hey all, heres for my next problem!

Got a blowing/ticking type sound under hard accleration, tick over sounds smooth an can drive normally with it sounding smooth an fine but when i go up steep hills or pull away faster than normal it does the sound mentioned? could this be the exhaust manifold gasket or the inlet manifold gasket? and also anyone here changed these items?? i got a price from a local fast parst place an the price shocked me lol! so like the alternator problem i had, i dont want to go paying out a fair bit of £££ if its not going to solve the problem...

thanks peeeps