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I just bought a HP Racing "Race" header for an EX. I installed it today but i have a leak where the header and the high flow cat meet up. Now, i took the ceramic, or whatever material it's made out of, ring out of the bottom of my old header and put it into the HP Racing header and i also reused the springs that held the old header to the Downpipe.

I tightened the springs down till they were completely smashed down and i still get an exhaust leak. Do i need a new ceramic ring seal at the bottom of the header? Should i just take it out. Can i clean it and reuse it?

Thanks for the tips ahead of time.

PS Great DIY. Would have been a SOB without it.

 
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anyone?

 
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Clean the seal. Reset the downpipe
make sure you tighting the spring bolt's simultaneoulsy not one then the other.

If no luck call your local exhaust shop

Sorry if that not what you wanted to know

 
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thank you !

 
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Did it work...

 
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its 1:02 AM right now so...i'm not sure yet. I'll let you know tomorrow. What is your suggestion for cleaning that ring? And do you know what that is made out of...ceramic?

 
Rep Power: 368

becareful on overtorquing the spring bolt... it snaps easily if you're using the stock bolt..

when you take it off u should follow what was suggested too, so one wont be too tight when you go to unbolt it..

the torque spec on those spring bolt is 16 lb.ft I believe. so dont overtorque it.. it snaps very very easily.

and again, remember to tighten it together, torque one at an amount, and then do the same for the other bolt until you hit 16 lb.ft, it should be enough to snuggly fit the header to the downpipe without leak.

WD-40 is fine to clean the ring. just to inspect it and see if there's any crack etc. or u can use other things.. but thats all I can think of to clean off grime and grease.

 
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thanks cap. going out now to clean it. let you know how it works

 
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I had the same problem, i cleaned it and it helped, but i still had a small leak. so I pulled it apart and used hi-temp gasket maker around the edge of the ring/gasket. the only problem with using the sealer is it takes 24hours to dry, and if you start the car before its dry the pressure just pushes it out of the way.

so if cleaning it dosent fix it... just use the sealer.

 
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How do you know if you have an exhaust leak? Does it make a weird sound or something?

 
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usualy you can hear it it just sounds like a hisssssing... or put the car on jackstands, and just stick you hand by all the joints to see if you can feel exhaust.