Changing Timing chain

Well after much debating of should I shouldnt I Today out came the engine minus gearbox (chew) leaving it in situ would have been easier lifting the whole lot out then spliting it but its done now so it will have to be. I have never done timing chains before as ive always had belts and the k11 micras ive had never needed the attention, As I said yesterday the complete kit was £195 Blue Print spares I bought it before I went to the trouble of removing engine and a host of covers as I thought if im going to the trouble its getting done anyway. After measuring the piston tensioner very nearly 2cm it was clear to me that the route of the problem was in fact the chain that said the haynes manual to me on this subject was as much use as a chocolate fire guard. To cut a long story short ive done the job and im hopefull that everything is where its supposed to be sprockets ect and all thats left to do is rebuild the covers engine ect fit back in and hope when I turn it over it runs. If someone was to ask can you do mine the answer would be no thanks to much chew I can see now where the minimum £600 price tag comes in, that said with the engine out there is bags of room in the engine bay prime location for a 2ltr lump.................sorry but I took no photos as battery is flat on camera but maybe tommorow i will post a few up............

new chain tensioner, sprockets, guides ect one days work and only half completed will take another day to see it through and maybe thursday morning who knows????

Pah, coulda bought and fitted an SR20 for that money :laugh: Good work anyway (Y)

Not that easy to fit sr20 you would have to re loom whole car to get it running then you still would be without power steering, its not as straight forward as it was with the k11

its one of those hyvo chains eh ken and that vtc mechanism looks a pita to work on eh fwn (i,m glad mine is straight forward)

TBH frank Im not sure its correct, haynes manual says to use 3 bar pressure down oil feed and to rock camshaft untill you hear a click, thing is I heard no click im hoping that the shafts havent moved as I forgot to mark them up. First thing I was taught when doing belts was to mark everything up just lack of sleep I guess. If its wrong lets hope it wont do to much damage. I would love to be able to use a k11 engine in there I wonder how hard it would be to do that.......

Why you changed the chain? the rubber belts are dangerous, but your´s is metallic, the manual say that must be changed at some milleage?

Juan, some of the earlier 1.2 and 1.4 K12s were fitted with poor quality chains that stretched too much. Eventually the timing drifted too far out and the fault light would come on. These chains had to be replaced .

I havent got the manual to hand for the tolerance but at 2cm displacement (tensioner) that would be 20mm which is more than enough to warrant chain been replaced.
Plus it ran like a bag of hammers so im hopefull that it will now be cured, It seems a little extreem to remove the engine to do this job after all ive read that the whole job can be done in a day and with the engine in situ tbh I would have to see this there is no way I could have taken the engine apart without removing it no matter how many axle stands or how ever high I lifted it. And the price tag to get it done at nissan about a grand other garages vary from 600 quid upwards this however includes parts seals oil ect, im lucky that I have a rather large garage and all the tools to hand including lifting gear so I was able to tackle it myself, if I hadnt the tools ect then given the work and time involved yes I would pay 600 quid in a heartbeat even if that ment taking it down to frank then picking it up again. I thought that I was a pretty good hand when it came to mechanics I grew up in a garage and my entire youth was spent there but this job has me nervous not that im not confident as to the standard of my work ive just never done a chain and there is so much that can go wrong. Degrees of dificulty for the novice mechanic I would put it at 10 your better off paying a garage or mobile mechanic like frank to do the job for you.:wow:

Thanks for the info and pictures on this, looks a daunting task.

Frank I went into garage this morning with fresh eyes and did the old tdc thing re lined the sprockets made sure everything was on the marks then re fitted the chain makeing sure the 3 gold links lined perfectly with the correct marks on bottom pully and sprockets, then spent 2 hours getting all the crappy sealent off the sumps timing covers ect. rebuilt it all and refitted engine filled with oil fluids ect then came the time to fire it up. Ticks over like a new kitten lol rev counter has stopped flickering so all thats left to do is put the offside light cluster and grill bits, bonet back in and road test it tommorow lunch time. So what now that the k12 has a new chain full service and runs perfect............................SELL IT and buy another k11 lol

well done ken (Y) you,re the man

What Frank said, nice one!

