Dave26

Problem solved. I had a buddy do a cold start while I stood at the engine. She puffed smoke out of the rear of the exhaust manifold for a few seconds and I could feel the hot exhaust with my hand. Now the fun begins!

The air filter was changed maybe 6 months ago and only has maybe 10,000 miles on it. But, I'll take a look.

Broken clamp... I'll check that in the am. The sound is like a single cylinder blowing it's compression out somewhere and it sounds perfectly normal when you just rev it up when stopped. Under load she sounds like crap.

Nope, no chirping sound.

What do you guys think would be causing a chuffing sound to be coming from my 300, while under load? It sounds like an exhaust manifold gasket has let go but no black marks show, nor do I feel anything blowing out there. She's a '96 with 640,000 miles and has never been apart. Is a compression test and maybe a valve job in my immediate future?