Recently on my 66 mustang... i have heard a tapping noise coming from the engine area... i decided to further investigate and my dad said it sounded like a rod tapping.

Upon further investigation, we found there is some kind of exhaust leak on the 2nd cylinder... when the car is running i feel short puffs of air above the header. All the exhaust shops around say you might as well put new headers on if they do the job.

I want to fix this leak by myself... all the bolts on the side come out freely. None will ring off, they are all loose right now (as in will come out freely)

is it the exhaust manifold or headers? could i just put a new exhaust manifold gasket? how do you know if the header is cracked... or is that a very rare occurence... i hear mustang manifold gaskets are infamous for exhaust leaks.

what should i do? thanks for all the help - making a mustang better 1 problem at a time

1st,do you have stock exhaust manifold (cast iron) or headers?
2nd, it really should`nt matter which you have,its just there is a small difference in installation procedure.
if you have headers,remove the leaking header. check the mating surface for flatness. square up as needed. install new gasket & tighten the center bolts 1st & work outwards. this should stop the header flange from warping / bending during installation. if header is warped to bad, you may need to install 2 gaskets to get a good seal. or another old rodder trick is to cut the flange between the ports to seal each port seperately! after 100 miles or so,retorque the bolts. this should do the trick.
if you have stock manifolds,remove, check for cracks/breaks, clean gasket surfaces,install new gasket & manifold.
while you have it apart,check the exhaust ports on the head (s) for cracks/breaks. do not over tighten bolts !
thats about as simple as i can explain it. good luck with your stang !!!

they are regular cast iron headers...

so all i need to do is take off the header clean it and check for cracks to see if i need a new set of them... and then if its not cracked just replace the manifold gasket... and possibly i may have to put 2 to get rid of the exhaust leak completely?

you got it. normally, you wont need 2 gaskets on the iron manifolds. dont forget to check the ports on the head, no cracks,missing pieces. a good weld shop should be able to repair the manifold if needed. have fun.

hopefully this will be an easy weekend project for me... thanks for all the posts guys