2004 base model Sedan with 95k easy miles. It's been ticking like this for at least 15k miles.
The car runs great, starts instantly, and has plenty of power.
The ticking seems to come from everywhere, but is loudest in the front passenger side of the engine. The video sounds MUCH louder than reality. It's not a rod or piston knocking. I know what that sounds like.

I put new spark plugs in, and changed the oil, 20w-5 synthetic. I've run dinosaur oil with no difference in the ticking.

​​​​​​I ha​​ve listened to a long metal bar held against each coil pack, and to different parts of the head and intake manifold. There's no ticking at the coil packs. The noise seems a little louder at the passenger side head, near the front.

No noise coming from the EVAP dohicky on the year of engine.

​​​​​https://youtu.be/KjCU7EGvZug

 

Sounds like a lifter bucket. Pull the valve cover, set at TDC and check clearance with a feeler gauge. Also look for any abnormal wear on the cam lobes. They should all look about the same.

You're running 20w-50?

 

Thanks, I may do that.
I'm running 5w-20. Sorry, I wrote it backwards in the OP.
Do know of a good thread in here showing how to pull the valve covers?
I recently changed out the plugs and getting the wire harness loose enough just to do that was a struggle.

 

Yeah you'll pop the wiring harness out of it's holders so it won't be attached to the engine anymore, just drape it out of the way. Loosen the brackets on the EVAP stuff near the battery holder, that's the hardest corner, the rest is very straightforward.

Use Permatex Ultra Grey RTV (or equivalent) around the back corners and the front near the cam actuator. It makes sense when you're putting the gasket on where you will need to RTV, basically anything where aluminum parts of the engine mate together and on corners.

 

Where should I get the lifter buckets? Brand? And should I get the stock thickness or thicker? Or do I have to measure clearances etc?

 

You have to measure clearances, use OEM Nissan ones.

Start by checking clearance and looking for obvious cam lobe wear, if it is a sloppy bucket I would measure it first to make sure it's not just collapsed or worn, you might just need another one of that exact same size. The sizes are stamped on the bottom of the lifter bucket there's like 30 available sizes in 0.02 mm increments. There are different part numbers for intake and exhaust buckets and they're usually like $25 apiece for new ones. If you want to save money just go down to a pick and pull and start tearing apart VQ engines, they literally all use the same lifter buckets, VQ35DE, VQ35HR, VQ35VHR (and the VR38DETT but you won't find those in your local pick and pull lol)

I recommend getting an aluminum degree wheel for cam timing from Jegs / Summit / etc. You need to mark the crank pulley at 240 degrees from the TDC mark in order to find TDC 3 and another 240 degrees to find TDC 5. You can eyeball it from the cam lobes though if you don't have one.

It's a pretty time consuming task, lot of stuff to take off to get to those lifters. Be prepared to do other things like the timing chain tensioner, maybe the guide if it looks worn, maybe a water pump since you'll have the chain off, etc. Definitely just start with an inspection from the valve covers.

 

Thanks!
I may just live with the ticking.
I forgot I'd have to pull the cams, and do the tensioner, etc.
I may just start by measuring the clearances and decide what to do from there.

 

It was a time consuming process, but very needed on my rebuild. The tick is real!

 

Ohh and when checking valve clearance I like to use a sharpie and mark the lifter bucket edge just so I know for sure that I measured it. Write them all down on a piece of paper as well, since it takes three turns of the crankshaft to get all your measurements it's easy to lose track of what you've already measured. I highly recommend just checking them all on the bank, not just a few that you think might be the issue.

Factory spec is 0.010 - 0.013 intake and 0.011 - 0.015 exhaust but that's on a tight new motor. After 100k or so they WILL have opened up to like 0.015 intake and 0.018 or more exhaust, those numbers are fine you're just looking for an outlier, they don't really start to make noise until you're in the 0.025 - 0.030 range.

If anything is like 0.050 you're eating something up probably due to insufficient oiling. The stock springs have an excellent rate for the DE engine not too firm so you get a good long life out of the lifter buckets without much (if any) wear. Most of the ones I pull from donor engines are either still within factory spec or MAYBE 0.001 shorter and usually no dishing, unless the engine was obviously being starved of oil but there's usually visible (or can feel with a finger) cam wear too in those cases.