V6 Exhaust Manifold Tick

Hi All. My 05 Tacoma V6 4x4 6sp is at Toyota for some warranty work (5th Gear synchro crunch, for anyone who's interested). Anyway, I figured I'd have them address as much as possible while they have the truck, so asked them to do the manifold replacement per the TSB to address the ticking noise. The response I'm getting is that the sound is basically normal, doesn't warrant a major repair. My take on it is that he doesn't want to push through too much warranty work, but I frankly don't know how the process works on his end. The guy I'm dealing with is a friend of a friend (the shop foreman at the dealer), so I am being careful about not pushing too hard. Before I go making a stink about getting the manifolds replaced, I want to be sure it's worth the hassle. To make a short story long (yup), my question is: FOR ALL THOSE OUT THERE WHO HAD THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD REPAIR PER TSB TO CORRECT ENGINE TICKING NOISE, WHAT WAS THE BEFORE VS. AFTER SOUND OF THE ENGINE?

 

normal sound

 

Normal, like you could not tell the difference from before the replacement to after the replacement?

 

So does the lack of feedback imply that nobody out there has gotten their manifolds replaced? Is it because Toyota is making it hard to get the repair done? Anyone?