I was driving with my friends today to go to a car show thing with all the street renegade guys and I was racing him on RT 59 when I hear this ticking noise all the sudden. I slowed down and almost ***** a brick cause the first thing I'm thinking is oh my god I blew a spark plug!

So hit the gas again and it felt the same as far as power, so then I new it had to be a header leak or somthing along that nature, so I pulled over and sure enough its a damn header leak from the drivers side. I'm just happy its not a plug but now thats two of my cars screwed this weekend.

My 2001 grand prix for work went hay wire this weekend on me too. the blower on the heater wouldn't shut off so I got to get a relay or somthing for it and I don't know what it is. so I'm down two vehicles now in the same weekend. So I'm headed out there now to try and fix this pig and get some order out in the garage. I got way to much crap now

 

Well at least header gaskets are easy to replace.

 

skimming over the topics I thought yours said you blew a HEAD GASKET!!! I'm glad you didn't blow a head gasket.

 

Well I pulled that header off and thank god for long tubes cause shorties would have been a nightmare to do.

Well as I suspected I blew a little chunk of the gasket out on the 3rd cylinder. It was only a piece about 1/4 of an inch wide and let me tell you it was very very loud!!!

The only complaint I have is the gasket material from Kooks!!!! I know its probably not there fault but if anyone chooses to put long tubes on there truck, DON'T USE THAT SUPPLIED GASKET!!!

I'm going back to the stock metal gaskets cause first off a chunk of that isn't going to blow out and for some reason if it does happen you not going to have to spend an hour scrapping gasket material from you headers to get a clean smooth surface. I gave up for now and I got the soaking ot hopefully loosen it up a but tommorrow is another day I hope that Autozone has some gaskets for me!

 

This early, I thought you said Head Gasket too........its sucks, but not as bad as I thought. I never had much luck with header gaskets also. I think I'll do as you and install factory metal gaskets when I do the long tubes

 

Killa,

You scared me there, "thought it was a head Gasket" . Didn't want to add another item to the "List of Faulty Ford Parts".
Thank god it's not. Try and find a metal or graphite header gasket and your troubles will be gone for good. Those schitty paper ones have to blow in time.

 

you know pep boys doesn't have gaskets, autozome doesn't have them, NOBODY DOES but the dealer and there closed on sundays!

 

Glad I'm not the only one that doesn't like that gasket. This winter they will getting swapped.

 

RTKILLA,
bummer, sorry to hear but could be much worse.

As I was putting in my LT's, I remember staring at the kooks gaskets and the stock gasgets, trying to decide which ones to use. After reading this, I glad as hell I decided to use the stock gasgets. They just seemed so much stronger than the kooks gasgets. Also, I was worried that the kooks would require several re-tightenings since they were much thicker than the stockers. Coincidently, I just checked the header bolts yesterday after about two months of use of the LT's, and all bolts were torqued to spec, none were loose.

I would recommend the stock header gasket for all of you contemplating shorties or LT's, my 0.02
Chris

 

I look at it this way... much better a gasket than throwing a plug! Hopefully you get it all fixed and up and running soon...

-Mike

 

Stopped up at murrays discount auto and not a single store has that part. How can these places call themself a atuo store when they don't carry one of the most popular manifold gaskets.

I go up to this kid and say I need a header hasket for a 5.4 triton with a PI head on it. He looked at me and I just said let me do it and I couldn't find anything on his computer. I don't even work there and I know more then these morons.


Good thing is that I got one on order for only $5.38. For stock original gaskets.

 

I used the stock gaskets with my headers. They are not cheap but have not given me any trouble in a year and one-half. they're about $30 bucks as side; one of the sides is actually a 2-piece assembly.