Help, I need advice on Exhaust

[phlegm]

I am a novice so if they are dumb questions sorry.

Situation: I have a cracked manifold on the driver side and a mystery oil leak from my 350.

Steps taken: I have a set of headers on the way from tee it up (thanks sir) and access to a power washer.

Plan: Power wash the engine with the cracked manifold on it, and drive it some to locate the leak. Prep and Paint the headers, pull the manifolds. while off find the oil leak, and try to fix if I can. then hopefully put the fresh looking headers on and they stay that way a while (since no oil is hitting them).

Here come the dumb questions.

1. will I damage the engine by powerwashing with a cracked manifold on it.

2. Do they make header paint in colors, all I am finding is black and gray, I think it would look cool if they were dark blue, like my firewall.

3. Does engine paint have the same temp tolerance as the header paint I am finding on the Eastwood site?

4. Do you think a color'd Header setup would look goofy or good? I think it would POP.

Thanks in advance.

[boraxman]

1. no wont hurt it, just use common sense, cover carb..watch distributer area, gasket areas etc.
2. Not sure, I would go black. It wont last anyways.
3. Dont really know, but I would guess no.
4. I would go black myself.

[Werewolf]

Don't powerwash the engine while it's hot, and you should be fine. Don't, like, force water into the areas of the leaks. Just do what you have to in order to get the grime off.

I don't think you'll find a paint on the market that'll truely stand up to headers for a long time. They just get too hot. Now if you got the ceramic coating on them...

There's not too many places an oil leak could be coming from. If oil is hitting your exhaust manifolds, you probably have bad valve cover gaskets. Easy fix. I'd personally recommend the new rubber gaskets; they last forever.

[phlegm]

Thanks for the advice borax, now that I think of it, since I still have my heat riser on the manifold it should keep out most of the H2O

Originally Posted by Werewolf

Now if you got the ceramic coating on them...

...oil is hitting your exhaust manifolds, you probably have bad valve cover gaskets.....

Wolf, I have heard about this ceramic coating product from eastwood, it sounds great! I cannot find it online to read up on it, any links?

The Oil is not coming from the v covers, I redid those leaks reciently and the manifolds themselves are not taking direct oil hits. I just dont want to put fresh clean anything in there until I can get the leak under control so the grime and "2nd hand" oil doesnt effect it.

thanks again

[wibilly]

por makes an exelant high temp paint . not sure what colors are available but i used it on my headers last year and the look as good as the day i done them you have to sand blast them first . it seems to last for ever as long as you get no oil on them then it discolors my buddy did his on his drag car years ago and they still look new. we used a aluminum color

[Werewolf]

I'm not sure where to go for it. Most times you buy the headers new and select whether or not you want the coating applied. It's pretty expensive, usually adds $200 or more onto a set of headers. Do a google on "Jet Hot header coating," and hopefully you'll get something.

As I said before, not too many places a leak can come from. Where are you seeing it, exactly? If it's not the valve covers, and it's not blow-by from the PCV system, it could be the front or rear mains, or the intake manifold. Could be any of those depending on how the engine was worked on in the past, *if* it was.

Could be the oil sender / pressure gage line, too.

[phlegm]

It is coming from the back side of the engine, I thought I had it licked with the VC Gaskets since they were leaking toward the back, bit it is still there ( just less). I am gonna power wash and get an idea.

I found a black coating that said it had ceramic powder in it, not sure if that makes a difference. But if I were going to put 200 plus shipping in it from Jet hot, btw I found the site last night, then I may as well by them coated new. I think that black has to be better then factory paint, and since I am not hotrodding it a lot, I just like a little noise on the street, It should be fine.

[Tycoon4u]

POR-15 has 1800 degree paint. I painted mine with it (silver), I think there is a couple other colors not sure what they are.

[roughedup72]

your oil leak sounds like its coming from your intake gasket. If its running down the back of your engine and down to the tranny. I replaced my intake a while back and didn't use enough rtv silicone to seal the back of the intake and it wasnt long that I had a good ol oil leak myself. Had to take the intake off clean all the residue of the block with brake parts cleaner after removing the silicone and then reapplied a good thick bead of the black rtv silicone. Reinstalled the intake and let it sit for a daybefore starting it up, Now I have no more oil leaks.
The thing that kept me puzzled was the fact that it wouldn't leak while it was idling only when I would drive it down the road.
Good luck, hope this helps you out.

Auto zone has some paint for your headers the name is VHT header paint, I used it on mine and it has been driven a good bit and still hasn't bubbled or peeled off, I started with the high heat primer and then I used the silver paint, It looks pretty good. Word of advice make sure you give it time to dry before handling them because the paint will come off, and you will scratch them on everything under the truck while trying to put them in.

[phlegm]

Originally Posted by roughedup72

your oil leak sounds like its coming from your intake gasket.

Thanks, I have not checked there or heard anyone tell me to. this could definately be it, it was rebuilt about 30k ago, if he did the same thing you did that could explain it.