Usmuscl398

TICK TICK TICK Is all i hear, tick tick tick....it was first on the passenger side now the driver side...its driving me NUTZ, i was thinkin bout pullin off the pacesetters and looking at the gasket and possibly replacing it, and while they're off a tune up since plugs will b easy to reach. is it all that difficult to remove em like that in a garage, i didnt put these in.

turbo_Z

How do you know its an exhaust leak as opposed to loose rockers?

OBE1 95Z28

When the exhaust manifolds are changed, you need to re-tighten the mounting bolts after a few thermal cycles to take up any slop (gasket compressing). If you don't you can blow out the gasket and get the leak.
Some guys have bad luck and even after re-tightening the bolts, they work their way loose again. Breslin makes a quality set of locking exhaust bolts; not cheap but better than replacing exhaust gaskets.

Chances are your gaskets are bad; you don't need to remove the headers to swap gaskets. You'll probably need to drop the Y-pipe to get enough freedom to pull the manifolds away from the heads to replace the gaskets.

Usmuscl398

so far everyones told me it sounds like exhaust, is there a definite way of differentiating the 2? and i have my Y pipe welded to the headers (previous owner) any suggestions?

o and ne thoughts on my miss problem a few threads down?
high idle and miss up to round 2k

tc3

i have stock manifolds and on the drivers side when i put my head down by the wheel well i can hear a little ticking, on the drivers side front plug i have seen some kind of oil/fuel/whatever fluid on the top of the plug bolt, i was wondering if that could be an exhaust leak from the gasket?

Usmuscl398

o well mine is a very loud tick tick tick!!!

5H9D0W

I'd put on felpro metal gaskets and breslin header bolts.I had a leak and it took care of that problem.

Heatmaker

What kind of gaskets did you use?

IF copper they probably are just doing thier heat cycle thing... I always reccomend using a propane torch and heat cycling any metal gaskets before installing them... that will save the "where's that tick comming from" issues.

Joe 97RA

All it takes is for the bolts to loosen just a little bit and the gasket gets a burn though. Stage 8 or Breslin locking header bolts are a must have.

danhr

I just went through this same thing today, and here's what i did.

1) determine whether the ticking is an exhaust leak or a rocker knocking: the easiest way to do this is get a screwdriver and put the tip of the valve cover on the side of the engine that the noise is coming from. if you hear a whoosing sound, then the ticking is either an exhaust leak, loose spark plug, etc (good thing b/c those are all easy fixes). if you hear the ticking noise through the screw driver, you got yourself a rocker a' knockin, which sucks b/c you might of rolled your camshaft.

if you're lucky like me and just had an exhaust leak, all you have to do is take off the header bolts (you dont have to disconnect the headers from the y-pipe, or whatever kind of exhaust you have, you'll spend an extra 3 minutes to get the gasket in/out, but it is easier to do that then to do with the rusty bolts on your exhaust), and pull the old gasket out between the heads and the headers. while you have the headers a little loose, go ahead and check to make sure all your spark plugs are tight. slide the new gasket in, tighten the bolts, and start her up.

i would highly suggest not driving your car very long with an exhaust leak. one of my gaskets were blown, and i just drove from kentucky to pennsylvania, it went from a small exhaust leak to all but 2 header bolts holding my headers on, and me almost sticking a valve. so i went and got arp header bolts, b/c anything else just keeps coming loose, and considering i just came a few moments from getting a new top end from my car, i would recommend that you get them too.