92 240 help PLEASE

[harrisjw]

so im new to the 240 world but have worked on cars most of my life.

i have a 1992 240sx with a stock KA. put on a K&N filter kit and cat-back exhaust kit (stock headers).

not too long after i bought the car, i noticed a tick. with my experience, i'm pretty sure its a valve tick and am not too worried about it, but this is one thing i am curious about being a problem down the road!

now for the biggie: after i put the exhaust on, i noticed the car running a little rich and rough. i dont know weather to advance or retard the timing (question number one) and if this is the cause of the rough idle or not (question two)

when the car runs rough, its only at idle, which leads me to think vacuum leak but dont know where to start on that adventure...and to be honest, think it might be a head gasket, except for the fact that it runs fine once its given gas and uses NO coolant.

last question! it does burn some oil so i dropped 10w40 and some Lucas in it and it quit for the most part but still does it when its cold outside (below 50). any suggestions??

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED AND GLADLY TAKEN!!
if you are near the Athens area and can help, PLEASE do...this is my daily driver and am about to have to drive it to Las Vegas as i am moving!!

[dallasb84]

could be the tensioner thing in the valve cover.... had a few friends 240s that rattled.... n it was just that timing chain guide

[green91]

The valves on these motors always make a little bit of noise that i've seen.

First thing i do on any 240sx thats running rough is check the MAF and see if its dirty on the wire. Especially seeing that youve added a k&n recently.. was it over oiled?

[harrisjw]

filter needs to BE oiled...its been a while

i have heard timing guide being a problem...i'll check that out asap along with the MAF

[HMGDRFTER]

check your ECU for codes. depending on what gas you put in you have to use the timing on the 240's or else it might run rough.. also like i said just check the ECU retard timing plus if your hearing a tick might wanna check out your knock sensor, it might be retarding your timing also.. reset ecu, turn on car for like 1 - 3 minutes without touching anything so the ECU can check the ECU for errors.

[harrisjw]

how do you reset the ECU?

[HMGDRFTER]

turn your key on all the way but don't start your car, turn the ecu knob thingy, then codes should pop up, turn it back the other way until the codes don't pop up anymore, turn the key and take it back out...

put the key back in, and repeat what ive just said, but when you twist the knob thingy for the codes, the code should pop up 55 meaning theres nothing wrong with your car, if theres still something wrong with ur car after that means your wires are loose somewhere or the wires to the ECU are loose...


if you don't know, take your 240 to killlswitch or something, or tiger some kind of 240 specialist... i hate working on 240's to much electrical stuff, etc... you just gotta know what to do.

[harrisjw]

...ecu knob? (told you im new to 240s...hell, nissan in general...used to be a honda guy)