Manifold gaskets

Lastnight i raced a guy that thought his v-tec was fast bohahaha!! 😈 but in the process of wiping the asphalt with his dinky toy i know i know i shouldnt pick on the smaller guys!! But he was asking for a wooping so nicely!!, i blew one of my manifold gaskets AGAIN!!!! 😈 this is becoming a huge pain in my butt! 😢 this will be officially the 4rt time im replacing the gaskets!! 😕

Where is the exhaust leaking, between the head and exhaust manifold or between the manifold and turbo?

maybe the reason fo rblowing everytime is that the two surfaces aren't flush - maybe something got warped cozof heat?

naah, lets all think happy thoughts...

Make sure you only use nissan manifold gaskets, and tell them to make 100% sure its for the turbo CA or SR, they are different, the little compressed silver gaskets that are available on average last 2-3 week...

If you can try get the nissan multi layer stainless gaskets, I know the gasket kits i sell come with them but im not sure where you could buy them loose, next time ill get the direct part number for it, they arnt cheap but it sure is cheaper than taking your manifold and turbo off every time.

Join the club Jay Boy. I replaced more than 4x times. For sure it is more than one factor adding to this problem. Rezlo, please let know if you can assist with this. We had similar discussions on this topic before. But surely we cant get enough knowledge on this. Rezlo it is me who bought the irridium spark plugs from you. Great.

its all in the quality of the gasket and the corect torque method when installing the manifold, if you fear your manifold isnt straight have it surface ground (normaly costs like R80 at a machine shop) to make sure its 100%,

Unfortunatly it doesnt look like i can get them loose, only in the gasket kits,

maybe if you are having so many problems with it its worth getting a nissa or acl gasket kit, have the manifold ground slightly and replacing all the gaskets while your in there because labour to remove the manifold each time must cost you quite a bit because its a pretty envolved procedure doing it.

I also learned from WooHaa to torque from inside out. And to re torgque.
Question: when is it good to retorque - when engine is hot or cold?

Ya finished replacing them this weekend and gave them a surface grind aswell so will c now how long this time!! 😉

Re-torque when cold, and make sure you crack the nut loose then tighten!! I managed to buy loose gaskets for a CA18 and they are working fine. I put new ones when I redid my turbo and re-torqued them after 1000km. I put them on with silicone, I know you not ment to but I have always done it and every car I have fixed and not 1 hastle.

Gary57, if you say silicone. Define please. What type of silicon. Is it that red stuff that can handle 350* temp or what are you using??

One step better than silicone (which cant hold that mount of temp) is Wurth exhaust seal, its about R40 a tube and dries fast so you got to work with it fast, use it very sparingly,

And if you gentlemen wont mind - retorque - with what? Is it one of those fancy torque wrenches? You all know how difficult the back bottom nuts of the manifold are to access. 😳 😳 🙄 🙄 😮

I have a wrench addapter but i never use it on those, i do it by hand, its more the sequence you use than anything else, also Ive never found the need to re-torque the exhaust manifold studs when using the correct nuts and washers

I just used the normal silicone you get, its not rated to the temp the manifold gets to but it still works. I just crack the bolts loose and then make them FT (F##king tight) 😀 . Dont use a torque wrench just a spanner and pull VERY hard. You can also use fire-gum, but that stuff dries very quick so you better be good at putting it back on. Any spares shop should have the gaskets, ask for the CA18 not the CA18DET.

Jay! hoezit!
I just had a thought this morning when I drove my bebbiee to work - mine's idling is rough, so the engine shakes a bit. To make a short story long if your engine and gearbox mountings are fubar, then there is much shaking and flexing on your zorst, which I scheme will fubar your gasket in time.

do you all agree or do you wanna suck my duck?

I have never had a problem with this, my manifold has been off plentura of times... I even had to reuse gaskets at one stage due to a lack of funds...

I just gave both sides of the gasket a thin layer of Red Gasket maker and bolted it on nice and FT... as Gary said...

I must say the gaskets i used wasn't metal it looked like asbestos kind of thing...

The gaskets I used looked like perforated steel with something sandwiched between the two side. The were cheap like R15 each or something. I have used these same gaskets twice now, not hastles. when you retighten them, which I think is a good thing, you MUST crack them loose then tighten them. Its the same as if you were re-torqueing your head, you crack them loose then tighten.

I shiver everytime you say CRACK 😮

Or to put it in another way: the zorst bumps when I enter into my garage.
Floor sement like curve and not flat. Thus when engine hot, to much stress via zorst to turbo to manifold etc. 🙄

My gaskets looks like these...

These are my ACL ones I got from Rezlo