattering during medium/hard acceleration.

I will try to adjust the distributor today, and see if it stops the noise, if not, back to the shop it goes Monday.

E

Sounds to me that the timing marks were'nt aligned properly. Even with the them being off a tooth, could cause major timing problems. I'm actually suprised that it even runs half way decent. Are you sure that it's firing on all cylinders? Possibly a fouled plug or bad wire? Just a couple more things to look at. Bailey.

Looks like all is good now. The guy made a small adjustment on the distributor, and the noise is gone. Truck drives good for one with a little over 200k miles on it. Thanks for the info.

E