He already said he has a manual tranny.

Why would you want to take it back the same shop that created several other problems in the first place

Why don't you pull the tranny and try starting it up to see if the noise is still there?

 

I had to reread this whole thread 3 time to find it

 

Sorry bout that...I had the headers installed at a place called JV Tires...DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE

My family has used Tibbits for years...well over 10. I dropped the car off this morning and the guy believes its just a header gasket issue, he showed me a black area over the middle 2 pipes. I do need to find a reliable speed shop in Central Florida though. And I don't wanna hear "Corvette Masters". Are they really that great people? I mean they dont even do LT1 work...seems like they aren't really masters of Corvettes without LT1 work...

 

I don't think I'd get anything done at a tire place other then tires.............

 

yea...they are JV Tires...but they mostly do mechanic work. I had heard good things and my best friends grandmother is their landlord, so they gave me 'a really good deal'...obviously the saying "you get what you pay for" still rings true.

 

I had a similar noise after I put my tranny in and reconnected my exhaust....it sounded like a tapping/scraping noise, but it turned out to be that my collector gaskets were leaking BAD and making funky noises. However, yours sounds too consistent to be an exhaust leak

If you want to track down the noise, use a stethascope or a piece of vacuum hose.

 

The mechanic seems to think its the header gasket. He showed me a black area on the gasket, saying it shouldnt be black and should be tighter against the engine....so we'll see...hopefully thats it. This guy halfway knows what he's talkin about, hes been a gm mechanic for over 10 years.

 

Start with the normal things. Check plugs to make sure they are snug, check bolts to see if they are all there ( they need to be checked every once in a while anyway) and tight. You said they are race headers right? What did you do with the tube that goes from the back of the intake to the P side manifold? Was it makeing this noise when you picked it up or did it all the sudden just start?

 

The tapping started all of a sudden after a 60 mile trip, didnt occur for about 2 weeks after I picked it up. I've driven close to 100 miles with the tap. I believe that tube from the intake (back of air intake right?) is still there. I haven't deleted the AIR or EGR yet. The egr tube is vac capped and the AIR tubes are still open. Even if it isnt the header gaskets I've got the mechanic doing a full inspection, so hopefully all the normal things will be checked out. He is convinced it isnt internal.

Only other thing I can think of is I raced a Mustang and a focus from a slow roll earlier the day it started tapping. I didn't push the car at all against the stang cause we got caught at a light. The focus was from about 20mph, I downshifted to second and took it to 5k rpms. then backed off cause i smoked my buddy...Thats the hardest the car's been run in a long time...then i took the 60+mile trip out to Cocoa and when I left I noticed the tapping.

 

Update: The tapping was caused by the header bolts not being tight...Also the dip**** mechanics who installed the headers left a loose spark plug (the one they broke the wire on). So after that was fixed I had the good mechanic do a full inspection. He turned up a leaking seal on the rear differential. So another day and just over 300 bucks total and my baby will be all better :-)...I really need to mechanically learn these cars.

I want to thank all of you for your help, this message board has once again proven to be a very helpful place to hangout.

 

When doing header install its the most commom prob on theses cars not wiring the wires right you have to wire the wires right. And also the plugs have to be at least 20 pounds of torque on the heads. I would just inspect it after aging just to make sure....