Still hunting down my tick/tapping noise, I thought I would double gasket my headers to see if any noise disappears

The headers are heddman elites, so thick flange...but there might be a leak...I dunno.

I don't think they leak, but it's worth a shot. I am trying everything before I need to pull the motor to poke around and see what I can find....

eight

I use the cheap white paper mr. gasket ones, but I put some effort into making the welded bead sealing surface on the header as flat as I could get it. Easy to do if the headers aren't in the car already.....

What you can try is to add a thin smear of hi-temp copper rtv sealer to ANY brand of gasket to make them seal. The only drawback is it can be messy and time consuming to clean the old rtv off later on down the road.

The most bullet proof setup I know of is using copper header gaskets, and the copper rtv at the same time. Pretty much no way to hurt the copper gaskets and all you have to do is wire brush the old copper rtv off and apply a new coating if you ever have to take it apart.

if it is a headers gasket sealing problem - REMFLEX.COM is the only way to go.

but them from amazon to save a ton, but they will seal it for sure!

NAPA NITRO SEALS are the best I have found. they are made with a lot of graphie and a soft enough to fill any imperfections. you can put them in the flame of a cutting torch and they will not burn.

from the pics Iv seen they look a lot like Rimflex gaskets..

take them off, and carefully remove the gaskets. if you have a leak, you should see the carbon tracking, across the gasket. did you remove the extra metal between the tubes, from the flange? i cut off the flanges between the tubes, allowing me to move the individual tubes if needed. also allows extra room around the spark plugs. i also hit the header flange faces with a file before putting them on, to make sure they're really flat and will seal. you might also look carefully at the collectors. sometimes they leak, but the noise will sound like the flanges leaking.

Get a 4 or 5' long piece of 1/4" tubing and use it to listen to your motor while it's running. Hold one end up to your ear and the other end move it around your header flanges. It works well and will pin point any leaks.

We use Mr Gasket ultras.Even seal with the cheap Summit headers.Ive even reused them.I also cut the flanges on my TTIs even though they are thick.It does give you a bit more room.Just dont do what one guy I know did.He cut the flange between 4&6 3&5 Had to have them fixed.I did get a chuckle out of that.Rocky

I have used Summit Racing Copper Gaskets with out any problems.. So far so good...

Throw away the gaskets, and use high temp RTV.

i dont use gaskets, little high temp sealer good to go,,
but i make sure my headers are flat, save me lots of money

Another vote for Mr. Gasket Ultra's. And I've reused them also.

I went with copper gaskets on my hemi. Nothing else seemed to work for me

I don't use gaskets, haven't for awhile. I use permatex "The Right Stuff". Never have any leaks.

Having a flat surface on the flange is more important than any gasket IMO.
That being said I have had the best luck with the plain old fel pro blue gaskets.Re use them at least once and never had a leak.

thanks for the input guys! this post will have to be cut and pasted into my computer car file.

As I said, I am not even sure if it is a header leak at this point. The Heddman header flange seemed to be straight and pretty thick when put on the car.

BUT...if my tapping noise is coming from my tranny.... then I will have to remove the headers to--- 1) pull the motor and tranny, or 2)drop the tranny from underneath.

either way, I see a lot of swearing in my future, and I want to put it all together right!!

thanks again guys!

eight

One word...Cometic.

The set of Cometics I have, have been on 2 different motors, headers on and off numerous times. No leaks, tears, etc.

They CANNOT be beat!!

i had leaky header gaskets on my 440, i bought 2 sets of the cheap Mr. Gasket's header gasket , i glued both sets together with rtv black, old school trick, let them set overnight, no leaks , however, i am using the exhaust studs instead of header bolts, works great