Well, I had a good day at my friends shop yesterday. I have had this exhaust leak from the headers for a while now and it has just lately gotten worse. I brought it up to his shop and ran it on the lift. Found it within 20 seconds. Leak at the cat. The paper gasket was burned through. He had an oem nissan metal cat gasket on hand that worked well, no leaks so far.

Furthermore, my brembo blanks, with hawk pad setup was continually getting worse(put on in Jan.-Feb. 2005), and turns out he had a set of slotted rotors he just took off a guys car after a season. We turned them and threw them on. Man does it drive better, so much quieter, and I dont dread hitting the brakes. I feel much better.


James

 

The paper gasket on my HS Headers blew out with in 10min... went right back on the lift and put on the OEM one...

 

I notice that this happens pretty frequently with HS headers.... seems that when the headers are installed, people would just be better off with an OEM gasket to start with. Is everything else holding up okay with those Hotshots, James?

 

I dont understand how you could even think a Paper gasket would be alright to use on an exhaust component...

Sounds like moronic design.

 

Unfortunatly thats what they came with for the cat connection. I put it on because my stock one was damaged when the y-pipe came off; so it was either no gasket, or try the paper gasket and get another OEM one if it does not work out... I dont think it was all that "moronic".


Some could say that getting bentover and getting for $1,000+ for headers is moronic...

 

Everything is going well. The headers look imaculate still. I had one loose bolt on the y-pipe that I tightened and thats about it. Though I still have to email Hotshot some pictures of my 02 sensor impacting my ac compressor. All in due time.

James

P.S. Puppet, I havent forgot. I'll get you some exhaust clips, I just havent had the time. Sorry.

 

Oh my friend, I didnt realise you had put it in there yourself. I wasnt calling you a moron. I thought HS shipped a Paper gasket with their product, which seems a little... silly.

 

The paper gasket came with the headers.


James

 

That's what I thought too.

Since the aim of this thread wasn't to start another pissing contest, lets not make it into one.

 

Another thing I noticed while the car was on the lift was one of the head nuts. They have the integrated washer. That was wide enough to go over a weld and was tightened onto the weld so it was not sitting flat on the flange. I couldnt get at it without dropping the y-pipe, but it could be a place for another leak. Just something to look for if you have a leak.


James