Exhaust header leaks

[Dober89]

I just finished a little bit of work on my car and sprayed some carb cleaner inside the throttle body to help clean it up and bit. I started it up and it ran a little rough at first like I figured, but I put my hand near the drivers side exhaust header and it feels like every part of it is leaking.

I have no clue what kind of headers they are because they are like 10 years old atleast.

What should I torque these things down to?? They've got the wierdest looking fasteners on them too.

[4onFloor]

i torqued my headers down to 30ft lbs. but it just depends on the header, and how thick the mating flange is. you can try changing your gaskets, but the flange might be warped

[Chevyracincamaro]

yeah they only get torqued to 25-30 ft-lbs. trying torquing the bolts, starting the engine to let it reach operating temp, then turn it off and torque the bolts again. you might even want to see if you can pull the headers and inspect the gaskets and the flange.

[TEXAS-HOTROD]

I had a problem w/blowing gaskets on mine too. I laid my chop saw on its side and ran the header flange across the flat side of the blade to take out any high spots. Kind of like a poor man's milling machine. I installed the headers w/o gaskets and used some red high temp silicone.
The bolts have never worked loose and after 4 yrs., have never had any leaks either.

[Dober89]

I dont really wanna take them off to check the gaskets because im afraid ill just crack something else loose and have another exhaust leak at the collector or somewhere.

[Chevyracincamaro]

the easy fix(but certainly not the best way): go buy two tubes of hi temp silicone and start applying where ever you got a leak...