Opinions needed: How bad is this exhaust manifold face?

[joeydurango]

Pulled the driver's side exhaust manifold (rams horn old school style) off today to try and fix an annoying leak/tick. I know these were mounted factory directly to the heads, no gasket involved. My truck had gaskets, the "slide-in" kind, but they didn't look to be in great condition. I cleaned up the faces a little with a broad, flat file, but didn't want to go nuts of course. I see pitting, but I don't have any reference to know how bad or normal that is.

Trying to decide if I need to put new gaskets in, or if I can simply use a bead of copper/silicone high-temp exhaust gasket maker to account for the pitting.

So, the questions: How bad are these faces (particularly the last photo)? And what's your opinion on the probable success of copper/silicone gasket maker and nothing else before reinstall?

Thanks!

[Redneck Rydes]

Maybe get some header gaskets, cut them to fit, put on your silicone on,let it sit overnight,and I think you would be good to go.

[bill3rail]

I don't think they look that bad.
A good machinist with a milling machine can shave off some material to clean them up.

Bill

[garyd1961]

I would hit them with a little sand paper, some new gaskets and not even worry about it.

[notsolo]

Does not look to bad, continue with what you were doing with the file. Span the center and 1 side at a time. Keep all 3 as flat as possible.

[kwmech]

Fortunately for me I have a rather large vertical belt sander that I run my manifolds through to check them. Doesn't look like it would take much to get that relatively flat to me.

[Steeveedee]

Looking good but they'll still leak the way they are. You can buy a sealer from the parts store that will fill in the gaps. One brand is Versa-Chem Exhaust System Joint & Crack Sealer. Worked great on some severely pitted manifolds I had on an old Buick. I dressed them pretty flat with a mill file, but there were still gaps that traced from inside to outside the manifold.

[joeydurango]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

I filed them a bit more, but didn't want to risk making the entire manifold out of plane - plus, the rear face (last photo) has some fairly deep pitting that would have required a lot of material removal to get completely flat.

I used some Fel-Pro gaskets from the parts store down the street along with a healthy layer of copper/silicone gasket maker to fill the pitted areas. Bolted them up last night, will check it this afternoon after it's had some time to cure. We'll see!

[joeydurango]

Just closing this thread out for future reference. The gaskets + high-temp sealant did the trick!

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by joeydurango

Just closing this thread out for future reference. The gaskets + high-temp sealant did the trick!

Thanks for the followup.... A lot of people don't do that.

LockDoc

[joeydurango]

The threads that do get resolved are always the most helpful to me... so I make a point to always close my threads with a resolution, if I found one, that is.

[richards72chevy]

Yes thanks for the follow up.