Ok I know I've posted about this a few times but it's driving me nuts!

My Intake sprockets rattle for a period during warm up. Not straight away, but after around 30 seconds. The period it lasts for can vary between a minute to ten minutes.

Sometimes restarting the car can clear it, sometimes not.

So far I've tried the following:

Uprated VVT srings from JWT

Thinner oil (10w 40) just made it louder.

Different cam sprockets(second hand).

Still the damn things rattle!

All this started after I had the engine rebuilt. They were silent before that which makes me think that we are installing them wrong but I can't see how, it's just one bolt and a dowel pin.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Did you reconnect the vvt solenoids? ;) and to the right connectors?

Yes. Fitted a new wiring loom and double checked all the connectors.

Can operate the solenoids through Datascan so I know their working.

Can you buy new sprockets and if so will I need a second mortgage?

Thats a strange one then... If you've tried different pullies you'd be seriously unlucky to get another bad set... You absolutely sure its the pullies rattling? There was a design change from 94 onwards so did you get the correct ones for your cams?

>> Can you buy new sprockets and if so will I need a second mortgage?

 

Yes, you can and yes, you will need a 2nd mortgage or sell a kidney.

But I doubt it's going to help much.

 

Are both VVT's rattling ?

it may be a slow/stuck actuator solenoid.

As you already seem to have replaced all main parts it's likely something deeper within the engine, like maybe a problem with the cams or an oil pressure problem to the heads

 

>> There was a design change from 94 onwards so did you get the correct ones for your cams?

 

the new design is actually somewhat worse and have known "rattling" problems.

Als the new design pullies won't fit old type cams

New set is over a grand according to Nissan, so thats out!

Even the guy I spoke to couldn't believe it.

I think originally only the drivers side rattled.

Since changing them both are doing it, but the set I put on did look older and more worn on the teeth, so maybe they were gone as well.

Well I've got loads lying around but you can borrow my known good ones if it helps?

I appreciate that Andy.

I'm going to leave them for the time being as I want to get some use out of the car before the winter really sets in. I'm sure I'll need to have it apart again at some point

so I'll look at it then. What I would like to do is get an old one and cut it apart to see how it goes together. It's difficult to see from cutaway diagrams but I think the oil pressure pushes on the front of the spocket where the spring is. Is that right? If so there must be another internal spring to push it back out against the VVT spring?