Hello @markman641
Strange, we have tried many methods to check the header status and always we are getting 503 header when plugin status is enabled.
Take a look at this link
Please let us know the method you checking to identify the header.
We have tried checking header status on the following tools.
https://tools.seobook.com/server-header-checker/
https://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/header-checker/
https://web-sniffer.net/
https://www.webconfs.com/http-header-check.php
Always we getting 503 header.
HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable =>
Date => Tue, 05 Jan 2016 20:19:11 GMT
Server => Apache/2.2.29 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.29 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_bwlimited/1.4
X-Powered-By => PHP/5.3.29
Retry-After => Mon, 8 Dec 1969 00:00:00 America/Chicago
Vary => User-Agent,Accept-Encoding
Connection => close
Content-Type => text/html; charset=UTF-8
so please let us know, how you checked,make sure your plugin is up-to-date.