Just watched the 2nd vid of you driving.. And with that sound, i think I'm going to suggest you don't drive it anymore until we get this figured out. It almost sounds like heavy valve tapping due to oil starvation up top.. But you said it was fine before this, so unless its a coincidence that your motor went south at the same time (which is unlikely but I have seen these types of things before) it's def not running even close to correctly, it sounds like its about to blow up. I'm not sure if cam timing would cause this sound, as I've seen SR20s which were off a tooth or two after a cam swap not even start up, or if they did, start up and stall within like 4 seconds.
I'm not trying to scare you but that sound sure scares me. How did everything look up top in terms of any oil sludge, dark stuff etc? Has the oil been changed regularly?
While Its prob due to the demographic who were more likely to own the Infiniti G20 back when it was new (owners were possibly a bit older and less likely to hit the rev limiter on a regular basis, which is actually healthy for the SR20) - I ask because we have seen a lot of G20's over the years with these types of issues, usually automatics that were driven very softly and suffered from oil starvation and/or were poorly maintained. (I knew a guy who bought a G20 from an older woman where the service records indicated she went over 14k between oil changes at times in 8 years of ownership)
Your motor does not have the timing chain guide installed, correct? I think Nissan ditched them in the SR20 after 1997, they did no good at all and actually could damage the timing chain over time, not to mention the noises. I remove them everytime I get my hands on another SE-R.
It sure could be and probably is the timing, I'm just surprised it even runs.
Last edited by Storm88000
on 2012-12-13
at 05-49-09.