One of my winter projects included media blasting my headers and painting them with hi-temp paint. However since I reinstalled them, I have been battling what I believe is an exhaust leak. The header gaskets are brand new Fel-Pro metallic face gaskets, and I have retorqued the bolts several times after they have heat-cycled. It has improved some, but it is still there. Its only noticable while the engine is under load (which is an improvement from how it was at first.)
However, one other thing I did was remove a piece of rubber hose from the smog pump plumbing. I removed the "S" shaped piece of hose that comes down from the tee where it goes around to the back of the cylinder head that was still on there (the car has an offroad H-pipe) because it had melted from the heat from the passenger side header. My question is: is it possible that the noise I am hearing now is the smog pump? I know they do make some noise, and I could hear it faintly with the hood up before, but now it is much louder. Anyone think this might be where the noise is coming from? Any comments are appreciated
However, one other thing I did was remove a piece of rubber hose from the smog pump plumbing. I removed the "S" shaped piece of hose that comes down from the tee where it goes around to the back of the cylinder head that was still on there (the car has an offroad H-pipe) because it had melted from the heat from the passenger side header. My question is: is it possible that the noise I am hearing now is the smog pump? I know they do make some noise, and I could hear it faintly with the hood up before, but now it is much louder. Anyone think this might be where the noise is coming from? Any comments are appreciated