Hey guys I have one of those open stove pocket manifolds and I recently painted the engine and replaced some leaky gaskets.

I got it started back up yesterday and I have a pretty big exhaust leak at the pocket. Years ago I took a sheet of gasket material that's very similar but slightly softer than your run of the mill exhaust manifold to pipe gasket and cut a custom piece out of it and used it to go around the stove pocket cup and it worked just fine.

I did the same thing this time and there's a huge leak that I can't seem to fix since I can't get the cup to tighten down enough. I'm wondering if there's any good sealant out there that would withstand the heat of the manifold and seal the cup up there? I know there are closed pocket manifolds but I really don't want to go through the whole process of changing this one out, getting them machined and buying the expensive gaskets to get them to seal so I wanted to see if you guys had any suggestions. Thanks.

Remflex sells sheets of its gasket material. That is likely your best bet.

http://catalog.remflex.com/COLLECTOR_CO ... s16511.htm

It isn't cheap, but you would have enough to make several gaskets and sell them to others.

You can't get the cup to tighten enough? Do you mean the threads are stripped... or are the threads holding but the cup just isn't sealing? If the latter, then I suspect you tightened so much you distorted the cup. Remember, ultimately it's only sheet metal. Take it back off and put it on a perfectly flat surface (stone counter top or marble tile, perhaps). If you can see any light then try to hammer / tweak as appropriate. Hopefully it's only around the bolt holes.

Are the attachment bolts bottoming out in their hole?

Did you trace bolt holes with tap?

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The Remflex material is similar to the old aussie style gasket material right? The sheet I have is very similar to the aussie kind.

The bolts for the cup are small and I don't want to break them trying to tighten it down too much. The threads aren't stripped and the cup isn't distorted but it's just not the best design because it's difficult to get even torque on the cup with only two bolts. If it had 4 bolts, I'd be able to get an even seal. Maybe I'll just have to get in there with a die grinder and sanding disc and flatten the top of the manifold out a bit to see if that seals better. I was just hoping there would be some sort of high temp goop I could use to not have to go through all that.

There is copper high temp silicone that may last a while but eventually will give out again that close to the head. Maybe something from the fireplace industry?

I haven't seen the aussie gasket that goes in that spot, but if it's like the aussie manifold > headgasket, no, remflex is different. Remflex is approximately 1/8" thick graphite like material.

Take a straight edge and feeler gauge to the manifold and verify. It's a machined surface... doesn't seem likely it's out of whack. At most take some fine sandpaper on a block of hardwood to clean it up. Any abrasives on a die grinder will muck it up and you'll never be able to get it true without machining again.

If anything it's likely it's the cup's surface. Like the valve cover, the bolt holes can "pucker" and may need to be tapped back down.

Consider blocking it off with a heavy 1/4" plate and going to an electric choke. There's a reason they went to the closed choke pocket in the later years.

Thanks for the reply.

I can't block it because I'd have to remove the intake since the intake runner sits higher up than the pocket. There's no room in there so I can't flatten it out the conventional way like that without taking things apart and I really don't want to deal with all the added headache and expense of sealing up the manifold runners to the head again. I guess the only option would be a sanding disc on a die grinder to at least get it closer to level than it is now and from that point hopefully the gasket will take care of the rest. I'll try that high temp copper since it can't hurt.

Unless it looks like the side of a mountain or something there's no way your going to make it any better with a sanding disc. There's a reason parts that need to seal with flat gaskets are machined.... a difference of a few thousandths is all it takes.

If you absolutely must sand it use some crocus cloth on the tip of your finger to clean it up with a couple swipes. Nothing rotating.