As part of my ongoing exhaust project this spring, Im trying to put an end to a ticking exhaust leak I have under the hood. I have it tracked down to the rear of the motor, towards the driver side. It's really loud when the car starts up, and quiets down after 2-3 minutes of running, but if I get on the throttle (especially up hill) it's always there.
I have the big, heavy iron manifold in the back still, so I feel like that's probably not the leak. Im suspecting the crossover at the back flange, so I took the crossover out to check it out. The gasket was missing a little piece, but not 100% sure enough to have caused the ticking. The pipe itself has that head shield, like, riveted onto it so I dont think it's worth trying to cut that shield off to inspect the pipe for cracks.
I plan to reinstall it with a new gasket back there, but when I was looking at replacement crossovers, I found that the dorman kit comes with a rear gasket AND a front gasket
http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-5083...origin=keyword
However, the diagram on gmpartsdirect only shows a rear gasket from GM.http://dz310nzuyimx0.cloudfront.net/...05b34305c4.png. I wonder if when I installed my powerlog on the front, I might've either disturbed the rear gasket by twisting the pipe while torquing the front bolts, or if maybe the leak is coming from the front after all, and a gasket would help seal it.
Has anyone else had issues with crossover leaks? Do they tend to crack ever? How about that gasket on the crossover?
I hope it's not the rear manifold... I dont wanna screw with that.
