stacking exhaust manifold gasket

[newtypedsm]

here's the problem. i had the #4 cylinder exhaust port worked on, i had to get it filled in by welding because of my stupidty in porting. now, there is a leak there between the head and the manifold because the weld was not brought out far enough to be flush with the rest of the ports. can i take two manifold gaskets, put a light layer of ultra copper between them, and bolt it down to seal the leak? i dont know of any other way to fix it, i dont want to goop ultra copper there in fear of it deteriorating and having chunks of rtv go into the turbo.

 

[1stGenTSi]

There's no reason not to try and see if it works. I'd use copper spray though instead of rtv.

 

[dsmfa9nutter]

Have it welded again. Either that or you could try one of FFWD's copper gaskets.

 

[Auto RS T]

The proper fix here is to have it re-welded and resurfaced. I recently had to do this on my #1 exhaust port and was able to get away with having the head welded and just surfaced the flange myself. I cut the majority of the weld down with an aluminum bit in a die grinder and finished it off with a hand file. When I have my head refreshed I am going to have the machine shop take a second look at it and see what they think. I'm confident it will be fine though.

 

[newtypedsm]

will using bolts instead of studs have any effect on torquing? and should i use flat washers instead of lock washers?

 

[knochgoon24]

Use studs and lock washers. I got a kit from ssstuds.com and they are really nice. You can try a coper crush gasket, but be careful that you don't strip out the studs from the head. I wouldn't over torque any of the studs. The aluminum head is very soft and very easy to strip.

 

[newtypedsm]

i fixed it by using 2 fel-pro brand gaskets and spraying a good coat of copper sealant between the two. i put the two gaskets between two 2X4's and clamped it down overnight, then installed it and torqued to specs. im going to retorque it later. i was surprised it worked, i guess i was expecting the worst. i'm still going to order the FFWD copper gasket just to have it around.