Ebay Headers Gasket, Please Help Options

[BonzaiCelica]

So about a 1.5 years ago i bought some headers for my st celi for about $125. After having them installed for almost a year the gasket that sits between the header manifold and the downpipe decied to tear away. and i was stuck with a broken gasket. when i was taking it apart to get the broken gasket and 2 of the 3 bolts broke in half. Im assuming that since the bolts were such crappy material they started losening up over time and thus allowed a leak in the gasket.

I tried contacting the store and they said i couldnt get a gasket unless i bought new headers all together. So i went to a performance shop and got the mr gasket material that is made to make gasket, and then cut out the shape of the gasket. I then got the 2 metal plates that go on top and bottom of the material and decided to make my own one. I grabbed silicon maker and used it as paste to stick everything back together. Then i put about 25 pounds on it would be flat. It looked brand new. Also bought some grade A bolts from Napa so i knew they were the best. I installed it and about 5 months later i had another broken gasket. Now the orange silicon stuff says it can only withstand 650 degrees of heat. I'm sure headers get up to 1000 degrees and more.

Now how should i go about fixing this problem. Im thinking of not even using the orange gasket maker gel. Should i just make two of the same gaskets with the material and bolt everything back up without using any gel to stick them together.

My neighbor who is a mecanic looked everywhere for a similar gasket but wasn't able to find anything. What should i do?? On the bottom is the pic of the original gasket and the two gaskets that i made yesterday. and this link is to some gaskets from a honda accord which is from the same website should i just buy this and be done with it.

http://stores.ebstores.us/Items/gkthp92s-0...%2095%2096%20SI

[Bitter]

you need exhaust manifold gasket material. its going to be a double sided graphite gasket with a middle laywer of waffled aluminum or steel. what you used was paper gasket for like...an intake manifold.

http://azcustomcars.com/product.php?productid=56790 thats what you need.




also, if you look around hard enough you can find that gasket, its almost identical to a 90-95 subaru legacy gasket as well as the gasket for a vw micro-bus.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Nov 28, 2008 - 12:16 PM