# Can i save My 02?



## silly2002sentra (Jul 2, 2008)

Hello,Please excuse how long this post is.... My wonderful son drove it with no oil, brought it home and it was running like crap. It wasnt making any noise though and a little smoke. Ok i filled it with oil and drove it some it was ok but still not right. Then it sat for a few weeks and i took it to the shop to have him look at at it and i had a loud click coming from the engine, (only under acceleration not while idling) and white smoke out of the exhaust...... i realized the headgasket was gone too... so i limped it to the shop about 5 blocks away. He obviouosly said the gasket was bad but didnt hear the noise because it was idling. Sooo i limped it back home. Now ive had it sitting 5 months and i want to replace the head gasket, which i can handle,but that noise is what scares me. I know it isnt going to magically go away when i put everything back together. Honestly i dont know what to look for. Now my questions..... Is it a lifter or a rod or bearing or piston slap? Does the fact that it does not make the noise while idling mean anything? should i sell it? (its got 115000 miles and everything else is fine) Time is not a factor as i would actually enjoy ripping this thing apart and trying to fix it, I just dont wanna spend alot......... Thank you so much for sitting through all of that and for your help.


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## lobogobo (May 12, 2009)

Sounds like a tear down to me. Without oil, it could have done a lot of damage. You'll need to pull the bottom end and check the mains for damage. The crank could very well be burnt or scored.


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

I wouldn't bother with the head gasket if this all occured when he ran it out of oil. It's about the same ammount of work to replace the engine with a used engine, which would be the smarter way to go. If the engine got so hot due to the lack of oil that it caused the head gasket to fail, you can almost guarantee there's some other damage to the engine. You will also have to investigate why it ran out of oil in the first place? You didn't mention which engine you have. If it's the QR25DE, they were legendary for burning oil due to the front catalyst breaking down and bits of it being sucked into the engine through the exhaust valve and scoring the cylinders (this happens as these engines use the variable camshaft timing to pull some exhaust gases back into the engine rather than the more convention method of using an EGR system). This was addressed in a voluntary recall for 02-03 Sentras and Altimas with the QR25DE engine. The QR18DE engines, on the other hand, or known for the occassional head gasket failures. Was this the cause of the oil loss, or was there an oil leak somewhere? In either case, it might be worth replacing the front catalytic converter; in the QR25DE, it is integral of the front exhaust manifold; on the 1.8L, it is not.


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## silly2002sentra (Jul 2, 2008)

Its the qr18de and it seems it was leaking oil out of the valve cover...


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