There is hope. Do not replace the engine just yet. I had posted for piston slap a while back, asking for a cure (other than another engine). I tried adjusting the tappets w/out a difference. I had this light knocking at idle with engine cold, and it would get less when warm and go away when running. At least you could not tell it was there. So at some point I got this Megan header and new hi-flow cat, and started removing stuff to install the new parts. After removing the heat shield I see carbon deposits by cyl 1, behind the alternator. I remove the alt to get to that last nut and when I put the socket to it it falls in my hand. The stud was snapped in the head. The cross section was all rusted up and stud was hanging "by a thread". Lots of corrosion behind the metal gasket and several other studs rusted. I hope I can remove them to replace. Looking at the manifold I can see carbon deposits on half of the cyl 1 port, and corbon started to escape by cyl 4. So I had to spend half a day drilling out the old stud and threading the hole for a new stud, and ordered several new studs and nuts. Will update the forum after header install.