96ta

so i recently put on my kooks 1 7/8 headers onto my 02 ls1. since then ive had major exhaust leaks. i didnt lock tight them the first time but after i went back to retighten the bolts i went ahead and lock tighted them. but it seems like the exhaust leak just got worse. i spoke to my mechanic about it and he said its possible the flange may be warped. how likely is that?

Adrenaline_Z

Anything is possible.

Is the gasket in good condition?

Did you start torquing from the middle out? Did you step torque in sequence,
or fully tighten one bolt and then move to the next?

brian_rs/ss

so you are positive it's leaking at the header flange?

96ta

yes my buddy and i sprayed some windex on the flange on passenger side cylinders 1 and 2 it just bubbled and evaporated. 3 and 4 just blew back in his face lol.

96ta

the gasket was brand new when i put it on less than a month ago. we did start in the middle and work our way out. when we tighten them down we did just fully tighten one bolt and move to the next i had checked the torque specs before we tightened everything down but didnt see anything about a step torque sequence.

96ta

bump...

TooLateVTEC

iTrader: (2)

What kinda gasket did you use?

I would get another set of gaskets and this time when you put the bolts back in, start in the middle and just tighten the bolt until the flange touches the head, then move on to the next one. One all of them are like that, then go back and tighten them down.

senicalj4579

iTrader: (41)

Well theres only one thing you can do. Take it all off and look at the flange. I know it sucks trust me. I had a header bolt snap on me and it cost me. Just be glad you didnt snap one and you can take everything back off and start over.

sjsingle1

iTrader: (1)

take off.......get new GM gaskets....check flange for straightness

TheBlueKnight

iTrader: (4)

My header bolts were bottoming out when I did mine. It was leaving a tiny little gap and was leaking because of it. I had to go buy shorter header bolts and wah lah, pinched the gap closed and no more header leak. I actually snapped off a header bolt not knowing they were bottoming out and thinking they were just having a hard time going in. If that is what's happening you can get shorter header bolts like I did or get washers for them.

Not saying that's your problem but I'd check into it!