I need to know if anyone else has had a problem with the HS Headers leaking exhaust, mostly where it connects to the main cat.

I have tried everything to fix it and it still leaks, now I need to contact HS, however I want to know if anyone else has this problem.

If you have had the leak and fixed it, how?

 

I have had a problem with them cracking at the weld. This happened on my 98 altima. Keep your eye on it.

 

i have heard the of the same issues with hotshot. i have had mine for around a year now with no cracking issues but i have the leaking issue as stated above. i do however have one of the first headers from the early batches which supposedly had less fitment issues. in my opinion, the leaking is from the thin flanges. both the stock y and cattman y pipe that i had have thicker flanges that bolt up to the cat.

 

No leaks here- and I have bout 20K miles on mine so far.

 

I'm going to try to find my leak tonight. Its really bothering me.

 

If its leaking at the flange its usually how it was installed. I throw away the gaskets and use a high temp silicon. (Permatex Ultra Copper).

 

I have some of that. How would you recomend putting it on. Should i coat both flanges and snug up the bolts, and wait for it to set up a little while and then tighten them up?

 

i tried using the same stuff but kept getting the same results. the test pipe i currently has leaks a little more than the oem cat that will be going on soon for emissions testing.

 

I have had three sets of gaskets, installed a new cat and have tried several types of sealers.... it still leaks everytime.

 

out of curiosity, does your cat hit the exhaust tunnel in hard cornering? i ended up going to a test pipe just because of that.

 

i've got 15k on mine, no leaks.

 

I just got out from under the car, and I can not find a darn thing. The Cat is sealed up fine, along with all the y-pipe to header flanges. I just dont know. When im driving in a high gear, say around 2,000 rpm's and i give it gas, it has that exhaust leak sound.

 

i cannot remember if i suggested this to you in another thread or not. if you want to find the leak then use seafoam through the brake booster hose. if you could have someone pour it then you could look under car for escaping smoke. the muffler will begin to pour smoke so you have to find it relatively quickly. i could not feel any air and it looked fine with no black marks but i found the leak between the y pipe section and main cat using the seafoam.

 

great Idea. Ill have to try that this weekend.


Thanks,
James

 

I think your hearing a sound that is common with aftermarket headers. I think it is the sound of the valves in the motor(i think that is what the mechanic said). A guy at my local shop told me it is because of the thinner guage tubing that this sound is louder which makes since. I too thought i had a exhaust leak and had it checked out and we couldn't find a single leak. I also heard this exhaust leak sound when i put my y pipe on, but it wasn't as pronounced.

 

Thats what my conclusion for the night was. I still want to try the Sea foam though.



Thanks,

James

 

No, I put o-Ring clamps around the hangers to hold the exhaust better. no clanging at all.

 

I would say you are correct, however I have seen and felt the leak at the main cat.

The big problem with finding it; is it really on comes out when the car is in gear (under load). then right away you can hear it.

 

you say that you tried using three different gaskets?????who installed it????

 

as a side note, i know some flex sections are louder than others but my noise is not coming from there. i wrapped mine just to make sure and i can the same noise and the same sound levels with it unwrapped.

 

Set one- HS supplied gasket installed by my brother at header install (my brother is a mechanic)

Set two- Nissan OEM gasket, installed once again by my brother.

Set three - Nissan OEM gasket installed by me when I installed the HF Cat.

Set four - Dont know what kind of gasket, Installed by APG Motorsports, a very well known and respected speed shop in Albany.

Same outcome everytime.

I just talked to HS and they are most likely going to send me a new secondary pipe. HS did say that my cat from Cm with the rotating flange might also make it difficult for a good seal... now I going to call them

 

i have tried oem cat, warpspeed straight pipe and now a custommaxima straight pipe. the oem cat tends to the seal the best in my experience.

 

So I talked to HS and they are paying for me to go to my local speed shop and get the leak fixed. I have an appointment for friday morning so I will post how it goes...

 

does this stuff happen to cattman headers

 

It can happen with any exhaust... Just seems to be I got one of the fluke bad ones.

 

This particular thing does not happen with the Cattman headers. However I did manage to blow out that gasket once, prior to that they never leaked.

 

Well on friday my car went into the shop....

We decided to try and fix the existing secondary pipe...

They grinded down the flange so it would sit flat and that seems to be it... no more leaky sound at all.

So thanks to John at HS for taking good care of me and really being on top of things. He called the shop, set it all up and called me back when he said he would!!