collector gasket

[76bonanza]

I am finally going to work on my collectors this weekend. taking them apart to see why I can not get them to seal. What is the best thing to use to seal stuborn collectors? I have heard copper I have aluminum on there now I have also heard double paper gaskets?

Any thoughts would be apreciated.

Thanks

[MylilBowTie]

It depends on if they are warped and how bad they are warped. I noticed on my headers collector flanges they are slightly warped. I took a cheap razor blade knife and scraped all the old gasket off. It wont look like there is anything there but after scraping it all the old gasket will come off. It will seal up better, it helped mine when I did it. That's with the foil and paper like looking gaskets. My friends headers are warped pretty bad and the aluminum gaskets didn't work very well at all. They just didn't have anything to seal up against besides the where it bolts up. It will look like () that top and bottom would be where it bolts up at middle will depend on how warped it is. They will get like that from over tightening them collector bolts.

If you are good with a welder there is a way to fix it. Get four header collector flanges with the real thick flange. Weld one to the collector side and the other to the exhaust pipe side welding just the one side and leaving the center open for the new gasket. ({[I]}) ( warped flange { welded [ new flange and I gasket. You will need to cut off the pipe that comes with the flange though. That's what I'm going to do if I have to. Its better than buying new headers just to have it happen again. With the thicker flanges its a lot less likely to warp. I can get a picture of the flange I'm talking about. I got mine from Savage for around 7.00 dollars.

I thought of that idea when I found out that the Hush header collector rings wherent being sold anymore.

[76bonanza]

When you say warped you mean the rings that bolt together or the flanges them self? If they are warped bad would a paper gasket work better? I can not weld at all and am trying to do this as cheap as possible.

[MylilBowTie]

I'm talking about the whole collector flange "rings that bolt together or the flanges them self" they are same thing. One is the header collector flange the other is the reducer flange. The only gaskets I have used are the foil and paper type gaskets. The first ones came with the headers (hooker comps) and then the auto parts store it was a flange seal for a late 60's car, not sure what it crosses over to but it was what I needed.

That is about cheap as I can think of. Maybe not very practical but it would solve the problem and eliminate it from happening again. Verse's new set of headers, expensive gaskets that may not seal due to the flange wrapage it doesn't sound to bad. I still need to take some pictures but its cold and raining here. I tried for a very long time to beat the flanges back strait and it never helped.

Main thing is to get a correct diagnosis it could be that the headers have rusted and a small hole has developed. Maybe your gaskets just blew out and are leaking now. But for the most part I have seen its do to the warpage.

[76bonanza]

Yes I am going to pull them apart this weekend the rings I can tell are warped some but I will know more this weekend.

Thanks

[MylilBowTie]

I would try the paper and foil gaskets first they are the cheapest. Don't soak them in water or anything that like it will just mess them up. Just make sure the flanges are clean, then install the gaskets and go from there. Before you install the gaskets you could connect the to flanges and see if they look warped. You might be able to double gasket it but I don't think that would work very long if it did. Sometimes it works but for the most part it doesn't. If I can think of something that doesn't need a weld I'll let you know that could fix it.

[454_72_4X4]

This is how I built mine. It does require welding but you'll never have to worry about it leaking again. I think I could run mine without gaskets at all and not have a leak but I've never tried.
The gasket you see on there has been on there for close to 10 years and been taken apart numerous, (spelling?), times.

BTW. That's not really a header flange, but then again it is. I dunno what to call it really. It's on a set of header/manifolds I built for my S-10. Same pricipal though.



The other half of the flange is welded to the exhaust pipe itself. When/if you do this you have to make sure the pipe "stub" on the header will fit inside the rear exhaust pipe and flange. I had to grind out the inside of the rear flange.

I also use stainless steel bolts/nuts/lockwashers so I can take it apart without "stress". More expensive but well worth it IMO.

[76bonanza]

Ok I tore into one side pulled the aluminum gasket and used the metalic paper one. Same sounds. Looking at the aluminum gasket looks like it seatted fine no burn marks outside of flanges or anything.

Let me describe the sound I am hearing. same sound both sides does not sound like it is coming out of collectors just sounds like it is in the headers ticky metalic sound using my stethscope can hear it at top of headers and bottom but no louder in any spot. Could it just be the exhust being loud? It does get louder when you rev it but it does not sound worse just louder.

I am starting to think it is just the thin walls of the headers and the exhust is just loud?

Thanks for any thoughts.

[bloertcher]

One more trick,works great on cheapo headers that bend the flanges easily.(Bet all of us own at least one set!)I've found that when nothing else works,a properly sized set of doughnut gaskets(like for exhaust manifolds to exhaust pipe)will usually do the trick!I know it sounds crazy,but it works.

[MylilBowTie]

Where can you hear it at? Driving down the street or hood open? I have an exhaust file but its bigg and haven't found anyplace that will host it for free. I was able to convert it from original to wma went from like 8mb to 6mb. I tried some other format and got it down to 600K but it wasn't even worth listening to then.

Its been said there is a big difference in the sound transfur of thick exhaust manifolds and headers even the thicker wall tubes.

[76bonanza]

I can hear it with hood open barly, but if I roll under the truck I can hear it. Can not hear it driving normally from inside of cab only at idle like in my garage I can barly hear it in the cab