so my oil pan was dented.. so i wanted to replace it. My friend replaced it with a new one but when we put in the new one, we forgot to pull the dip stick out, so it got caught between the oil pan and crank. He was in a rush for time and cranked the car to re-park but it was knocking. The dipstick was getting hit by the crank. In result, he had to redo the whole thing over again. he removed the pan it was bent near the dipstick galley. there were some metal shavings inside the oil pan and it was from the dipstick since it got shaved off from the rotation of the crankshaft or rods. now after unbending the pan and replacing it. the dip stick doesn't go all the way down anymore. that's not the biggest problem. I hear new noise near the valve train. The noise isn't loud at idle too about 2krpm, but after 2.5krpm you can hear it clacking and ticking, it would just get louder and louder. This happens without load on the engine. I can rev the motor at the TB and still produces the sound. at first i thought it was an exhaust leak because the B pipe had to be removed to get to the pan. I fixed that. then i suspected the manifold but all the studs are still there. I'm hoping its not the cams due to oil starvation because i can't check the oil level with my dipstick not being able to go into the pan. I will replace the pan again and fix the dipstick issue. but the noise near the head is really bothering me.

Does anyone have an idea of what it is? could it be timing chain guide? is there anything i can do to determine the noise? Should i do a completely engine flush? i'm hoping its not anything serious, but the worst case scenerio is the pieces of metal from the dipstick heading up to the head.

Please help.

 

put in a full 5 qts (to be sure you have enough) and go from there. must suck having to change the oil over and over and over again but sometimes you just have to suck things up like i did with a set of worthless headlights that i couldn't return.

i'd suggest to pull the valve covers and check for shavings up in that oil area. If you have crap up there it may be getting onto the cam lobes and grinding or something.

 

I made the same distick mistake, but I didnt let it crank long enough to shave too much aluminum off. Mine got pulled in and ripped off at the top though, the new one goes all the way down just fine.

Do you have a VE or a VG?

 

yea only a little got shaved off.. do you think that's enough to get into the head? im going to pull off the oil pan again to check out what's the reason i can't get dipstick back in.. I have a VE.. i dont have a lift but i wanted to do the job at home. what's the best way to take off the cross member? with just floor jacks and floor stands? i hate laying on my back doing these things. i'm in houston as well and wondering if anyone can help diagnose. i dont want to drive it to far if its valve train problems.

 

There is a small tube inside the oilpan into which the dipstick slides when it goes all the way in. On mine, I never removed the dipstick because I thought it just hangs out in the pan, and didnt notice that tube. It got pinched by the pan, and then smacked around for a few revolutions. I'm not sure why the dipstick wouldnt go back in though, perhaps that little tube got damaged? Is the noise you hear on only one of the heads?

If you didnt run it for too long after noticing this issue, then you're probably fine. I collected the shavings and cleaned out the pan, everything was good after that. The oil strainer feeds directly into the filter before going elsewhere in the engine, so if anything got taken up then the filter should've caught it.

I was on my back to re-do the pan. I have a hoist so it held the engine from the top while I worked on the pan. I suppose you could carefully put a jack under the pulley to hold that side, with some wood or something soft between them, then remove the cross member and do the rest.

Which area of Houston are you in? I wouldnt mind dropping in to have a look

 

If the dipstick tube gets bent (even a little), it's very difficult or nearly impossible to push the dipstick all the way in. I found out this out when it got bent doing front manifold studs.

The replacement tube from the dealer wasn't very expensive (around $20). I got another dipstick from the salvage yard.

 

Listen. Screwdriver on source, ear on handle. Or buy stet hos cope and try to cope... pinpoint the most noisy location point. Then figure whatsin there - under that point.

Wassup folks? Three guys on this page already with dented oil pans? Have US hiways deteriorated this badly...

 

The dented oil pan was from when he had the intrax springs on the car. I believe it was from probably ridiculous speed bumps or something.

 

My pan was and is quite fine, the oil seals had deteriorated though...

 

I paid >$10 for the dipstick at the dealer when I bought one last.

 

i'm still trying to figure out whether its the timing chain tensioners or idler pulley.. because while changing the oil pan the 2nd time i wasn't there but my friend was drove the car and the apparently the A/C belt came off. I tired to pin point the noise near the valve cover but the ticking occurs at such high RPMs that the engine, exhaust and intake noise starts blending in.

 

Your friend kind of scares me lol.
If your a/c belt came off when he drove the car then your pulleys are a good bet for creating at least some of that unwanted ticking and clacking by way of not being correctly tightened.

 

haha yea scares me too.. but he owns a skyline and rebuilt 2 of them for competition and show.. btw which one is the idler pulley? i've taken off the A/c compressor belt but i didn't take off the power steering belt yet.

 

It's a little late to update on this subject. It turns out the noise may be coming from the timing chain tensioner. We fixed the oil pan with new seals and everything. The oil picker was a bit bent from the last repair job. Unfortunately the parking lot in my apartment complex has huge speed bumps so I'm still hitting the pan on it sometimes. Will probably make a new post later about the tensioner.