im sure no one will read this, but im going insane and needed to rant.


my felpro header gaskets had been slightly leaking for months......not real bad, but you could faintly hear the ticking on colder days especially.

i figure its time to change the driver side (where i assume the leak is).

get the felpro off of there and it had small leaks on 3 out of 4 !

put in a brand new SCE copper gasket, supposed to be badass.

leaks even worse.

keep in mind, now im extremely pissed, not only cause the gasket sucks, but i did all that work for nothing. i have stage8 bolts, and jethot longtubes........this means out of 6 bolts, only two can be taken out with a rachet, the rest require the allen key to fit, and the far rear one is in such a tight spot my big arms takes me try after try just to get it it in our out, with much frustration.

a friend mentions because i didnt sand down/razor blade off any gunk off the head, it might not have sealed properly. head had looked smooth, so i didnt bother.

so i figure ok, my fault for being lazy, ill do it all over again today, and do it right.

i scrape/sand off any slight bit of dirt and make sure the head and inside of the header flange are perfectly clean. spotless, even cleaned it with a engine cleaner.

put on a new SCE copper gasket with some copper gasket sealant this time.

still friggin leaks..........not as bad as the first time, but still leaks worse than it did with the leaky felpro in the first place.

now i have to do this all over and try some different gaskets.......any suggestions?.....im not sure if i want to use felpros again.

 

Try just running regular paper gaskets. I've been running them on my car since my LT install and no leaks anywhere

 

mine burned through in 2 days

 

I used the cheap mr.gasket copper seals at advance auto. Havent had any problems to date (6+ months now)

 

I have always used felpro from autozone, never any problems.

 

Are you able to torque things down correctly with the Stage 8 bolts? I've heard that they can be a major pain, and may not be worth it. Many people seem to like the Breslin(sp?) splitlocks better. Myself, I'm going with the ones that came with my headers. If GM can make the manifolds not leak with standard bolts, I figure I can try it too.

Also, seems to me that you would want to torque down the bolts a little at a time. Don't tighten one all the way, then the next one and so on. An even torque would be better, like 1/2 the recommended torque on all the bolts, then full torque. Just a thought. Otherwise you may kink the gasket and not get a good seal.

Dan

 

well the stage8 bolts are just like regular header bolts, except they also have an allen key opening in the center........so you can use either a wrench, socket, or allen key for hard to reach places.

however, because the tubes are so thick on the headers, it doesnt leave enough room next to the bolt so you cannot fit a socket or wrench on most of the bolts. that means you can only use the allen key, and that makes it very hard to torque tightly.

i think im gonna take an extra socket and grind away the oustide until its thin enough to work, and try that tomorrow morning.

 

My Fel-Pro's (1406) worked great, will be using them again! Also using ARP bolts.

 

I'll be using the same set up this spring. Hope to have no problems.