97 Z28 Camaro LT1 I just got long tubes for it and it came with steel reinforced gaskets do you think those are strong enough to hold ? The motor is mildly upgraded with a cam cold air intake shift kit I had shorty headers on it and it leaked but the gaskets were not steel reinforced Thanks for your help!

 

I've found the quality of the header flange has the most to do with leaks,
I use single layer copper gaskets on headers and haven't had any issues..
You do need thick flanges to make it work.

I have an old Doug Thorley (Pre Buyout) on my jeep ,,
they seal with a simple 2 layer just fine and the motor is tough on exhaust parts..

 

Remflex header gaskets are a guaranteed seal. Been using them for years and they've never failed to seal.

 

Doesn't have anything to do with if they're strong enough, but rather how true the plane of the header flanges are. If they are not true it doesn't matter what gasket you use it will leak. A paper gasket allows for more margin of error if the flanges aren't completely true, which is a common thing with headers. I've always used Fel-Pro 1402's for my Hooker LT's with great success.

 

True, which is another reason the Remflex graphites are an excellent product. They're about 1/8th of an inch thick - maybe even more - and compress to seal perfectly. The downside is that if you have to remember to re-check the bolts after a bit of driving. Do that once, twice for good measure, and then forget about them

 

^^^^ this. re-tighten header bolts after a few heat cycles

 

I use GM mls gaskets. work like a champ/

 

Ultra copper gasket maker on the head and the header never leaks and won't blow out.

 

Percy seal 4 good ftw

 

I have percy's stacked aluminum gaskets and they def are better than the paper or single layer stuff. Sealed up my jacked up header flanges just fine.

 

 

I'm running Percy's as well. No leaks in 8 years. My flanges are warped in the middle(convex to the head), but I think the flange sealing surface itself is true/surfaced flat. I tightened them from the middle out to pull the middle to the head first, then the outer edges.

 

Percy's seal for good here. No leaks in 14k miles. No bolts came loose or had to be tightened.
Considering using 1 inch header bolts instead of the 3/4 inch also.

 

I used Percy's with the Pacesetters on one car, and recently used 1406's to fix a leaking SLP shorty on another. Always had good luck with both when using the 1" long ARP bolts - no backing out, but I do recheck them after a few heat cycles.

 

The other well known secret is using a 3/8's or even 5/16'th header bolt instead of the normal 7/16's. That way access to every primary is far easier and they can be properly torqued down. Also, when using a paper gasket it is extremely important to retorque bolts after a few heat cycles.