My mechanic is looking over an old Nova that I recently purchased. He mentioned that the motor sounds louder on one side than the other. That is a first for me- It has a V-8 350 engine. Could a miss in one of the cylinders make one side sound louder? I am hoping it is not a major issue but am not confident as the person I bought it from did not seem to be as good of a mechanic as he tried to appear to be.
No, more like a leaking exhaust manifold gasket.
Yeah, those gaskets are usually the cause, and can be troublesome to replace if the studs in the manifolds are corroded, they can twist off. Lots of PB Blaster is a good idea.
edit-I now realize I wasn’t good at explaining that I think it might be the donut between the manifold and the exhaust pipe. It could be the gasket between the manifold and the head, but I’ve seen more of the donuts go out.
Thanks- I will pass your thoughts about it on to my mechanic.
I suggest you get a length of garden hose (maybe 3-4 feet) and use it like a stethoscope and pinpoint the source of the sound.
…Maybe I am completely stupid…but when I read this I immediately thought :“oh, an engine mount is broken”…I had that in a car once, it made weird noises…possible?
Did the mechanic mean that the exhaust was louder or that maybe the rocker arms were louder on one side??
Another thing to check for is a blown exhaust doughnut. This doughnut seals the connection between the bottom of the exhaust manifold and the exhaust down pipe.
Tester
They came up with the solution of adjusting the valves and the timing. There was also some piece that was rubbing and needed to be adjusted to stop the friction- unfortunately I don’t know exactly what was rubbing against what-LOL! But that fixed the problem.
Well, it seems that the rocker arms were loose as I suggested 3 posts back, HU?
most likely. 
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