Manifold gasket woes

[Blitzed]

Hi All,

Purchased a manifold gasket from MSA. Installed to fix a vacuum leak on a new manifold. Fixed the vacuum leak but under driving load developed a exhaust leak. See pic and leak location (yellow dot, front side of the center section of the exhaust flange). I can put my finger over the location and feel the air pulses. Engine ran for three weeks fine but developed the leak while driving under load.

 

Running a Kameari manifold with MSA 6 into one header on a L28 with N42 head. Retorqued the flange nuts no change, It's appears I'll be crying and removing the entire intake and header again to install a new gasket (third time is the charm I hope 😞). 

 

Any tricks, torqued bolts center out on the last reinstall or different year gasket?.  Running 12/MM bolts on the manifold and studs with 13/MM nuts on the header flange. 

 

The folks selling the Kameari manifold show a manifold gasket but not sure if their gasket is any different then the purchase from MSA?? But the manifold sealed (no issues idle speed variation).  

 

https://www.rhdjapan.com/kameari-intake-manifold-kit-l-type-50mm-l6-rod-type.html

 

Thank you, 

[SteveJ]

A friend of mine with over 30 years experience wrenching on Z cars doubles up on the gasket when installing headers. For instance on my L28, I had two Beck-Arnley gaskets with a generous amount of Ultra Copper to adhere the gaskets to one another.

[Blitzed]

Hi Steve,

Inquired about doubling up but could not get any of the local shops to say, yes, that's the answer. It's always about inspecting the flange and new hardware.

Not familiar with a Beck - Arnley gaskets ??

Willing to try anything at this point. 

Thanks again. 

[Blitzed]

Here's the area with the leak. 

 

[26th-Z]

Beck-Arnley https://www.beckarnley.com/

I use the Permatex Ultra Copper as well

[SteveJ]

By the way, if you want the 12 mm head M8 nuts and bolts(JIS spec), you can get them from Bel-Metric.

[Blitzed]

Thanks,

Ordered two gaskets, will source the copper adhesive locally. Hope this will do the trick. I'm map tuning so tearing down over and over, will reset the tune. Cant tune with the leak, O2 sensor reading will be false. 

Any strength advantage with all head studs versus bolts on the manifold and studs on the header?

BTW- the bolt and nut sizes I referenced were the tool sizes required. When you've taking apart and reinstalled anything a couple of times you just look and bolt and reference the tool required.  

Will report back when reinstalled. 

[SteveJ]

I know what you were talking about. That's why I told you where you could source the correct size fasteners.

https://belmetric.com/coarse-thread-jis-small-wrench-hex-nut-class-8-steel/?

https://belmetric.com/coarse-thread-jis-small-wrench-hex-nut-class-8-steel/?sku=NJ8X12YLW (Yellow Zinc) I bought 100 of these.

[Jeff Berk]

I had an issue with my exhaust flange being warped. My mechanic used an extra thick manifold from Remflex that sealed the leak. 

[Blitzed]

Jeff,

Thanks for the heads up on the remflex gasket, worked out perfectly. 

[Jeff Berk]

Blitzed... Glad it worked for you. The Remflex gasket saved me from having to machine the exhaust flange.