Car sounds like a motorcycle

[OverlandMan]

As for the smoke it might not be the head gasket. Does your exhaust have a strong oily/fuel scent? Your mixture may be too rich and the smoke is from all of the burn-off.

If it was burning oil, it would be a blue smoke, not white as previously described. Additionally, I don't think that would be due to a mixture setting.

[DMC5180]

Both the OP and Kenny have blown exhaust manifold gaskets. (The classic VW sound). My preference is to use the the One piece Stainless (Blow-Proof) ones sound by PJ grady. (Volvo spec)

Don't be surprised if you also have a snapped stud or two (heat cycle fractured). My car had the infamous tick tick tick when I bought it. I discovered 2 stud broken, one on each side (nearest the bell housing) was broken flush to the head surface. It was an adventure getting those out because of the limited access in Frame cradle area.

[Jonathan]

That tick-tick-tick sound says to me you have an exhaust manifold gasket leak.

I had one in my car and replacing the gaskets made it go away. Get the gasket kit and have a plan for dealing with a broken stud or two. DIY or get a shop to help if you like.

Here is a video of my car before the gaskets were replaced. I think this sound and your sound are a pretty close match.



The after video of the gasket replacement is on YouTube there as well, but I don't think I can post two videos here in the same comment.

You may have other issues like the blown head gasket or a hole in the exhaust metal itself, but to me it seems the gasket leak on the exhaust manfiolds is fairly evident.

You can sometimes see little collections of black soot type stuff from the corners of one or more of your exhaust ports. Look at each manifold and if you see a little corner at the edge of the gasket/manifold that is black, that is likely where your leak is.

It might look something like this older picture from my car. Note the black soot on the left most port above the gasket.

IMG_3095.jpg

[Shep]

Would rolling up a piece of printer paper into a cone as an ear trumpet help to pinpoint the source of the noise? Something like this:



Or would the volume be too loud for that? If it works, it'll at least give you a general location of where the noise is coming from. Just open the engine bay, put the small end in your ear, and start aiming the big end towards various parts of the exhaust. You should notice the sound getting louder as you aim closer to the source. You might have to stand back a bit if it's overly loud to avoid hearing damage, but I noticed in the video you were standing somewhat close to the engine already, so this might help.

[orbitron3000]

I'm 90% sure it's an exhaust gasket leak -- both from what people have said here with their past experience, and covering the exhaust and listening for the leak.

So now I'm in the market for some exhaust gaskets it seems. DMC5180, you like the PJ Grady ones. Has anyone had any experience with other vendors? Pros / Cons? Also, it seems that DPI has an exhaust gasket kit with a bunch of ancillary items such as o rings and the like. Does anyone know off hand if all those parts are necessary for a "simple" exhaust gasket change? Or would those extra items be useful when, say, removing the intake manifold to replace all old O rings and the like (another thing on my to-do-eventually list)?

[Kenny_Z]

My "simple exhaust gasket change" turned into a complete tear down because of broken studs. I have to take the heads to a machine shop to have the studs removed. If I had to do it again I would have taken it to an exhaust shop. I'd of gotten out of this a lot cheaper.

[Timebender]

Funny- my motorcycle sounds like a car- a Vette to be exact...

[eagle-co94]

The paper cone idea is nice, but I got two small funnels and about 2' of plastic tubing to make my own stethoscope. It works pretty well in trying to isolate sounds.

[DMC5180]

I'm 90% sure it's an exhaust gasket leak -- both from what people have said here with their past experience, and covering the exhaust and listening for the leak.

So now I'm in the market for some exhaust gaskets it seems. DMC5180, you like the PJ Grady ones. Has anyone had any experience with other vendors? Pros / Cons? Also, it seems that DPI has an exhaust gasket kit with a bunch of ancillary items such as o rings and the like. Does anyone know off hand if all those parts are necessary for a "simple" exhaust gasket change? Or would those extra items be useful when, say, removing the intake manifold to replace all old O rings and the like (another thing on my to-do-eventually list)?

If you are just planning retain the stock exhaust. Any broken stud will have too be removed and new installed. Generally speaking it is Normal to Replace ALL the studs with new when doing new gaskets regardless of the Style of gaskets you use. The standard Gaskets are the individual port gaskets. All the vendors sell them. The Best ones are IMO the One piece 3 port SS composite ones sold by Rob Grady. I replaced mine with those almost 19 years ago and 60K miles since then.

I was a bit lucky when I did mine. Only 2 broken studs. They broke due to heat stress fracturing rather than twisting off from being seized. I was able to make a simple drill jig that allowed me to center drill the broken studs for an EZ-out extractor. Remarkably they came out with minimal effort. They were not seized. All the the other studs were removed using a doubled nut method on the studs. None of those broke during the removal process.

The 2 gaskets , 12 studs and 12 M7 BRASS nuts. (Not sure if the BRASS nuts are still available any more) Were a little over $75 for the kit back then.

[DMCMW Dave]

Most important part of the job (other than not drilling holes in your heads when replacing broken studs) is to get the manifolds resurfaced. Flad sanding is OK if you check them, getting them machined is best. If you don't, any gaskets will blow out again in weeks. Or sooner.