Exhaust leak detection and solution??
 

I posted a while ago about the possible ticking or exhaust leak issue that was coincidentally happening at the same time I discovered no oil on the dip stick of my new engine.. I took the truck to a very respected mechanic in the area and he immediately told me its an exhaust leak which explains why the sounds is nearly gone when the engine is at operating temperature and the sound is very noisy on cold starts.

The person who built the engine told me to check all the manifold bolts, and I found 3 near the back of the engine, on the driver side, that I got about 1/4 to 1/2 turn out of them. That did not stop the noise. So now they have told me to fix the secondary air injection part and that should stop the leak, but what do I do here?? Is there a gasket in there?? I see 2 bolts that hold it to the pipes coming from the engine. Can I remove it and RTV it?? any help is great, I don't want to pay this guy to come fix it if I can do it myself..
Thanks

To help make sure you have found the right spot, WHEN ENGINE IS COLD, can you place a stick agaist the suspect area and press the other end against your ear? Or use a mechanic's stethoscope (auto parts store). This may allow you to hear the area in question. Another test that works is to point an infrared thermometer at it, engine will be cold, but exhaust like will be like 400 degrees. And an application of Seafoam induction cleaning will certainly smoke out the exhaust system.

See pages from RAVE, looks like no gasket, but some loctite or similar product may have been used where adapter screws into head. Read all pages before picking up wrench.

My brother told me about a broomstick to the ear, but I told him he was crazy.. When I start the motor cold start, and feel all over the driver side of the engine where the noise is coming from, I feel no bursts of air or any signs of a leak so I guess and infared might be the only option to detect the leak..
I havent checked, but does Autozone rent the infared tool?? Or do I need to take it to a shop??

You can buy an IR thermometer from Home Depot or Harbor Freight.

As for the conduction of sound through hard objects and the bones of your skull, it has worked for a very long time. Indeed it works better with very hard skulls, like mine.

If you do the Seafoam induction cleaning, as described in the tech sticky of the D1 section (works on all Rover engines), a good deal of oil smoke is produced for a few minutes from the exhaust, and will come out every exhaust leak as well. Bonus is no mosquitos for a few hours.

you also run a can of seafoam thru it that should certianly show you where the leak is.
Sea Foam | How to Use Sea Foam Motor Treatment
there should also be a post or too on how to run it thru your disc, if you have an exhaust leak you will see the smoke.

Check your exhaust manifold/s for cracks. They are known to crack. I have replaced every single exhaust gasket from the heads down to the center muffler. I still have a leak. Someone mentioned that it may be possibly that my manifolds are cracked. It makes perfect sense. I plan to pull them off soon, but will probably just ordered a used set and replace them.

Ok so I picked up a mechanics stethescope and an IR thermometer..
Now do I wait till engine is cold? Do I aim the laserall around the manifold and secondary injector? Is the stethoscope more helpful??
Thanks

use listening device at any temp, but IR will see biggest change when truck is stone cold,

Ok, the IR thermometer did not really show me anything helpful. We did not find any temperatures near 400deg.

With the S-scope, the ticking noise was most prominent on the manifold at the Drivers side 2 inner cylinders. I was also about the same noise on SAI pipes. The noise did disipate greatly at the front and rear cylinders on the engine, and there was absolutely no ticking sound anywhere on the valve cover.

I doubt that is very helpful, so I guess my next step is the SeaFoam test??
Is SeaFoam safe to use on a new engine??
And do I insert the SeaFoam on the vacuum port shown in the Sticky to clean engine?? or is there a different port to use to check for Exhast leak??

Thanks and you guys are worth your weight in gold..

the same vacuum port; for $8 a can you have nothing to lose, you might want to have a rag handy so if you dont see anything right away you can close off the tailpipe a little to create back preasure.
But that stuff is like pouring tranny fluid into a carb (the old days), it a pretty heavy dense smoke. It you dont see anything under the hood after a few minutes i would think your manifolds are fine.
I see you had a new engine installed are you sure the exhaust manifold gasket went on correctly; they can be install upside down & backwards and still fit but they block off part of the exhaust ports.
Someone could correct me if i'm wrong on this part. But i'm pretty sure that is what I found out when I helded them up with my heads.