--May 23rd, 2005--
I decided to take off my valve cover today and remove the upper chain guide. It is making the infamous rattling sound from the top of the valve cover. In the process of removing it, I found the previous owner stripped out some of the valve cover bolts. What a genius! So now I get to worry about it leaking when I put it back together. I also decided to paint the valve cover while it was off. At first I was gonna paint it red, but then I thought....nah...lets do it dark grey. I started by sanding it down a little first, followed by taping all the holes. I also wanted to keep the letters looking nice and shiny, so I put a thin layer of vaseline on all the lettering so the paint would not stick to them. After a light sanding to get all the crap off, I layed down 2 light coats of primer. While the primer was still tacky I sprayed it with the high temp engine paint. I used a semi-metallic, high heat, matte finish dark grey engine paint. I think it looks way better than it did before.
This shows it before...UGLY!
Another even closer
Heres a shot of the timing chain guide...which is now gone.
Engine bay afterwards
Close view of valve cover
Cool shot of the lettering on the top.
--May 24th, 2005--
I reinstalled the valve cover and have not noticed any leaks yet or anything, so I think I will be okay. Also I fixed the problem I had with the hose running from the IAC unit to the cat. It was blowin carbon into my engine bay since someone removed it and didn't plug the hole. I got a plug from Nissan (part #14052-21R00), shot it with some PB Blaster to eat through the rust and break it free. After that I was able to get the tube out and plug the hole off. Now it sounds MUCH better, and it also helped fix some of the sluggish feeling I was having while accelerating. No more nasty gas exhaust smell in the cockpit....I am very pleased.
Here is a photo of the rusted collar on the exhaust manifold
Here is the same tube from the top...notice all the black carbon on the right of the picture and on the hose.
Here is a pic after I got the plug in.
A little closer...same thing.