Cheers guys! Tell you what though if it wasnt for the fact that there is so much work involved I would be happy to do these but its the crappy sealant that you have to remove it takes as long as dismantling the engine.

ON the early k12 it will have 3 notches on the bottom pully and the timing chain cover will have a protusion on it left side looking at it, the centre notch is top dead centre , with the top chain cover removed turn engine via nut on bottom pully your looking to line up sprockets and pully at top dead centre before removing old chain, you can also for referance remove the first spark plug this will make it easier to turn engine also if you remove dipstick clean off oil then you can put this down plug hole you will see it rise as engine is turned you will be able to see tdc as it reaches peak...frank knows what I mean.

After driving the car today I am well pleased with results no more cutting out at junctions no more flicky rev counter and no more vibrations at 60mph, happy days are here again, la la la:laugh:

Amazing job!

After replaced the chain for one time I will have to change the chain again after the same miles? Because, generally, the chain should never changed...

Thank you!

Just completed this job myself and noticed a big improvement, the chain's should have never gone in the fist place, If I had to do this again I would do it in the car, drill 2 holes to gain access to the oil pick up pipe and take the front cover off, would save having to pull the top sump, remove zaust and the rest of the crap, I am of course never planning on doing another one of these but it could have been a damn sight easier if they had put a bit of thought into the engine design, mind you if they had admited it was a fault and fixed them it would have been even easier.

2nd that statement im still toying with putting in the 2ltr lump, every part of my brain says no dont try it, BUT to my understanding it hasnt been done with any great success and the cudos of been the first would be good. I know the 998cc engine in mine leaves a lot to be desired even with the timming chain done, I have been looking for a cheap primera or sunny but up tp now i havent found one but when i do then i will certanly give it some very serious consideration

Excellent post, hope you don't mind but I've linked to this from cubeownersclub.co.uk as the 2nd gen cube shares the CR14DE engine.

Could you clarify the model years of the 'early' K12s that have this weakness if possible?

Is it fair to assume that replacement chain kits available to buy now are the improved equivalent?

Thanks
Phil

It was a blue dot kit so very good and i think it was up to 2005 not sure

Thanks Ken, thanks for signing up to the cube club too - shame you're so far from me.

well a lot can be gained from pics and questions theres allways someone to help on here so it makes diy very easy

Can I ask that did you have to SETUP the new VVC inlet sprocket or just fit it ? I ask as I have been told a new one does Not require any setting up. I'm planning on doing this job next week. Thanks

Check out the tensioner on this one

Just pulled this one apart for a chain kit replacement. Car's last service was three years ago Sump removal was a bit of a pain but the engine is still in the car

Craig

Ken did you ever get the inlet cam sprocket to lock in the "full advance" position ???? Mine's haveing none of it
Thanks
Craig

hi mate , just following up on the timimg chain replacment kit ..was wondering do i have to take the engine out and is there any step by step here on the forum ?

Craig, it's done with compressed air. Guess you could do it with a tyre or small compressor:

thats pretty fuc'ed up this timing thing .man they really screwded up the micra fo sure

so its a must this engine has to come out ...and is the blue print timing chain kit ..a good option to buy or fia ?

Yes the engine has to come out as there is no room with the chassis leg in the way to get at the parts. ADL/Blueprint is basically genuine parts in Blueprint boxes.
If you fit a kit complete with NEW pulleys inc the variable one, you Dont need to set it up using the compressed air. You just align the marks and the oil pressure once started will sort it out

thnks northerner ,,ive never tackled this task of a job before so im really dreading it ..is there any other thing i gotta look out for ? i just wanna get this right i dread the way my sister speak about the car ..i bought it for her from a auction ..without checking the odds sounds ...

You need to order a new oil pump O-ring and make sure you remove all the old sealant from the sumps and oil pump prior to sealing it up again. Print off the manual as it showes you how to apply the sealant. The other main thing it to make sure you HOLD the inlet cam steady with a wrench when tightening the nut to avoid damaging the VVC pulley

thanks mate ....

plenty info been added here to do these now...all i remember is there a pain in the butt