I took out the copper gaskets I had and put in normal thick gaskets for my longtubes. Drivers side was a complete bitch to bolt down, passenger side was a breeze.

So once they were in, I did the proper break in for new gaskets. Everything was fine until I did a third WOT run. Then I developed a small leak in the center ports on the drivers side. I let it cool and checked the bolts and they were loose. So I tightened them down, the leak is still there. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

The usual header gasket is the Felpro. One problem may be that the flange on the header primary is not completely straight. I assume that you also use 1" bolts rather than 3/4" ---which most believe is too short for most aftermarket header flanges. And if you are using copper gaskets or the like, you might consider going with non-metal gaskets because of the problem of different rates of expansion and contraction with aluminum heads and copper gaskets. JMHO

 

yeah, i went to a non-copper gasket, it helped alot im just having an issue with the center ports on the drivers side not sealing.

 

Perhaps an over simplification, but if the head is even and the flange is even and the gasket is good and the tightness is good then there isn;'t much else that I can think of. I have SLP shorties and I did notice that I was getting scorch marks on the driver's side center primaries. Turned out that the flanges were not perfectly level and a little machine work was necessary to square them up. Probably not too rare to have header flanges that are not perfect. Having experiened that, I would suggest that anyone buying headers make certain of their levelness prior to installation.

Advise that you eliminate all the possiblities starting with the easiest, i.e. gasket not screwed up, proper torque---leaving the removal and checking the flanges as a last attempt to resolve the problem.

If you experienced the leak only after putting in the new gaskets and the bolts came loose at that point, then maybe the leak caused by the loose bolts damaged the gasket at that point. I assume that your gasket is a one-piece gasket and not individual gaskets i.e. 1 each for #1 and 1 for 3&5 and 1 for #7. The felpros are one piece---which I believe are easier to work with, however if you have individual gaskets then replacing the middle one would require less work if that is the only gasket that might be boogered.

 

I ordered a set of stage 8 locking bolts with my headers, and have never had a problem.

 

While you have it apart again, I would recheck the gasket, you could have easily damaged it when the bolts worked themselves loose. Unless you get locking header bolts the next time around, I would make a habit of routinely checking the tightness of the bolts.