JLarson's build thread

[JLarson]

Originally Posted by solidus

Something to think about. They called about my car today. Turns out my YouTube smoke machine and Amazon Boost tester were spot on. They found that my driver side flange for the header has an exhaust leak. Which explains the low boost and the AFRs being a bit whacky. I talked to Switchback Racing and I'm gonna convert the flange to Vband. 3rd time this thing has happened on that side. Last time he flattened the flange when he repaired the flex joint. I'm thinking vband will cut that problem and make removal 100 times easier in the future.

Thoughts?

I really like the idea of the V band, especially since you've had a few issues on that side. But from a QA perspective, it sounds to me like your mating surfaces are warped slightly, and not matching or exerting even pressure on the gasket, which is why there have been multiple problems in the same place. Converting it to allow for "pipe docking" as BettyZ describes it so perfectly might solve the issue for good.