Hey guys, I got out of work tonight and drove my car home. I noticed a new ticking sound in my engine when I pulled into my driveway. It does sound metallic.

Now, after reading up about engine ticks, I see a lot of stuff on cracked exhaust manifolds and loose exhaust manifolds etc. I guess this is my new suspicion.

My car doesnt have the middle exhaust hanger right after the muffler (rusted off) and then the other day, my rear hanger broke loose. Now, I dont know what else holds the exhaust on other than those two hangars, but the pipe didnt hit the ground when the rear one broke loose. Ive since re-hung the rear most hanger.

Are these exhaust manifold bolts accessible without removing a bunch of crap from the engine bay?

Secondly, if it is indeed a crack in the exhuast, are there any bandaid fixes that can be put over a crack to fix it? I really cant afford that right now..

 

the exhaust mounts at 4 spots, the header, Tcase/transmission mount, then those two hangers you mentioned. If you don't have the money i wouldn't bother with fixing any leaks, i would just repair the rear hangers and save up money to replace the whole system.

You'll have to remove the intake manifold to get to the exhaust header bolts. And those quick fix bands are only good for a few weeks on straight pieces of pipe. Exhaust putty is also worthless since it just cracks from the vibration.