Can you advise which wiring harness was loose?

Also how did you find the minor header leak?

glad you got it resolved!

 

could be minor, so it wouldn't sound the same as "normal" knock. at what mileage did you acquire the car? i wonder if previous owners ever ran it low on oil. what's the rate of your oil consumption?

if the valve adjustment is fine, this would be my guess.

 

 

 

So it turns out that the Ballade TCT stretched my timing chain and I'm going to need to install a new one. I'm going to replace the guides and sprocket while I'm there.

 

man another ballade tct issue...

 

Yup, read the horror story I went through trying to get a refund. I don't know why they were banned from this forum but I'm glad they were.

 

Not yet. The valves were checked and in spec although on the tight side. Next week I have someone coming over to give me a hand with a few things, we're going to adjust the valves back to within middle of the spec how I use to always have it, then do a compression test and leak down test. Also probably check the cylinder heads with a bore scope. Not sure if this is the right path but at least we get a base line and understanding of the health of the car. I know people like to run the valves on the tighter side of spec, and I have some theory this may be part of the problem.

I did too many things all at once on the car if you read through this thread, so it's hard to figure out what caused this. If none of the above steps helps find the issue then I will swap the Ballade TCT back in and see if there's a change, or maybe get an OEM one see what that does.

 

As long as the valve clearance is within specs it makes essentially no difference to the power of the car, I've verified this on the dyno. In fact intake valves on the looser end of the spec actually make a little more power .4 hp more! Given the dangers of tight valves, and the zero downside to be on the looser end of the spectrum, I see no reason to go tight. Seems people would rather have torched valves than deal with a tiny bit of valve chatter if any.

 

Yeah, don't adjust them to middle of spec, adjust to high side.

Unless its an 06+ dbw car, in which case go even WIDER and use the Billman specs.