Well, I got an exhaust leak the other day(about 3 days ago, and it's been slowly getting worse). Initially it was quiet enough that it was barely audible over the sound of the headers under the hood, but over the last couple of day's it's gotten progressivly worse. I know it's on the passanger side, and I'm assuming that it's between the head and the flange on the header, and not off the A.I.R. tube or the EGR feed. The leak has gotten bad enough that when the car is cold, it whistles, and when it warms up, if you get on it and then let the RPMs drop it whistles then. I'm looking for opinions: do you think the gasket is already shot and I need a new one, or do you think it could just be that it's loose enough that it's whisteling and it needs to be tightened(I'm tightening them tomorrow regardless).

 

tighten the bolts, if it still does it or does it again within a few days, replace the gaskets. I recommend annealed copper or aliuminum gaskets and Stage8 header bolts.

 

It's cooling off right now, so I'll tighten the bolts and give a little update. Thanks for the recomendations on the gaskets, if I have to purchase new ones I'll deffinately take that into consideration.

 

Go gentle with those bolts, you have aluminum heads and the threads are easy to strip.

 

I tightened most of them(I could get to the first one on the passenger side because I didn't want to hastle with the alternator). They were pretty loose, but unfortunately that didn't fix my problem. It's not as prevalent now, but it's still there(whistle and all). I'm going to pull the alternator tomarrow and make sure they are all nice and tight, I'm thinking 1 bolt won't make that much of a difference, but who knows.
Thanks for the tip Pete, I really can't get them too tight anyway due to the wrench I have to use(I'm also not the most physically robust person either), it's pretty short, and ground down so I can get on the bolts, so I can't torque them too tight or the wrench would probably break.

 

If you plan on replacing the bolts later be carefull because i had the same problem and found out that the bolts break very easily. If they break they have to be tapped out and with aluminum heads its scary tapping out those bolts.

 

I really have no worries on getting them out, due to the fact that one had vibrated a 1/4 inch out on it's own(I'm going to loctite them in). After further investigation, it no longer sounds like I have a leak(the classic pffft sound of an exhuast leak is gone), but it's still whisteling when I let off the gas and air is getting sucked into the header. It sounds like it's comming from the #8 cylinder, so I think I'll have to replace the gaskets.[:'(]

 

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!! BAD IDEA!!!!!!!!! NEVER EVER EVER EVER LOCTITE HEADER BOLTS!!!!!! BTW, those gaskets I told you about can run upwards of $60 just so you know.

 

Whoa, calm down there buddy, I'm only going to loctite them in if I can find a loctite that is compatible not only with high temp, but also with the Aluminum of the heads so they don't seize.

I have one more area to check, and that's the EGR feed, once the car cools down, I'm going to make sure that it's tight, and if it is, then I'm going to order some new gaskets and have my next weekend planned out for me(oh joy...).

 

i just had the same problem with my hooker headers, the passanger side came loose and blew the gasket out, take your time and get all the bolts out, ur gasket prolly isnt even there on that side, put lock tite on the bolts and put them back in with the new gasket, and put some gasket sealer on the gaskets. it took my like 3 hours because i couldnt get the headers bolts out easyly. good luck