tommypenguin Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 I have a perrin catless TBE with my maddad headers and they sound good, very clean on the contrary. But, they are leaking and I found a thread on nasioc where a few members had issues with that connection leaking at the 3 bolt uppipe on the UEL version. Apparently double gaskets didn't cut the mustard, the members who posted about having leaking issues ended up selling their headers on the nasioc forums. I just took a look at the old used gasket that was sent with the headers and it has liquid gasket residue on both sides, it was the only gasket that has that residue on it out of all the used gaskets he sent me, making me think the person I bought the headers from had a leak at that connection that he couldn't fix prompting him to sell. I'm going to continue trying to figure out a way to get these to seal especially since it appears so much torque can be unlocked with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim1969 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Can you have them ground flat at the flanges? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommypenguin Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 The member on that forum that originally posted about his leak tried filing down the flanges and then measured the gap and saw a gap of only .0032 I believe and it still leaked at the flange after. Naturally my parents are flying into town friday night for a week and I have ice hockey tonight leaving me with only tomorrow night to fix the problem or live with the leak for another week till I have time to come back to it. Here is a link to the thread I'm referencing on nasioc... http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1578184 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VTGT Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I'm currently in VA (Fort Lee), if you want to hear EL on a boxer, let me know! Extremely quiet as Tommy mentioned. Your car is in Fort Lee. I need to see that. How far is that from nova? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S0CalGT Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I think it's about a 2hr drive! Haha.. I could possibly meet you half way (where ever that is, I'm still new to this area, let alone VA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim1969 Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 any progress with the leak? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommypenguin Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 My parents are still in town till tomorrow afternoon, then as soon as I get back from taking them to the airport I putting the car up on ramps. My boost has stayed the same, which at least means the leak isn't getting worse. I'm running 22psi right now. I really suspect the leak is coming from 3 bolt flange Up>Mani gasket. I was told on nasioc that grimmspeed offers a better 3 bolt gasket than maddad, I will probably try that out once I can confirm the leak is coming from that location. My friends for some reason don’t have a lot of sympathy for me only being able to run 22psi. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim1969 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 any luck? I'm considering going from my Mad Dad UEL headers to the EL ones. I want to quiet down the car a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommypenguin Posted April 27, 2009 Author Share Posted April 27, 2009 I finally had the opportunity to get my car back up and on ramps. I took some antiseeze and mashed it in between the Uppipe>Mani flanges on all 3 sides of the gasket all the way around. I chose antiseeze because it’s high temp. After putting on the antiseeze and letting it dry over night I went for drive came back put the car back on ramps, let the headers cool and inspected the flange. I saw 2 sides where I placed the antiseeze were perfectly intact, no cracks anywhere but one side of the flange was missing most the antiseeze I had placed on it. That meant air had blown out the antiseeze. I tried wrenching down on the 3 nuts on the 3 bolt flange a little harder but only one of the 3 nuts took anymore wrenching. To my surprise the gap between the flanges was less after getting a ½ turn in on one of the nuts. I had checked these nuts a few times since the install especially since they are the most easily accessible and they were tightened to 38lbs of torque. I guess over several heat cycles that one backed out just a bit. I went and took a drive and I hit 23.8psi. Pulled over, turned the boost up a bit on my mbc and hit 24.67psi. I haven’t had the chance to do a redline pull yet with the headers but I will sometime this week and plot my power increase. There is noticeably more torque with the headers; I would suspect I gained 30-40wtq depending on where I am in the power band. Next up once I can confirm the leak is gone for a couple of weeks I will take off the uppipe and downpipe, mail it to a member on nasioc and get the uppipe flanged for Tial 44mm EWG and get him to reroute the dump tube into my dp and do it all again. When that’s done I have no further plans for my LGT for the year other than maintenance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommypenguin Posted April 28, 2009 Author Share Posted April 28, 2009 Well these will be the last results I have for a little while, my leak is still present boost has dropped down to 23.36psi. I just need new gaskets and pay special attention to torqueing the bolts down as even as possible at install and then do a heat cycle and torque bolts down one more time. I'm confident I will have the leak fixed for good when I pull the uppipe off to get flanged for EWG and reinstall with new gaskets. Learning view is still good, Edited: cell A is slightly lean because of the leak, no fine learning knock though. So far I've gained 26wtq and 9whp with no additional tuning on my setup running 1.02psi less than I was prior to installing the headers. I start seeing gains from 2700rpm on. Most substantial portion of the gains is from 3500rpm to 5500rpm where I see 20-26wtq increase over the stock headers and I'm making 10-15whp more in that region. I assume my spool will be slightly better when the leak is totally sealed and my peak numbers will also be a little higher. I would assume if I were running the same boost as I was prior to the install at 24.38psi I expect I would see 30-35wtq increase and 15-20whp increases given my setup through out the power band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praedet Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Why are you seeing this leak in LV? It is after the engine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommypenguin Posted April 28, 2009 Author Share Posted April 28, 2009 Why are you seeing this leak in LV? It is after the engine... You know what I should think about that, An exhaust leak before the o2 as I have read would cause fuel to be added but the leak is right after the o2, hmm. Didn’t think about that… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommypenguin Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 Final update, I totally forgot about this thread. I ended up getting Grimmspeed gaskets and putting them on. I had to dremmel out the ‘bolt holes’ on a couple of the gaskets so they would be able to slide down the stud but they worked and have sealed my leak. I would recommend tightening everything down in stages also to help ensure no leaks. I tightened a bolt down 25%, then get the others on that flange tightened down about the same, then go to 50%, etc. and tighten the rest down equally till I’m down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnymack Posted April 16, 2010 Share Posted April 16, 2010 Final update, I totally forgot about this thread. I ended up getting Grimmspeed gaskets and putting them on. I had to dremmel out the ‘bolt holes’ on a couple of the gaskets so they would be able to slide down the stud but they worked and have sealed my leak. I would recommend tightening everything down in stages also to help ensure no leaks. I tightened a bolt down 25%, then get the others on that flange tightened down about the same, then go to 50%, etc. and tighten the rest down equally till I’m down. TP! Wish me luck. Sunday, I'm installing the Mad Dad EL header I bought from you. I have brand new Grimmspeed gaskets and I'm hoping for the best. My car is too quiet with just the catted COBB turbo back. Time to make some noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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