Nissan Repair: Engine rattle, nissan pickup, spray paint

Question
Hi Calvin,

You were able to help me back in May with my Nissan pickup and getting it tuned up. I'm having additional trouble with it now that I want to describe to you and see if any of it rings a bell. Its a 1993 Nissan, 2.4, 4 cyl, 4x4. I started noticing a few months ago that it was developing an engine rattle. For the first few months, it was only off and on. It would kind of go in cycles where it would rattle for a few seconds, then stop for a few, then rattle for a bit, etc.

In the last couple of weeks the rattle has gotten louder and now it will rattle almost constantly. I noticed something very different about the way it was acting though over the weekend. I had been just using it for short trips, 5 miles to town and back, but over the weekend, I used it all day for hauling firewood and each trip was 27 miles. By the second trip I noticed that it was much quieter and was only rattling a little, by the 3rd trip, it was almost completely quiet. It almost seemed like it took 50 or 60 miles to begin lubricating something?

I was told that it might be a timing chain that was wearing out. Does that make sense? Would a timing chain take some time to get lubed as you drive?
I'm also suspicious that there may be some type of lubricating device that's failing...

Any thoughts on what it could be?

Thank you very much!

Dan


Answer
Hi Dan -

If you can give me more information, that would be great - Obviously engine noises come from many, many sources, and the more info you can give me, the closer we can pin it down -

Does the noise come out -
At a certain speed?
Only at a certain RPM?
While you are going up a hill, or coasting, or both?
Going over bumps?
Does it sound metallic, like when you shake a spray paint can? Or like there is a loose metal piece(s) banging each other?
Does the rattle frequency (or wave) increase with the speed of the motor, or speed of the vehicle, or neither?

Let me know -
aloha
calvin