Timing Chain Guide Broke

[Rustys14]

I'm assuming you have a single cam ka since they have the most issues with the guides. To answer your question its doable but not suggested as there is a water jacket in the timing cover that the chain will eventually eat into if you drive with without the guide for too long (I'm not sure if the jacket is located in the same spot on twin cams or sr20s). Another reason that I would advise against it (with any motor) is because all of the little pieces of the timing guide are now in your oil pan and can clog your oil pickup causing pressure issues.

[chato de shamrock]

Originally Posted by Rustys14

I'm assuming you have a single cam ka since they have the most issues with the guides. To answer your question its doable but not suggested as there is a water jacket in the timing cover that the chain will eventually eat into if you drive with without the guide for two long (I'm not sure if the jacket is located in the same spot on twin cams or sr20s). Another reason that I would advise against it (with any motor) is because all of the little pieces of the timing guide are now in your oil pan and can clog your oil pickup causing pressure issues.

Wait, so driving without the timing guides is bad? I also have to open up my engine to take care of these and have been reading up on it. Until your comment I've only read they should be removed and left out. Even read a comment or two that the Nissan shop workers advise they are useless and you should just remove them when the rattling starts.

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by chato de shamrock

Wait, so driving without the timing guides is bad? I also have to open up my engine to take care of these and have been reading up on it. Until your comment I've only read they should be removed and left out. Even read a comment or two that the Nissan shop workers advise they are useless and you should just remove them when the rattling starts.

We're talking about different guides. It is perfectly fine and recommended to remove the upper guide on the early DE motors. The guide that the OP is speaking of is the main guide that along the chain from the block to the head. The main guide is fairly important and should not be removed. Nissan had issues with the plastic guide breaking changed the design to include a metal backing sometime in the mid to late 90s (I forget the exact date of the change over). Nissan even issued a service bulletin about this for the SOHC motors but never did a recall, instead they called it "recommended service".