When I reassembled my engine during the rebuild, I did a very stupid thing. I did not loosen the exhaust manifolds from the collectors. Instead, I left them bolted in place and then bolted them to the block when the engine was dropped back into place. Well, the driver's side never sealed up tight and the truck had a growl that got progressively worse on the driver's side. I noticed that pulling power was decreasing (I had hell on a recent trip to Canada towing my trailer) as well as regular acceleration. This past weekend I unbolted the manifold from both the block and the collector. I removed the gasket, which was broken at both #1 and #7 with quite a bit of material missing from #7. I installed the new gasket, bolted the manifold to the block and then tightened it to the collector. Now the truck has a nice low grumble Rather than sounding like a screaming banshee from two miles away, it sounds more like a beacon of wrath

Next is to find the slight oil leak and why I lose coolant []