Hey guys, so I just installed my new headers and fired up my car yesterday. It sounded like I had a leak but I wasn't sure so I take the car out for a test drive, sounds great, pulls hard......but I can hear a leak. So upon further inspection I found that my rear(near firewall) header is leaking where it meets the a-pipe.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

I was thinking on taking the pipe off from both headers and then re-tightening it down starting with the rear first this time. I really don't want to have to buy new gaskets, these are the obx ones and they dont use compression ones. If I have to I'll order another set of gaskets and put 2 gaskets on in the rear to make up for the clearance issue. If anything the flanges seem to not have lined up properly, like they are not flat against each other

 

Did you fully tighten the front before tighten the rear ?

I never installed headers on a cl but,I've did plenty of exhaust work.
I found others easyier to line up by hanging the actual header tight but, where you can still get movement.Then hang the down pipe,fully tighten the down pipe then fully tighten the headers/manifolds to the block.
Then start from the end of the down pipe and work you way to the back.So you have no binding,twisted pipes causing rattles,etc.

 

You know what? You have a very good point my man, I tightened it at the cat, then to the head, and THEN header to a-pipe. You think it woud be ok if I loosened everything including the ones to the head then re-tightened them? from the head im not gonna try and loosen too much though

 

Loosen all bolts head included or it wont make a difference, and tighten the a pipe to the collectors before you tighten the collectors to the head. I tightened mine that way from the beginning and no leaks whatsoever, my install went as follows.

-Install collectors/primaries but dont tighten bolts, put on enough that the bolts dont fall off.

-Connect a pipe to collectors and torque down (40-50lbs).

-Connect a pipe to cat and torque down. (40-50lbs).

-Torque header bolts to head (only like 23lbs or so and make sure to use anti seize).

-After a few runs, wait for the motor to be dead cold (after a full night's sleep) and retorque.

Enjoy leak free headers.

 

yea when i installed my headers I started from the front header then to the back then i did the front jpipe, then the back j pipe and then the last thing was the CAT.

And I re-used my header gaskets and got new compression gaskets.

Also I used NO tq wrench. Eyed it all out and is PERFECT.

To find where the leak is coming from get a piece of pipe and put it near where you think the leak is coming from and put the other end of pipe to your ear and you will HEAR the leak LOUD AND CLEAR..

No worries bro, it'll be fixed soon enough!

 

To find where the leak is coming from get a piece of pipe and put it near where you think the leak is coming from and put the other end of pipe to your ear and you will HEAR the leak LOUD AND CLEAR..

^^Nice with the old school method of finding a noise.
My 70 yr old mothers boyfriend witch has been a auto repair shop owner since his 20's taught me that with a broom stick over ten years ago.

 

If u put in two gaskets one on top of the other. Ur asking for a leak. Keep all bolts loose and thighten them as explained. I switched to grade 8 bolts and inpacted the shit out of them. The head studs I kept oem and tightened them till I felt was good, by hand

 

Well after trying to re-tighten everything in the correct sequence with no success, I took my a-pipe off of the headers, what I came to find is that the rear exhaust gasket is blown, I don't know if its due to poor quality or just because I tightened everything ass-backwards.

Ordered new gaskets and well see what happens.

 

Check the flexpipe

 

u get what u pay for. those gaskets are know to blow, those and the head to manifold gaskets. thats why its recommended to replace them with oem ones