[DeTomaso] Thus quoth the raven...(IE what's that tapping?)

[Mike Thomas]

Chris, I'd check to be sure your exhaust headers are tight.  Remember you
have aluminum heads so I'm not sure how much torque you can put on them to
check, but as said in another email, a ticking like that under acceleration
can mean a slight "blow-by" of the exhaust header gasket if it's not
entirely tight.

One way to check for exhaust leak if you can't hear it at idle is to check
with a flashlight all around both header flanges for any blackened areas of
the blue Ford paint.  That's your first sign of the leak.

By the by, what type of exhaust header gasket are you using?  Seems to me I
remember picking you up a set of the same crappy paper ones I originally got
from Stan's Headers in Auburn.  I've since blown both of mine out, and have
replaced with a very cool multi-layered aluminum gasket that Doug Braun
picked up at Summit a couple of years ago when we were in Reno, and I popped
the first gasket the day before we were due to head home.

Good luck, Mike 

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Christopher Kimball
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:22 PM
To: Pantera List Serve
Subject: [DeTomaso] Thus quoth the raven...(IE what's that tapping?)


I started up Pandora today (it was finally dryish outside) and took her out
for a spin.  I gave her some hard acceleration in higher gears to listen for
knocking, and all I heard was a slight tapping, as if a small screwdriver
was being tapped against the block.  I was told that if I heard a knock I
should turn the distributor a little bit clockwise until I could accelerate
hard with no knock.  I turned it a little, but it didn't make much, if any,
difference.  I continued doing this a tiny bit at a time until the car just
didn't run well.  The little tapping was still there under all those
circumstances.

I then rotated the distributor back to where it was (maybe even a bit
further counter clockwise) and then when I punched it I heard the kind of
ping/clack that I remember our old Chevy station wagon used to make when I
would floor it (my dad called it "pinging").

I'm wondering if the slight tapping noise I'm hearing isn't really "knock"
at all, but just the normal sound of the engine, but the louder sound I
heard is the real knocking, and if I turn the distributor enough to
eliminate the loud noise and live with the slight tapping noise I'll be OK.
I know hearing the actual knocking in an engine is bad news, and I don't
want to mess something up.

Any comments?

Thanks (again),

Chris
 		 	   		  
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