ok my car makes kind of a ticking noise when in idle. i dont think it affects performance, but i was wondering if it is piston slap and is piston slap bad? i can only really hear it with the window down

 

sounds to me to be more of an exhaust leak i believe that pistons slap only really occurs under load so if your hearing it at idle probably not
since you have headers try tightening the bolts and/or replacing the gaskets and that should help to cure your ticking problem

 

does it affect HP at all though, or is it just a noise problem? and wouldnt i hear the noise from a leak under acceleration also? ive only had the headers for like 4-5 months

 

unfortunatly it can cause your car to run rich due to extra air getting to the o2's hence a performance drop not to noticable if its a small leak but can get worse
but tightening headerbolts isnt hard so id just give that a try and see if it goes away

 

alright cool but can i know if its a leak by just putting my hand by the connections and feeling if there is air coming out?

 

sometimes by the y pipe and header back components you can but from the header flanges its a bit harder cause you usually have alot of turbulence caused by fans and other things in the engine bay but im not saying its impossible
butif its just a small tick your hearing its probly a small leak that would be hard to find

 

ok well how much do u think i should torque the bolts to with a torque wrench?

 

ive never worked on an ls1 but judging from the clearance of the headers on my lt1 your not con be able to use a torque wrench i just used my 3/8 wrench and got em as tight as i could cause theres not much leverage you can get on that tiny a$$ wrench

 

it most likely an exhaust leak , did u do plug while u changed ur headers, i heard a ticking sound one time and it turned out one of my plugs had backed out a little , it just needed to be tightened ,

 

maybe its my plugs then cuz i didnt change them idk