fire-chickens

I cannot for the life of me get the damn right side header to seal on the joint of where the header meets the Y pipe, i had a U clamp on there for about a week until i could get band clamps and now for some damn reason it won't seal, I've tried centering the band over the joint and it still leaks, and I've tried having the edge of it right where it meets and clamped down tightly and it still ticks from a leak, reason i know this is cause i could see the steam coming through it this morning from the car running in cold weather. i MUST see a picture of how your Y pipes are clamped onto your long tube headers!!!

i have pacesetter long tubes in case anyone needs to know, and its a 96 lt1 firebird formula

SlowestTransAm

Hm never had that issue with the Pacesetters.
Either ends bent at all or is one just bigger then the other or ??
I've had issue's with hooker but that was from a **** weld job.

lowaggie

iTrader: (2)

I know that it sounds weird, but it's worked for a lot of people on here. Get yourself some heavy duty aluminum foil long enough to wrap around your pipe about 2-3 times. fold it so that it about 4 times or till it is around 3 inch wide. Wrap it around the joint of your header and y pipe, put you band clamp over it and tighten he living **** out of it! Soft aluminum acts like a gasket, and compresses to fill in any cracks in the connection. Works great, is a simple fix and has been going well for me for about 2 years.

I had the same problem as you did.

LS14EVR

iTrader: (3)

I'm guessing the U clamp crushed the pipe in a different shape than the band clamp will compress. Might need to use an expander to get it round again, then use band clamp.

BOA279

iTrader: (1)

Chances are this is correct. Using a U clamp often crushes a groove in both pipes and can flare the ends. You need to round the pipe back out with an expander. you can also expand the inner pipe creating a tighter fit if you buy the tool.

LS14EVR

iTrader: (3)

I'm actually going through somewhat of the same deal with my factory I pipe to Y pipe connection, except I can't seem to get it on enough, so I'm just going to let the exhaust shop finesse it a little.

senicalj4579

iTrader: (41)

After you make sure the pipe isnt out of shape with a pipe expander,you can either do as already posted with the tin foil. Or this is what I did,I bought some copper permatex gasket maker and put a bead around the joints,put a nice big bead around the inside of the band clamps,then tightened the band clamps down to their tightest point. You can either wipe off any excess permatex that squirts out of the band clamps now or you can wait till it dries and peel it off. Worked great for my pacesetter+tsp ory+borla setup.