Ol' Gene^ never got back to me today... I think I'm gonna say FU to Meinenke and go pick Janet up tomorrow. I haven't really taken the time to diagnose the prob myself with everything else going on, and I feel after all I've read I should give it one last shot.

It's definitely a 'ticking' sound (I originally thought I just had something loose under the hood, or a giant zip-tie or something stuck in my rotor) that you don't hear at idle, only at about 3k and up. In fact, if you let it sit out of gear and rev it, you don't hear the tick much, if at all. The tick only seems to happen when it's under load in gear, and in every gear, thru about the same RPM range (3k until shifting, MT going at it easy). Both times I let the car sit overnight, I'd start it up the next day and I wouldn't hear it at all. I thought it was magically fixed, but then the noise would come back as I got a few blocks away. The frequency seemed to go inline with engine revs.

I never even felt a loss of power or anything else until I drove it that last day, and even that could have been imaginary. The power loss (and suddenly having almost NO oil in the car anymore, though I have no leak spots in my garage or anywhere else she's parked) I thought I felt is what caused me to panic and drop it off at Meineke in the first place. But like I said, it might have been just in my head...

I'm a bit afraid to drive it anywhere, but I live only a few blocks away, so I think I'm going to put her in the garage back home for now. Hope this new info helps... Many have told me it could be exhaust leak before, but I did my whole exhaust from header to muffler, and have had leaks before. They never sounded like this. I guess maybe an exhaust leak at the header could make this tick sound? I sure didn't see/feel/hear anything there, but again I could only hear it in the car while under load in gear.

Again, thanks for the help guys...

EDIT: Money is tight right now, but I'd definitely pay someone in the area if they could just tell me definitively what the problem is. Meineke had always been good to me in a bind, but with different people working there now, it may as well be a whole different shop.