I recently bought a set of Pacesetter shorty headers off ebay recently. I have installed them but I have an exhaust leak on the drivers side where the headers meet the pipe connected by the donut gaskets. the donut gasket is not long enough and does not go deep enough into the exhaust pipe to completly seal.

I had a new c/c installed and the muffler shop did a pretty s**** job so the pipes are kind of uneven. Does anybody know where I can get a longer donut gasket I think they are usually .60'' in length.

 

here is one from summit racing idk if its the right size but check on there they gots lots of stuff like that

here is a link to what i found http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DTC-60-00842/

 

Man, I feel for you.. I played HELL getting mine on.. The headers were RTV'd, the manifolds came off, the headers went on- elapsed time: 1 hour.. the dang pipe to the collector, and good seal- elapsed time: about 6 hours.. errrrrrr.....

for what it's worth, I used a jack and a ratchet strap.. I got frustrated and to the point I wasn't worried what happened to it.. I put the strap on it and pulled it one direction, and jacked it up and incrementally moved it to where it needed to be .. it took some time to get it precisely where it needed to be, but it finally happened..

I'd be concerned about using a longer/wider donut.. in my mind it would be almost like waiting for a leak to develop if it weren't completely and evenly squashed between those two fittings.. Try the jack and strap thing, and you may be able to work with what you got..

a jack strap... huh... that sounds dirty, huh? I dig it..

 

try going to autozone..ect parts place,,, with the small gasket in hand and ask if they can find a bigger one,,,,, that what i did on my v8 s10 swap

 

I tried all those places and they said that for my type of eninge and pipe diameter that they were all the same size. Even the muffler shops didnt have any. Im gonna try the jack and strap thing lol.

 

I think you are trying to solve the symptom rather than the problem. Didn't you say the cat install was bad? Rather than bending things to fit, have the cat cut out and reinstalled correctly AFTER you bolt up the pipe securely to the exhaust manafold.

I'm sure you can push that square peg into that round hole, but why? You are asking for problems down the line, not to mention what might break when you do bring out the jack. Either way, keep us posted.

 

K I had another go at it today, the collecters fit in the exhaust pipes but there is still a leak. It seems to be coming from in between the collector and the shorty headers. I purchased some Super Copper High heat RTV to place a bead on the headers before I put in the new collectors (like it said to do in the first place in the JBA Shorty Header DIY in our forums).

And yes the cat was installed bad but its not bad enough to reinstall it at the moment. ( Im planning to remove it soon but I dont have access to the equipment at the moment.)

Ill post how it goes when the RTV cures.

Are there any real bad side effects to a pre-cat exhaust leak.

 

O2 sensor reads inaccurate.......

 

K I think I got rid of the leaks, I just used a some Super Copper High Heat RTV on the donuts and it sealed up pretty good. I just turned it on and didnt let it really warm up or run yet because Im about to install my leds. So Im not sure if its the permanent fix yet.