I have an exhaust leak on my driver's side SLP where it meets the head... It is on the middle two primaries. It looks as if the gasket is not sitting flush because inbetween the two primaries the gasket is bent outwards. I want to make sure that its not the bolts not letting it sit flush against the head to form a nice seal... Would it be okay to enlarge the middle two bolt holes on the gasket just to be sure?

I want to get rid of this damn leak... not only does it make my blown WS-6 sound like a bucket, it makes the inside of my car smell like exhaust after a while and I think it's even giving me fake knock at light throttle... damn thing.

 

IMO, making it seal around the ports is the whole point. Whatever you have to do to achieve that should be ok.

 

I got a set of their gaskets with their installation kit when I did my headers. I didn't like that they were individual ones for each primary so I went with a set of the Felpro 1406's. I thought the one piece made it easier to keep the gasket lined up while installing them. To answer your question though, I don't think it would hurt anything to enlarge to bolt holes in the gasket if it doesn't seem to be sitting correctly. I have heard that once you develop a leak the gasket sometimes wont seal correctly afterward. While you are at it you may just want to go with a better gasket, I've had 0 problems for the last year with the Felpros.

 

I enlarged the holes on my old Mac headers before to make them seal. Had no problems for the 2 yrs I had the headers.

 

Thanks for the advice guys... I'm actually using the Felpro 1406 right now after having an Earl's Pressure Master fall apart on me. I figured that the part of the gasket where the exhaust is leaking would not be fit to seal again so I ordered a new 1406 from Summit... should be here tomorrow. I'm gonna make the holes a little bigger, ultra copper it up, slide it in and hopefully it will have no leak. Thanks.