Cracked Exhaust Manifold

During a little rainy day maintenance today I have come across two issues. I'm sure that one of you guys in here can shed some light on these for me.

The first, I found after investigating the "tapping" I had previously attributed to the thin 5w-20 oil. A short while ago I discovered that the drivers side of the engine had a much more pronounced tap. After pulling the heat shield off of the exhaust manifold i discovered this:









The second issue has me a little stumped! I am hearing a knock in the front suspension at speeds less than 20mph. Almost as if something is hitting the firewall/floorboard. It has no specific rhythm to it and only is pronounced on a slightly less than perfect road surface. I torque checked 95% of the front and rear suspension and this knock is still present. I looked over the steering input shafts and could not notice any discrepancies other than a small amount of free play between the intermediate shaft and steering box. Any ideas?

Update: the sound is definitely coming from drivers side of front suspension and seems to be even more pronounced now. Every little imperfection in the road and you can hear the thumping.

Have a friend get in the seat and turn the steering wheel back and forth with the engine off while you watch the steering/suspension components from underneath. Look for wallowed out holes, play in the drag link, play at both ends of the track bar, anything that could have play.

Did you check your ball joints?

MTG said:

Did you check your ball joints?

Click to expand...

This! It's your ball joints.

I had an issue with "noise in my suspension" with the last jeep, mostly at higher highway speeds. Turned out to be the plastic in the wheel wells flapping in the breeze... Although at low speeds, I have nothing to add. Except possibly ball joints, as mentioned. Jack your front wheel off the ground a bit and take a spade shovel and push it under your wheel from the front. Use it as a lever to try and pry your wheel up and watch your ball joints for movement. If they are really bad, you'll feel the movement too. Also push the top and bottom sidewall of the jacked-up wheel to see if there is side wiggle.

As far as your manifold, I fixed mine(looked like yours) with exhaust manifold weld u get at auto parts store. But a couple months later it got a couple more cracks in it. Best just to replace.

Thanks for the ideas guys! I'm gonna check the ball joints today and give it another visual while someone moves the wheel around.
If I can't find it, I guess I'll have the dealer look into it when they are changing my exhaust manifold.