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Block Hugger Question


Guest ckmoss01

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Guest ckmoss01

Hi Guys:

 

Well, the snow is finally melting out here, and I am again attempting to fine tune my 350 SBC.

 

The question is, I have been getting blow-by on the header gaskets, and when I took them off, I noticed that the header-to-port connection is not at all smooth. It almost looks like there is a solder ring or something around the header intakes.

 

Am I supposed to have a smooth face butting up to the gasket/port, which could be causing the annoying blow-by? Just curious if I have inferior quality headers, or should the imperfections theoretically be absorbed by the gaskets?

 

A friend suggested I try thicker gaskets before I noticed the irregularities on the header, but I wonder if this would just be putting a band-aid on the cancer, if it helped at all?

 

thanks in advance for any input and advice.

 

Chris

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That sounds right. The header tubes are welded then the welds are ground flat. They leave a little sticking up to in order to press harder on the gasket.

 

I think it is very important to use good gaskets. I had very good results using the small seperate metal gaskets that are used on the stock exhaust manifolds (felpro). I have always used auto zone felpro exhaust gaskets for a stock small block on my block huggers with out any problems.

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I am using the Felpro too. Mine are the soft ones. They look like they have alluminum embeded in them or some kind of soft metal? I dont know what the material is but I know I like them! Mine are D-port though so a part number wont help. They are blue in color though.

 

Just like Pyro said though, those headers sound normal. Mine are the same way.

 

You could also try some stage 8 locking header bolts. Header bolt tend to loosen themselfs up which is normall the cause of the leak if they are good headers. If you dont use locking header bolts then you need to check that they are tight ever so often.

 

 

Guy

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  • 1 year later...

As Glenn (gmccoy383) and I were taking the parts of the 327 to pull it last week, I was cursing those Stage 8 header fasteners. The D shaped aluminum "locking" plate gets soft and bends, letting the bolt turn just a little bit. But enough to jam the bent D plate into a curved mess. Glenn mentioned he'd been there before.

 

I'm going to go with the breslin locking bolts this time...

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Put me down for the metalic felpro brand.

 

I had tried others and they ALWAYS seemed to leak. Not immediately but quickly after seemed I was always tightening etc. These seem to be MUCH better.

 

Now on the ones I used I had to drill the outside hole in the gasket. I bolted the headers together and simply used a drill.

 

Good luck, the only ones I would recommend over the cheap felpro are the copper, but they are EXPENSIVE!

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