Smokehouse69

When I pulled my heads I found no sign of an exhaust gasket on either manifold. I have read that the factory never installed exhaust gaskets. What I want to know, is should I go back with gaskets or not? If so, which gaskets should I go with? I never noticed any signs of an exhaust leak before I pulled them, is the seal good enough that gaskets aren't required?
Thanks

Tom73

Chevy did not use gaskets between the heads and the exhaust manifold, was a metal to metal fit. From what I have seen and read, if you do use gaskets you are opening yourself up to exhaust leaks down the road as the gaskets burn through.

tom...

Mac

A word of warning: the metal to metal will only work if both surfaces are straight and clean. Having ram's horns 'planed' to straighten them out is no problem- easy work for a good machine shop. Heads aren't normally a problem but still worth a check.

There are excellent metal gaskets on the market now if you don't want to plane the ram's horns.

There's also the option of using a high-temp silicone 'form-a-gasket' between metal to metal.

Captain Morgan

I just went down to autozone and asked for exhaust gaskets to fit the 79 vette.
I got Fel-Pro MS 9275 B. There is a listing on the back of the box with all of the engines it will fit and they have 262-400ci from '55 to '95 with the exception of the 400 BB from 70-72. The person at AutoZone may ask you what year the car is and tell you they don't have any for that year, blah, blah, blah but that is just the person not knowing anything except how to punch numbers into a computer. Ask to speak with someone else and explain the situation, they should be able to pull up the right gaskets.


[Modified by sharklover, 3:47 AM 1/26/2002]