its what i meant , a strange word i know lol piffing . its the washer on the plug , it is a gasket i have seen one or two cracked make an odd noise when they do too . might even be a tough twig touching under the deck , had one ages ago making an odd noise turned out to be a rather large fish hook still with some line wrapped around an engine mount bolt , so when ya shut it down it dissapeared looked , nothing anywhere , started it up , noise is back , hahaha frustrating