Yo

I was told that my car has an exhaust leak... wtf is that? He said that it just needs a new gasket by the head... is it really that simple? What does an exhaust leak do anyway?

Chris

 

What it does is you lose some exhaust gas before it gets to the tailpipe, or even the oxygen sensors. You can distinguish it by hearing a ticking (most of the time on a cold motor) and usually subsides as it warms up. But, if you don't take care of the exhasut leak, you get poor gas mileage, because your O2 sensors don't see all of the exhaust gases, and think you're running lean, so it dumps in more fuel till it is satisfied with the readings. So changing your gasket can help you regian some gas mileage.

 

Yo

Is that easy to change? I'm new to Firebirds, I don't even technically have the car yet, I JUST DROVE it today and I must say it felt fantastic... L0L But I don't want to bring to the mechanic for every little damn thing. I want to learn to do crap myself... Would this be a good start?

 

No, this would certainly not be the best start for learning to work on cars yourself, unless you are really looking forward to some busted up knuckles, and possibly a weekend since it's your first time. In reality though, if you ever plan on making the car faster, I'd leave the exhaust leak well eonugh alone, and when you do headers, then you put a new exhaust gasket on anyway. Just relacing the exhaust gasket will be a MAJOR pain in the butt, esecially since it's your first time, and if it's the passenger side gasket that leaks, then you are really in for a weekend worth of hurt and swearing lol.

So in conclusion, it's not worth repairing unless you know you will never be adding headers to the car. if you do plan on adding headers, then just wait till you get the headers for the new gasket.

 

Not hard, but will be a pain in the *** :blah:

 

Yo

Well, headers are already on the car. So I should do it than, shouldn't I?

 

If it were me, I probably would.

 

Yeah, you didn't tell me it had headers. I would do the exhaust leak then, sure. Since you are kinda new to cars, are your SURE the car has headers, or are you going on what someone told you? Look in the bay and see for yourself, and see if you can see where the header is leaking from.

 

Yo

Whatever anyone of us on here can tell you it won't be enough since it seems that you probably don't have much of a grasp on mechanics at all let alone LT1 specifics. Here's what I suggest, find a local car club or at a minimum a few local fbody (firebird/camaro) owners on this board.. offer them a few beers then sit around and talk.. you'd be suprised what you can learn and how fast you learn it. Then set a weekend aside to get together and do some work on the car.. again offer some beers if need be If you work with others who have done the job before or are at least mechanically inclined it will make things simpler, faster, and fun.. otherwise you'll probably just end up throwing wrenches and cursing and then having the car towed to a shop

I don't mean to come off sounding like a jerk but you need to get just a bit more knowledge about your car before you start a semi difficult job like changing the exhaust gaskets. Keep reading the board CONSTANTLY and use the search feature (it's your best friend) and find some locals. Oh, and when you do replace the gaskets make sure you use felpro gaskets.. they are definately worth the money as they are pretty good about not blowing out/leaking so you rarely have to replace them.

Anyways.. that's my .02