Front cover removal with motor in the car.

[Thomas Reynolds]

Mike Jez wrote:

>I don't see why U
> got to pull the front cover off to fix ur timing chain skippage problem,
> I've done it sucessfully in my SE-R without pulling the front cover off
and
> the engine ran like a champ and put down some of the best HP #s for the
mods
> of all the SE-Rs. Just make sure U got it @ TDC compression on #1
cylinder,
> align the marks on the sprockets of the camshafts, and then remove the
> tensioner, remove the upper chain guide over the cam sprockets, use some
> wrenches to turn the cams a little to give the chain some slack to be able
> to align the sprockets right.

I can tell you why. Unfortunately for AWD and FWD DE engines (major design
flaw IMO) they do not have a provision as the RWD DE and DET engines due to
prevent the chain from jumping teeth on the crank sprocket when there is not
enough tension for whatever reason (changing out cams, bad tensioner). When
this happens the only way to ensure you have it lined back up correctly is
to pull that cover and line everything up. Otherwise you are guessing that
despite have 20 rollers on top you could literally be one tooth off and not
know it at the crank.

At the least Nissan should have put an allen type plug (like a 1/2 diameter
plug) in the cover that you could remove after pulling the crank pulley to
have a 'window' to ease this in case it were to happen. Yet the most cost
effective solution would've have been the chain slack guard built into the
cover as the RWD engines have. Come on Nissan what happened here?

Thomas
'97 200SX SE-R
F-Max Stage II Turbo
Albany, GA