Fix header leak?

[Keeper]

While I was out driving the bucket yesterday, I noticed that it sounded different, had a nice tick.

I tracked it down to a leaky header, but it not the gasket its leaking where the pipe goes into the flange at the engine.

You can see the soot in the pic, around the front pipe:

Can I just take the header off and weld from inside? I would really like to save the coating as much as possible.

 

[jimbo01]

JB Weld "high heat" should take care of that. I'd use it on the inside as you were thinking with the welding idea. Anyways just a thought.

http://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-highheat/

 

[Dino]

Keeper Do you have a tig welder ? You most likly wont hurt the jet coating.

 

[Wild Mango]

The only way to fix this is to weld it. Welding will entail removing the ceramic coating. I have had good results using a bronze filler rod with the tig, heat input is a bit lower, the bronze filler flows nice and is more crack resistant as a repair. (note, I mean bronze as opposed to brazing rod, which won't work worth a damn as the zinc boils out). VHT paint, at least make it look as though someone cares enough to try to neaten it up

 

[RPM]

Are those new headers, is there a warranty? Before you weld on them, which is going to ruin the coating, I'd check on a warranty.

 

[Keeper]

No, no warranty. I have had them a few years now. Pretty sure this got worse when I tweaked the headers to match the frame. They used to angle down at the exit point.

I do not own a tig, but a couple guys in the club do.

 

[409T]

At a car show a young lady decided to stand on my passenger side turnout to have her picture taken. Needless to say I was looking somewhere else at the time. The welds on the front and rear pipes broke at the flange so I took the headers off and tig welded them from the inside. It worked fine but the Jet Hot coating didn't survive.

I have a friend who's turnouts pointed downward a little more than he wanted so he put a floor jack under the end and tried to bend them up. Now he gets to weld his as well.

 

[Keeper]

At a car show a young lady decided to stand on my passenger side turnout to have her picture taken. Needless to say I was looking somewhere else at the time. The welds on the front and rear pipes broke at the flange so I took the headers off and tig welded them from the inside. It worked fine but the Jet Hot coating didn't survive.

I have a friend who's turnouts pointed downward a little more than he wanted so he put a floor jack under the end and tried to bend them up. Now he gets to weld his as well.

Thats exactly what I did. The drivers side survived the procedure!

 

[Dirt-T]

When I build my exhaust system I weld mine on the inside. It just needs to be clean metal where you are welding.
Go for it what ya got to loose.

 

[Keeper]

I think I got it. The tube was cracked completely around the pipe. So I switched the welder over to some .25 wire and put down about 100 tacks around the pipe. Ground down the welds and then I took a flashlight around it to see if I got it all.

Looks good, tomorrow I will put it back on and test it out.