i rebulit my 22re. upgraded the cam. bored and all new internals pistons bearings gaskets all that.. so when its at idle i get this popping sorta sound from the exhaust its been doing it since the rebuild in april. it runs great. no issues while driving. just that pop sound every now and then at idle. sorta like a miss, but not a backfire. sputter like. the engine doesnt shake or move much when it does it. may re adjust the distrib.idle seemas a bit high. can be a bad plug? wire? something with spark?
any suggestions?

EXHAUST LEAK! I have the same crap. The exhaust shop I went to did a horrible job and at idle it will run smooth with a little pop/gasp type sound and then run smooth again.

Check out your exhaust manifold/head mounting surface for black sut if its not a dark color. Check where the manifold meets the down pipe as well, thats where mine is screwed up.

someone else said a exhaust tick too. i have a pacesetter header on it. we had to do some mods to the mounting point to the block and it leaked at first so we redid it and then it was fine. it can be nder the cab i guess? but it sounds as if its going all the way through to the muffler. a leak near the motor would make the sound out of the muffler like that? ill have to get it up on stands and look for a leak. although i have a ton of header wrap from heads to under the cab, so its going to be a pain, i didnt like the way the header bolted up to the downpipe tho. it wasnt the best setup. im hoping its not leaking there.

yes, exhaust will make it all through the system....just not all of it. I guarantee there is a leak somewhere.

ive had leaks before that i heard leaking. this is different tho. im going to check it out today and see if i can see anything. it runs good for a minute then i get a sputter,runs good then one or two sputters. its annoying.

i went over the exhaust.no soot.no leaks. tightened the header bolts, they where alil loose. but i checked the valves, by holding a paper towel at the tailpipe and everytime it made the sputter it sucked the papertowel into the tailpipe. i know people done this before and said it means a valve is sticking. exhaust one i believe, im wondering how much harm this can cause, cuz i want to go ot a show this sunday and its going to be a long trip. i dont have 1000 miles yet to do a valve adj and all that so im wondering if i should take it or not.

bump

does the motor have any chatter sound in it? my rockers are a little loose and it chatters and spits and sputters. it may be the same for you but a milder case.

no noise form the valve cover at all. nothing unusual.

took the valve cover off to day. checked the valves out. bumped the key a few times and made the came turn a few times. nothing unusual nor did an valves stick up.