from under the valve cover of what I believe to be the front cylinder head. I really don't know much about fixing cars besides minor tune up stuff and was wondering if anyone knows what the problem could be and if its easily fixable.

 

I had a rattling sound from under the rear valve cover on mine(92SE). I drove it for several thousand miles with the rattle. I had to tear the engine down to repair a burned valve, and while in there I decided to inpect. I read alot here about VTC spockets going away so I decided to rebuild them per nissan mech recommendations. When I went to remove the sprocket from the rear head, the cam chain tensioner was destroyed. I think this was probably the source of most of my noise. Of course I had one exaust manifold stud broken on both front and back heads.

My opinion:

Exaust leak, VTCs, or cam chain tensioners. I would fix them all.

Good luck.