318 gasket recommendations

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Chryslerkid

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I am trying to fix a terrible exhaust manifold leak. Only the middle outlets on both sides of my engine are leaking. I have a 318 engine with stock exhaust manifolds. I took off the manifolds and looked at both the engine block and the exhaust manifold side with the felpro gaskets held up against them. No gaps or holes where i would expect leaks. BUT obviously there is a leak on both sides in almost the same spot. Any recommendations on a better set of gaskets or a technique used to instal the felpro in order to ensure no leaks?

:banghead::banghead::banghead::wack:
 
I use Percy's Seal-4-Good PHP-66037 gaskets. Never had a leak since switching to them.....Just make sure your manifolds are nice and flat.

Do your heads have the AIR injection ports under the exhaust ports? Might be the leaking culprit if their not sealed good.
 
The air ports can be tapped and plugged with set screws. The factory rarely used an exhaust manifold gasket. Most of the time it was just metal to metal. Both surfaces are machined so you shouldn't need one. I'm not running gaskets at all on mine and I have no leaks at the heads. If your manifolds are warped then they won't seal. I'd take them off and have them machined. That way you know they are straight. Then, you shouldn't have to use a gasket...but you can if you want to. Have the machine shop make sure they aren't cracked before going to the expense of machining them.
 
The bolts too long?
I have seen em leak at the ends, but never in the middle.
 
I had the same problem on my '69 Cuda, 318, factory manifolds. After replacing the gaskets numerous times I finally removed the manifolds and filed them "flat" (very large file). But "flat" isn't the correct term, I actually filed them until all the port surfaces were on the same plane. I can take some pics if you like. I'm a machinist so if you do it incorrectly you'll make it worse. Anyway the stock manifolds (especially the centers) have thin ears which will bend over time with the heat and torque from the bolts. The tighter you torque them the more they bend making the problem worse. A few months after I filed them down they started leaking again. The real problem is that you don't know how many times other previous owners have machined or filed the manifolds...eventually they get so thin that it makes it really hard to get a good seal.
I finally went with the truck 360 magnum manifold on the passenger's side (they are super heavy duty) and 340 driver's side (which is also thicker than the original 318 manifold. Unfortunately I had to put 302 casting on the engine because the magnum manifolds have humungous ports. The large ports are great for power but won't seal good against the stock 318 heads.
In the pics you can see the 318 gasket in "blue" and in the second pic you can see how the 360 gasket swallows the 318.

Also pic of the extra 360 manifold I still have.

Good luck. I can post pics of my old manifold if you want a visual on the problem.

treblig in Tex
 

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