cylinder head exhaust leak

[bengalcharlie]

Hi,

I have the following poblem. Cylinder two leaks between the head and the exhaust flange.
This is the third time this has happened and I just finished reassambling the whole exhaust system again only to find out that the problem is still there.
This time I flattened all the exhaust flanges to make sure there are completely flat and no change.
All I can think now is to remove the head and have the head exhaust flange area skimmed ??? Is this a common problem?
Any other suggestions.
It starts to stress me out ( not because of the car but because of the wife!!)
Robin

[ppnelan]

You do have the correct gaskets fitted between exhaust manifold & engine, don't you??

Matthew

[Petter Hval]

I cured the same problem with a double set of exhaust gaskets.
Regards
Petter

[pereirac]

You could try Cosworth manifold gaskets, they are a bit thicker?

Carl

[Foxie]

I had this problem with a TT manifold. Check the the inner and outer pipes are not butting against each other, the bell housing or misaligned Y-piece connection
It helps to relief the "ears" of the exhaust manifold flanges (by judicious use of angle grinder) so that just a circular section makes initial contact with the gasket.

Sean Murray

[1964 S1]

I agree with all the suggested possible remedy answers and I would definetly not remove the head to skim it. On my +2 the rear mounting stud slowly backs itself out of the head leading to a bit of noise but mostly odor in the cabin. Will your manifold face lay flat on a table?

[reb53]

Hi Robin,

Pulling the head sounds a bit drastic.
Do you put a skim of "Firegum" or "Manuseal" on it when you assemble it?
Repco have them both and as long as you don't rev the engine after re-assembly and let it warm up gently to give it time to harden it seems to work well.

Ralph.

[types26/36]

This time I flattened all the exhaust flanges to make sure there are completely flat and no change.

As prevously noted some fire gum may help, if it has been leaking for a long time then the hot gasses could have cut/burnt a track in head and without skimming the fire gum could be the best bet. Clean and check the head for signs of a "path" around the ports.

[stuartgb100]

Robin,

Knew I'd seen Rohan's post on this some time back ......... finally found it !
This post is an addendum Rohan wrote to a post about general gasket and
sealents to use.

It presumes head/manifold faces are fair and square:

Quote:

"I wrote that post a couple of years ago now and the only change I would make to it is say that high temperature silicone sealant ( eg the loctite copper silicone) on the head to exhaust manifold gaskets has worked well for the last couple of years on my Elan with no problems at racing temperatures.

Another article to refer to on this is on the Elan Factory web site which is generally consistent with what I wrote.

http://www.elanfactory.com.au/pdf/techn ... alants.pdf "

Regards,
Stuart.