[Brandi Kay]

Hey all,


I have headman headers on my 71 lemans, i have an exhaust leak on the #7 cyclinder exhaust because of a bad gasket.

Will i need to raise the engine to install a new gasket?

What have you all done?



thanks in advanced


B-

[Jeff]

I have a set of Hedmans on my 70 and have replaced the gaskets without having to raise the engine. Its pretty tight clearance on the driver side, but you should be able to do it. Good luck.

[HWYSTR455]

I have headmans on my 71, and I cut the gaskets into individual pieces, per-port. Then I slot the bolt holes in a V, making sure I leave as much material toward the port as possible. You have to loosen all the header bolts to do even one port, keep that in mind, but you don't have to remove the bolts. If you want, I can take a pic later when I get home of the way I cut the gaskets... (I use side-cutters/dykes to cut them). Also, I've had really good luck with the Mr. Gasket Ultra-Seal gaskets, don't blow out nearly as fast. All header gaskets should go in dry, I don't care what anyone else says about that! If you need to scrape the old one out, you can cut a piece of sheet metal to use as a scraper, or, you can risk it and use a razor for a razor knife, one of the ones that you can flip around, the angled ones, if you know what I mean, and use that to snake in around the port (be prepared to bleed).

[HWYSTR455]

Oh, it helps to have an arsenal of header wrenches too, like angle head ones, and different length ones. Think I recall a thread here where some of us posted pics of our header 'weapons', could search for that... (We are talking about D-ports, aren't we!?!) And you can do it without raisning the engine, both sides, and AC cars too...

[HWYSTR455]

Found the thread, here's one pic:

[02Hawk]

I use the 11 year old kid next door to help me with the headers. He can get his hands in there where mine wont fit.

[1971GTO]

Try using Remflex gaskets.............they are semi-soft and are good to 3000 degrees. Remflex.com

Incidently, how many bolts hold up one header on that car?

[lethal-428-lemans]

I cut my headers so they are separate tubes. That way you only take loose what you need. when I tighten mine I use a 1/4 drive socket set and a wrench I took to the grinder. Header gaskets are not to bad to replace.
You should do fine Brandy.