exhaust leak?

quiksilver9531 said:

I have bbk shorty headers and an offroad H pipe...I just put them on about 3 months ago, about a week ago I noticed this tapping noise and its gotten louder since, it doesnt make the noise on idle and only makes it while accelerating, now im pretty sure its an exhaust leak from the header to the head, so i tightened all the bolts which were about hand loose when i tightened them but it still does it, now should i replace the header gaskets? i heard that you can ruin the gaskets when that happens...

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I have the same problem on my GT. The gasket is copper and is only good for one torque. I am going to put a new gasket on my GT to get rid of the leak. Next time I'll skip the copper gaskets. I think they suck! I'll get a felpro set. Much better that felpro is.

The gaskets that usually come with headers are junk. Get ya some new ones, i remember bolting on my BBK longtubes an i blew both the gaskets out within a week.

Also when you tighten the bolts do the inside ones first an work you way out, keeps the flange nice an flat an seems to keep the bolts tight.

I have about 500 miles on my new motor and I thought I developed a bad tap, like a lifter or something. I was pretty mad, but found out it was those AWESOME header gaskets that came with my BBK LT's. I will be slapping a new set on this weekend.

As far as keeping them bolts tight, I use the Stage 8 lockers and they work pretty dang good. I think they are worth the $50.00....

Tim

Well, now that you have successfully diagnosed the problem, what do you do? If you are anything like me, you will open your hood, grab a smoke and a seat, and sit there for a while thinking about how much it sucks that you're going to have to do that whole header thing AGAIN!
I would say that your gaskets are completely shot, and if you look real close, you will probably be able to actually see chunks of what used to be gasket that are just flat out missing. GONE! Have I got my point across that this has happened to me? What I did. Bought a set of Mr. Gasket Ultra-seals, and a set of Stage 8 locking header bolts(key) from Summit. The stock bolts that come with the BBK's are definately too short, ESPECIALLY on any of the bolts that have something else under them. For example, the one that holds the dipstick. This is why you want to get the Ford Racing Stage 8 bolts from Summit and not the plain stage 8 bolts for a mustang. The ones with the Ford Racing part# or reference, if you will, are 3/8-16 by 1" long, while the others are only 3/4" long. Get the 1" long ones. Just keep telling yourself, I'm not going to do this again! and buy the bolts. They are around $45 for the set. Mine is holding up great. I couldn't be happier or more confident in this holding up for a long time. Take a look at your collector flanges too, while you've got the headers out. They are only skip welded in like 3 or 4 places around the diameter of them, and seem to crack the welds when you tighten the mid pipe to them. If this happens, then the ears of the flange, where the studs are, will just start to pull down and not really tighten up. I took mine in to work and had them welded all the way around solid. If you look real close, you'll see the cracks in the welds, if they are there. Good luck! Russ

ive had the same thing before with good felpro gaskets.

sometimes you will hear it, and othertimes nothing. its always just a faint ticking sound right? not far above idle, maybe 1500 rpm?

as far as the bolts backing out, snug them good with a 3/8" wrench and ive never had any problems that is also with standard header bolts, locking would be a wise investment reguardless though.

its better to spend 200 dollars on GOOD hardware then get screwed over just one time by cheap hardware. saves lots of time and frustration, and in some cases money.

quiksilver9531 said:

I called an auto part store to get a price on header gaskets, and he told me theres like three different kind of patterns..what pattern are the bbk shorty headers?

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They are just regular 302 gaskets, either mr. gasket or felpro makes them.

And you don't need the 45 dollar bolts either, when i do mine i've never had the retighten them. Everytime i check them just to make sure their all still snug an never backout.