Notch top sr valve ticking

[Elliott]

Alright I've been trying to diagnose and fix this issue for a while now and I'm getting rather frustrated. Notch top sr20det with vtc.

My issue started out as a slight misfire which affected the idle and when I would be steady cruising around 3k-3500rpm. Feels almost like a fuel issue the way it cuts. Once it clears the cut and gets above those rpms it runs better and pulls harder, if i continue to increase the fuel that goes into the motor, aka flooring it.
Recently, it has started to make a slight ticking / knocking sound from what seems like underneath the valve cover. I took it off and cannot see any obvious imperfections (broken springs, worn cams etc)

Originally i thought it was a fuel / injector issue.
I've put new correctly gapped bkr7e plugs in, tried to switch coil packs with another sr motor, compression test, all of which has led to nothing so far.
Sorry for such a lengthy post, this is my first sr motor and I cannot seem to figure it out yet. Thanks for any help/info in advance!

[jr_ss]

Have you checked timing? MAF voltages? Is the hiccup under load or no load? What about throttle? Part, half, full that this occurs?

[Elliott]

The timing is correct but I have not checked maf voltages nor cleaned it.

The car misfires at idle, which would be no load, also misfires when I get on the throttle. At hiccups around 3500 and once it clears that it seems to run a little better, as long as I'm increasing throttle not just cruising

[cbeuglas]

Mine was doing this also check or replace injector o rings resistance on injectors. Mine ended up being worn or clogged injectors.

[Kingtal0n]

I guess you dont have a wideband. Could be a bad O2 sensor the way you describe it, that would be the most obvious simple thing.

To diagnose without having to change it, put a multimeter on the O2 sensor wire, and measure output voltage, if its causing your problem it will read a constant voltage of about 1.00 volts.

Also when you start the car in the morning, do you hear a ratcheting like noise when the VTC first engages? Is your VTC connected? If you do not enable VTC solenoid, the valvetrain may be noisy because oil is not advancing the cam gear, and I noticed the slop left behind (at least on my engine) causes a tapping noise sometimes if (VTC) is left disabled.

Come to think of it, I also used to have a slight mis-fire at part throttle when my VTC gear was bad. I figured out it was the VTC gear because I disabled the solenoid... and the car ran much better.

Try that also, try unplugging your VTC solenoid and see if your problem vanishes....