THIS is why you dont use RTV

luigi90210

OEM dont have gaskets at all on the cats, just FIY



it looks like it was globbed on in some places and it wasnt spread evenly throughout the header
do you know which RTV they used? and do you know if they allowed it to dry properly before letting you drive it away?

like i said i have no problems with RTV on my header and test pipe(i used RTV ultra copper)

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synolimit

Funny my car says other wise.

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13 370z-

Stino

I purchased these from Z1 Motorsports for my HFC install. They worked as expected. Ahh ... just read the last sentence on your post. These will work great!

Z1 Metal HR/VHR Manifold 3 Bolt Gaskets

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DEpointfive0

Ummmmmm... Yeah they do... How else does it seal?



And my bet is that the RTV didn't have time to harden. Red RTV sets stronger than the copper stuff too from what I've been told

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luigi90210

No they don't. The cat flandges are offset and the pipe physically sticks into the header. I'll upload a pic later today but when I took my cats off. No gasket

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Staples

This is a donut style gasket. If you want a leak-proof design, this is the route to go. Unfortunately, I can only think of one company that makes aftermarket test pipes where the piping protrudes the flange to allow this type of gasket to be used, Motordyne ART pipes (newer version).

I've used RTV sealant by itself, with gaskets, I've tried Z1 metal gaskets (which are still on the car). They all have leaked on me, on the passenger side where the manifold bolts to the upper flange on the test pipe. This is on two different sets of aftermarket test pipes - as I thought it could be the way the pipes were produced and not allowing them to sit flat on the flanges to bolt down, causing them to leak.

The Z1 metal gaskets held up the best and the only way to actually tell it's leaking is by listening through a stethoscope, pretty minor. You can't see much black soot around the flanges as you could with the other gaskets and just using RTV sealant, so from the naked eye it looks fine.

I finally got a hold of a set of newer ART pipes that will go on the car once the weather gets warmer.

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'08 Infiniti G37s - Forced Induction Fed

synolimit

Sounds like an over tightening problem. Without cheating and looking, tell me the torque spec? I bet you bent the header flange. You'll need a straight edge and you'll have to check the surface of it. In the manual for example it says the header flange to the head is out of spec if there is like 0.028" gap.

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/370Z/Coupe/2013/EM.pdf. Page 41 and 145

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13 370z-

Staples

That's what I thought too until I ran the stock cats after the fact without any problems / leaks whatsoever.

However, thinking about it, it would be pretty hard to bend the flange if you're using just a socket wrench and not an air impact wrench. Plus it wasn't gorilla torqued whatsoever.

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'08 Infiniti G37s - Forced Induction Fed

synolimit

I've done it before with a wrench and socket. Only way to check is to check.

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