Yup....
That's probably the source of your ticking sound......and Dorman is crap. Find an OEM exhaust manifold.

 

The manifolds on my L96's and LY6 are all like that, with a split in the middle of both exhaust manifolds, and I'm pretty sure it's the same on the LQ4 as well. All oem manifolds.

 

Same here on my ly6

 

Are all the exhaust manifold bolts present? Any sign of black soot around the exhaust manifolds? Have you had the exhaust taken apart anywhere?

 

Seeing that now about the OEM passenger being shaped like that, thank you. On the passenger side there is a bolt missing from the heat shield of the exhaust manifold, I will look for black soot. I have not touched the exhaust system on this truck

 

I don't believe they are through-holes, but IDK for sure. If it was a through-hole and the bolt was missing, you would know it immediately, if the bolt is broken off, then I don't think it would leak past the bolt (I've got at least 2 of those shield bolts broken off on my LQ4).

It's possible the exhaust bolts have worked themselves loose, for the LY6 I recently put in my '12 3500, the seller of the truck the engine is from noted it had a tick, and that turned out to be just loose exhaust manifold bolts.

You might re-torque your bolts, using the sequence/torque indicated on charm.li (website) for your truck and see if that helps.

Otherwise, a mechanics stethoscope might be useful for narrowing down where the sound is coming from.

 

Thanks so much!!

 

A tick caused by an exhaust manifold is usually loudest on cold crank but gets quieter or even goes away once the motor warms up. I think you would need to take the shields off to find any cracks in the manifold. Stethoscope is a great idea, but if you don't have one a long screwdriver touching the exhaust and pressed to your ear does exactly the same thing. Even a piece of wood or a broom handle will work if you don't have a stethoscope. I promise it works. Try it.