Noob gifted a 1987 nissan hardbody

[87hardpanda]

Hello,

I was recently gifted a 1987 hb, long story short my aunt has had the truck for 33 years and took good care of it. She noticed a knock coming from the engine and has been trying to get rid of it since June. I asked her about buying the truck she told me what she thought was wrong with it and said she would just give it to me.

Pros
I have a truck to use for fishing

Cons
Never really worked on cars like that aside from regular maintenance
No tools

Here is a video of the noise coming from the engine

https://youtu.be/N3PYdrZdkEE

So i joined this forum in the hopes that i could get some ideas and guidance.

[SVTCTR]

good looking truck, Welcome! im not good at identifying this cause but someone will chime in to help out. standby.

[87hardpanda]

Originally Posted by 87hardpanda

Hello,

I was recently gifted a 1987 hb, long story short my aunt has had the truck for 33 years and took good care of it. She noticed a knock coming from the engine and has been trying to get rid of it since June. I asked her about buying the truck she told me what she thought was wrong with it and said she would just give it to me.

Pros
I have a truck to use for fishing

Cons
Never really worked on cars like that aside from regular maintenance
No tools

Here is a video of the noise coming from the engine

https://youtu.be/N3PYdrZdkEE

So i joined this forum in the hopes that i could get some ideas and guidance.

Hi mod’s maybe this thread would do better in the d21 thread would it be possible to move it over?

[YEPEE]

I lost a head gskt that kind of sounded like that... the piston was slapping it

[kellybig]

Welcome; good looking little truck. Could be a lot of things. I would pay a shop to diagnose to narrow it down then see if you want to tackle yourself.

[nunya]

Certainly looks good enough to merit fixing it up. Good luck, I believe any diagnosis should be done first hand. How does the oil look?

[cadillacdude1975]

Sounds like the top end is/has been oil starved.

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site.

[XoXSciFiGuy]

Originally Posted by 87hardpanda

Hello,

I was recently gifted a 1987 hb, long story short my aunt has had the truck for 33 years and took good care of it. She noticed a knock coming from the engine and has been trying to get rid of it since June. I asked her about buying the truck she told me what she thought was wrong with it and said she would just give it to me.

Pros
I have a truck to use for fishing

Cons
Never really worked on cars like that aside from regular maintenance
No tools

Here is a video of the noise coming from the engine

https://youtu.be/N3PYdrZdkEE

So i joined this forum in the hopes that i could get some ideas and guidance.

Watched your video. That's upper-end valve train noise. If it were LOWER end noise, you would have tossed a crankshaft bearing or a rod by now.

Recommendations: First, clean out everything in that engine bay. Go to YouTube and watch the Chris Fix video on that. 35 million views at YouTube can't be wrong.

Second, a new timing chain set, one that comes with new oil pump and new water pump is probably in your future.

Third, when that is done, change oil. But this time add one quart of HyPerLube first to the crankcase, and then fill remainder with good quality stock oil. Quaker State is good. 5W-30.

Other than that, engine sounds good. Not much shake or rattle. I will assume it doesn't smoke and that when you wipe a finger in the exhaust pipe it either comes out with grey or black fluff (pretty normal) and not wet black oil. (Very bad) One thing I noticed is that it looks like all your air hoses are correctly routed. DON'T PLAY WITH THEM OR REPLACE THEM UNLESS YOU DO THIS ONE HOSE AT A TIME. You will never get them right again. In other words, never pull more than one hose at the same time. Trust me...you will mix them up every time and its a bitch to get them right again. Some people NEVER do. But I would definitely start with a complete engine bay cleaning like Chris Fix shows in the video. It will make that engine look good, and it will cool better without all that dirt, grease crap on it.

If you want to clean out that engine good and smooth out any valve noise that ISN'T because of a worn chain and tensioner...do the oil change with the stuff I recommended and then dump that new oil after the first 500 miles and do it again. Do it again after another thousand. Then one more time same mileage. Then every three thousand after that. In these older engines, the recommended every 6,000 miles is way too long for me. What the HyPerLube and the many oil changes in a row does is clean out all the carbon and crap from the running parts and wash it right out with the oil change. The HyPerLube leaves a honey-like coating on the moving parts that STAYS there so you don't get start up wear the next day. Picture of HyPerLube below. Most parts stores have it. Unlike Lucas or the other additives, HyPerLube WORKS. I have been using it for more than thirty years. Trust me on this. Just one quart per oil change...and put it in FIRST. Cause it takes a while to flow because of the thickness of it.

[PoBoi850]

You have a cool aunt, too.