My MM is down: Exhaust leak

[FordNut]

Just blew a collector gasket. Can't drive it because so much heat and wind blows out it's burning up the insulation under the floor and blowing it to pieces.

Ordered new gaskets (originally used the paper/fiber ones that came with the headers) made by Mr. Gasket called ultra-seal. They're supposed to be similar to the OEM exhaust gaskets which work so well to seal the flanges at the heads. Come highly recommended by my favorite wrenches.

Also ordered heat shield to install over the floor insulation in case this were to happen again. No problem with heat radiation from the coated headers, but when the gasket goes, it's a big problem.

Actually ordered two sets of gaskets, so that I don't have to re-use them when the tranny comes out for Level II upgrade. Pulling the cats will make for much more working space to pull the tranny.

[merc406]

The copper gaskets work well and are reuseable.

[Logan]

Wow... My collector flange's on my headers fit so completely perfectly with my adapters, we didn't even bother with a gasket and I haven't had a single exhaust leak, after 4000 miles on my kooks... :)

[Zack]

Im confused.
First of all, what exhaust do you have?
Second, what gasket blew, the exhaust manifold gasket, or the gasket from the passenger header to the cats?

[Logan]

He's got Kook's...and he's talking about the collector gasket.

[BillyGman]

Wow Logan. It's hard to believe that you don't have any collector leakage even though you didn't use gaskets. I've never heard of that.

Fordnut, I also used the collector gaskets that came w/the headers, but they were not papaer/fiber ones, and they didn't say Mr. Gasket on them either. So far I haven't had any exhaust leaks.I don't know if you've put more miles on your car than I have since the header installation though. I've put about 5,000 miles on mine since then.

[Logan]

Feel free to get under my car at Indy... :)

[CRUZTAKER]

I think I may have an exhaust leak on the drivers side at the header to motor.

I get ALOT of ticking on that side, but the car had been parked so long prior, I cannot remember how bad the cam whatevers used to tick.

I know that my guys used all the OEM factory gaskets in lieu of replacements as the Kooks install threads had indicated. Wherever new one were required, they were used.

I only have 240 miles on the Kooks now, but man, I love the change.:up:

[Ross]

I'm with Billy. If Logan says he has a good seal without gaskets, then I certainly believe him. I'm surprised though, that the head and the gaskets are both machined so smooth and flat that they would seal without a gasket. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

[BillyGman]

I believe that Logan was speaking about the absence of gaskets on the header collectors. Not on the header flanges which bolt up to the cylinder heads. Not having gaskets between the heads and the header flanges would definately cause leaks.

[2003 MIB]

Wow... My collector flange's on my headers fit so completely perfectly with my adapters, we didn't even bother with a gasket and I haven't had a single exhaust leak, after 4000 miles on my kooks... :)
Hmm, I like the sound of that. What was the name of that exhaust artist in Duncanville???

[Ross]

I believe that Logan was speaking about the absence of gaskets on the header collectors. Not on the header flanges which bolt up to the cylinder heads. Not having gaskets between the heads and the header flanges would definately cause leaks.


My bad. I didn't read closely enough. Still, it's great to have any two surfaces that can match so perfectly that they don't need a gasket under pressure.

[Logan]

Jimmy at Meadlin's car care in Duncanville...Double thumb's up to him. :)

[2003 MIB]

Jimmy at Meadlin's car care in Duncanville...Double thumb's up to him. :)

Thanks, Boss- I spoke with Nick this morning, they're making five MM exhaust sets and I hope to see mine soon.

[BillyGman]

Good deal........you won't be disappointed w/the results nor the sound of that Kooks system.

[FordNut]

Wow Logan. It's hard to believe that you don't have any collector leakage even though you didn't use gaskets. I've never heard of that.

Fordnut, I also used the collector gaskets that came w/the headers, but they were not papaer/fiber ones, and they didn't say Mr. Gasket on them either. So far I haven't had any exhaust leaks.I don't know if you've put more miles on your car than I have since the header installation though. I've put about 5,000 miles on mine since then.

Fixed it. Put in the Mr. Gasket Ultra-seal collector gaskets. They look good. They have a metallic mesh in the center layer which is sandwiched between the high temp sealing surfaces. Although only one side was blown, when I replaced the other side I could see that it had been leaking also. The bolts weren't very tight either. I can see why, as the top bolts next to the floorboards are a real pain.

What else did I do? I added self adhesive heat shields on both driver and passenger sides of the floorboard insulation pads so the heat won't cause any damage if the gaskets blow again. I painted the flanges and muffler hangers with Eastwood stainless steel high temp coating. All the pipes, mufflers, cats, etc were built with stainless, so these were the spots that would rust in the future. All stainless hardware was used for reassembly.

Forgot how much it hurts to lay on cold, hard concrete on the flat of my back.

I've got about 5000 miles on the car since the system was installed. My original gaskets were not Mr. Gasket either but they were the paper/fiber type. Green colored. Maybe they blew because they weren.t tight enough?

[BillyGman]

all the gaskets that Kooks suplied me w/were black. So they must have changed what gaskets they supply their marauder customers w/since you bought their exhaust since I did make the purchase awhile after you did.

Anyway, it's good that you corrected the problem. I think it helps a lot to put the stage 8 locking bolts on the header flanges as well as the collector flanges since header vibration definately causes these bolts to loosen. I used them on the header flanges, but I couldn't use them on the collector flanges since the Kooks are made w/such thick flanges that the collector bolts from the stage 8 company supplied me with were too short.

So the best thing to do w/the collector bolts is to use ones that are long enough so that you can double nut them w/lock washers in between the nuts too. that way they will NOT back off.