Not cam phasers, exhaust leak next?

[treagan82]

Got a Navigator a few weeks ago, noticed a ticking that sounds like it's coming from the bottom passenger side. Unplugged the cam phasers and fired it up for a second to see if it stopped and it did not. Sounds like an exhaust leak. Best way to check? Visually inspected the exhaust while switching over to synthetic but couldn't find anything in the area. Sounds identical to a manifold leak I had on my 00 Camaro SS back in the day.

 

[mjp2]

The exhaust manifolds on these trucks are known to crack. Due to clearance issues replacement is expensive at a shop and challenging in the driveway. I swapped out the factory cracked manifolds for Gibson stainless shorty headers and have had no issues since.

 

[treagan82]

Are these the ones you got? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gib-gp218s-c

Any change to the exhaust tone?

Did you price replacement Manifolds first or go straight for these?

 

[mjp2]

Those are the ones. No noticeable change in sound as the rest of the exhaust was still stock.

I only wanted to do the job once so I went straight to the headers. Didn't want to install something factory-style that would likely also crack. This is a time consuming job.