exhaust gasket help?

[bowlofturtle]

Well today in class i wanted to do a top engine clean, get out all the carbon off my valves and what not with Seafoam. I put about 3/4 of the bottle into my manifold line. My teacher said the whole thing would be great. But i guess my car doesnt like it.

I found out i have an exhaust leak. Because there was a crazy amount of smoking coming out of the head shielded area where the headers are normally at. My teacher said it was a minor leak. there was no sound or anything just a leak. He said most likely it was a gasket seal. But he didn't have time to confirm anything.

So here i am, i want to get a new exhaust seal, does it sound like a seal issue to you?

How hard is it to install? anyone done them? tips, pictures any info?

From what i gathered it should be $10 or less.



I didn't see the results of seafoam, after 3/4 bottle and waited 15 mins i ran the car. At about 60mphs for a good amount of time till the smoke cleared and what not. There was smoke but not a big deal of smoke, so i'm assuming there wasn't a lot of carbon therefore i dont feel the results.

My teacher stated that i'm loosing horsepower due to that exhaust leak, I wanted to know how much but he was busy, is having a exhaust leak equal to have no back pressure?

[bowlofturtle]

anyone wanna help out on this one?


i found the gaskets
http://www2.toyautoparts.com/parts/p...ket&category=H

but not sure where it goes.

[amerikim]

Teacher is right.
Try checking your manifold bolts, it just may need tightening.
Do not overtighten, it will snap and then you win expensive bill.

Power is down, consumption is worse.
Other bad things can happen too, like a burned valve, etc.
Change all of the gaskets, don't get lazy.

I would offer to help if you were in the neighbourhood.

[bowlofturtle]

my exhaust manifold bolts? in other words its my headers bolts? in the sense that i do have headers.

I really would love to change all gaskets but i dont know how to go about it. I never did know there was a leak untill today. I dont understand where that ring would be. how hard would this job be?

[amerikim]

Every car I know off manufactured recently has exhaust manifolds or headers or whatever one wants to call it. Its the ducting that takes the exhaust gas away from the engine. Don't get confused by all the talk on here about performance headers.
The part from where exhaust leaves your engine and collects into one or two larger pipes is typically the header. When those two pipes merge furthur downstream, thats the infamous Y Pipe. Onto Cat, etc etc.

Remove the heat shield. You'll see it.
Its the thing that gets really hot when engine is running.

[bowlofturtle]

Yea the heat sheild i figure would be the source of all this. but a minor thought came to mind. I personally was looking at the smoke that started to leak and it wasn't from the headers point. It was lower. Like near the bottom of the engine where the pipe from the under the car comes into play. i assume right before the cat. so thats the Y pipe? the connection at the y-pipe might be were the leak it


sorry i dunno my terms very well. too many people call it one thing and the other. too lazy to keep track.

as for the exhaust seal, thats where the headers mounts on the block or so?

[bowlofturtle]

another sad attempt to bump this thread up so i can a little more help.

[ShawnM]

hiya bowl....does the shop there have a smoke machine yet? They come in handy for finding vacuum leaks, but you can also put it in the tail pipe to help you pinpoint small exhaust leaks. Or another way would be to have someone hold a rag or something over the tail pipe, plugging it up. The increase in pressure in the pipe will make the leak louder and easier to track down.

[Toysrme]

3/4 of a bottle on a 183ci motor!?!?!?!?! Your shop teacher is crazy, or not very smart! I hope you're having him sign for something when it breaks!!!
Yes seafoam smokes a lot.

The exhaust leak just let's a small amount of exhaust out early. You're not loosing much if it's a small leak.



What is the problem you're having??? Just find the leak and fix it? If you have to put the *recommended* amount of seafoam down the intake and do the proceedure again, watching for the leak.

[bowlofturtle]

well my teacher is ex-dealer tech. i trust him.

Well he told me he has downed the whole bottle on most cars. i asked him about the 1/3 bottle like 6 times because it didn;t make sense to me either.


shawn the school doesn't have a smoke machine. aleast not in the class i'm in currently.

I might re-do the whole seafoam again. but it didn't start smoking untill 1/2 the bottle was gone.

Honestly there wasn't that much smoke only 4-6 mins of 60mph driving then smoke was gone.


Do you guys think chaning the gasket would be the a good start? Its cheap. and i guess if its not, its more of preventive maintaince.

[Toysrme]

Last person I knew that sucked 3/4+ of a bottle down an intake had his 3.4L 5vz-fe hydrolock and it destroyed it. :'(

bowlofturtle you realize you use 1/3 or 1/2 the bottle and immediately shut the car off for 5 min right? You guys wern't just pouring/sucking the bottle into the intake and leave the car running were you?


If it's leaking at the gasket then change the gasket, otherwise you're not accomplishing anything other than changing a very long life metal gasket.

[bowlofturtle]

well yes sir. my teacher explained to me how to do it.

this is literally what i did. ran 3/4 bottle in there. turned it off. let it sit 18mins. Pushed it out of the class. fired it up and guned it at 30mph untill i got on the normal roads then i just took off at 60mph's drove. drove about 10 mins no stop really except for 1 stop sign. then drove 10 mins back to school. parked it and called it a day.


retaining to the gasket. my teacher suggested that the common thing would be the gasket. i honestly couldn't really see where the probelm was. i knew it was from the mainfold area. if it came under the headshield or not. i know it was clost to the block of the engine tho. and now under that plastic splash gaurd. from all that i recalled. factor in i was staring at this like a mad man when i saw the smoke.



Not sure if it would help but i poured it thru the 1 hose that was vaccum on the left of the throttle body when facing the car. Nice and slowly thru a crimped hose.

[Toysrme]

Aight man, have fun with the Seafoam. It just really seems like something you guys did wasn't right, but what can I say you're on top of it!

Go ahead and change the gasket. It's not very hard to do, and you guys seems to be pointing fingers at it for a reason. "All roads lead to Rome". Change it, and if you use Seafoam again let it idle outside with the hood open for a little while and see what's up down there. (normally seafoam will make a motor billow smoke idling for 5-15 min)

If nothing else, it'll show you where a leak is! Just look for the smoke in the engine bay!

[bowlofturtle]

hehe. but you suggest i should put the seafoam in push it out and let sit for a while then start it up looking at the engine for the leaks. I thought we weren;t suppose to let it really idle just hop in a go.


i'm sorry if i seem stubborn or what not. this is what i've been told you know, not saying who is more right in this case. All i know is theres a leak. i dont want it there. So i'm just trying to fix it. in the furture i'ma do what the bottle suggests. simply cause thats how everyone did it .

now back to my main question and off of what i did with seafoam.

whats the procedure on doing the gasket? Why are there 2 seals? Are the seals between the header and block ?