I thought this might come in handy for someone else....

I was having a really carppy time trying to get my drivers side header to seal on my ford. It wouldn't seal around the bottom of 7 and 8. I tried about everything!!!..... single gaskets, retighting after they are hot, double gaskets, silicone, etc....

This is what finally worked....and it took 2 days to do!!!

-I started by ripping everything apart on that side again. then i lightly sanded both the head and header with some 400grit to rough up the surface a little.

-then I applied black high temp silicone to the head in a nice bead around each exhaust port. I let that sit for about an hour till it was really tacky and had a skin. It was also a little cold and that didn't help.

-I also did the same thing to the outside of the header gasket. Nice and neat, black silicone, and let it sit for about an hour too.

-Once both those where really tacky I installed the header gasket and started all the bolts, just enough to hold everything to together. Then I went to lunch for 2 hours.

-I came back and snugged everything down so everything was even and just snug.

-I then let it sit for about 24 hours.

-Came back the next day and finished everything off, really tighting down the header bolts. Hooked up everything else. Fired it up!!! NO LEAKS AT ALL!!!!! These are also like 5-6 year old headers.....I can't really find anything else that works...I just had to drive it again so I patched it back together.

Maybe this will help someone else....I had an old guy tell me about letting the silicone sit for over 24 hours without having everything torqued.....it worked...

later :jeep: