I've put 900 miles of my car since mid November, mostly with the windows up, so I haven't noticed this before yesterday. With the windows down, I can more distinctly hear a "tap, tap, tap" sound at idle ... the frequency is RPM dependent. I've read posts where others have heard clicking sounds after their headers were installed and just thought that valvetrain sounds were being telegraphed or whatever. My motor sounds precisely like a valvetrain-related noise, particularly a lifter. I mean, a header leak never entered my mind ... I thought for sure it was a lifter.
Yesterday, a mechanic told me that a header leak will sound just like that. Needless to say, I would be FAR happier to have a header leak than be looking at a valvetrain repair. When I do the MMs and FW in the next month or so, I'll be putting in new header gaskets, too, and hopefully take care of the problem without tearing into the heads.
For those who've had header leaks, is that the way you'd describe the sound you heard?
Yesterday, a mechanic told me that a header leak will sound just like that. Needless to say, I would be FAR happier to have a header leak than be looking at a valvetrain repair. When I do the MMs and FW in the next month or so, I'll be putting in new header gaskets, too, and hopefully take care of the problem without tearing into the heads.
For those who've had header leaks, is that the way you'd describe the sound you heard?