Hey guys - so I hadn't started the car up for 5 days and it's been about 16-28 degrees out. I warmed up my garage until it was like 45-50 out there then started her up.
There WAS a sound coming from the same area, it sounded kind of like crickets chirping, but this time once the motor warmed up, it disappeared. And I took it up and around the block again, first slow, then getting on it, and power is great, spinning in 2nd and some of 3rd even (although that's prob b/c I have summer tires on and its 18 degrees out). Then I washed it again, haha.
One thing I forgot to mention, when I changed my oil about 2 months I ago I think the guy at Autozone gave me the wrong oil filter. I told him it was a 92 Sentra SE-R but I needed the 95-98 200SX SE-R filter (because of the VE) but apparently that got lost in translation. After many failed attempts to get this old filter off with my regular cap wrench, finally went and got a $8 oil filter clamp at Walmart and it came off slowly but look at all the damage it did:
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I imagine the problem is unrelated, but does anyone know if the highport oil filter is in fact smaller than the lowport or VE? The new filter I just replaced it with went on fine (Bosch 3300) and I'm wondering if I had the wrong oil filter on the whole time. There were no leaks at all, though, and while I doubt that had anything to do with the sound I'll start it up again and make sure in a bit once it cools down.