Ring seal for turbo flange?

[Laurie D]

Has anyone here attempted a ring seal for exhaust manifold to turbo housing. Either copper or stainless. I'm thinking of trying this method as the normal stainless gaskets are constantly failing with heat and backpressure issues. Whilst I've considered cutting a 4mm copper gasket to do the job, I feel that as it's split pulse (T4z), the centre divider may be too narrow (4mm) to hold the copper in place there. This is also an issue for a ring seal as the divider may be too fine to groove.
This is not a street car. Exhaust temps are extreme.
Anyone done it??

Laurie D

[love ke70]

ill accept the temps are extreme, but why is there backpressure?
sorry, im no use on the question at hand..

[kingmick]

Has anyone here attempted a ring seal for exhaust manifold to turbo housing. Either copper or stainless. I'm thinking of trying this method as the normal stainless gaskets are constantly failing with heat and backpressure issues. Whilst I've considered cutting a 4mm copper gasket to do the job, I feel that as it's split pulse (T4z), the centre divider may be too narrow (4mm) to hold the copper in place there. This is also an issue for a ring seal as the divider may be too fine to groove.
This is not a street car. Exhaust temps are extreme.
Anyone done it??

Laurie D

make sure decks are true!
If its a track car there should be no back pressure at all, as close to zero as possible
Maybe better to rethink the setup or weld them together

[Laurie D]

Both surfaces were machined true. Next time it's together we'll be measuring for backpressure.

Laurie D

[kingmick]

Your more likely to do a leaking exhaust manifold gasket with back pressure! You either have decent back pressure in the exhaust which is strange because if its a track car it should be a big exhaust with a short run and no cat or your reusing stainless, i not a fan of reusing them!
Ive used factory garret truck turbos out of the box and had no prob at well over 30psi.its hard to say without looking at the setup etc.

[Laurie D]

Thanks Mick,

It's always a new gasket. This is a new setup we're trying with the external gated T4z. I'm having the manifold powerported at the moment to make sure all pipes are even. Exhaust is 4" from turbo back, so that shouldn't be the issue. I think the excessive heat is mostly to blame which may have other causes which I'm investigating now. Given that it's always a pain to pull this system out just to replace a gasket, I was hoping there might be a better (long lasting) system of sealing the turbo flange for extremes.

Laurie D

[love ke70]

welder

peeow peeow

[kingmick]

external gated you will have no dramas what so ever.If it was a prick to get to it might not have been tightend in the right way
give me a yell if you still have probs with the new setup!

[Laurie D]

...OK. ...thanks.

[off-road]

We were having dramas with blown turbo gaskets on the race car. We ended up getting the manifold flange milled flat and did not use any gasket and have not had a drama since.
We used a bit of copper spray gasket adhesive but I don't think it does much.

[Laurie D]

Thanks Off-Road,
This was another option we've considered. Maybe with some grease smeared on the surfaces before assembly to create a carbon seal. At least this way will avoid a large air leak occuring after bits of the gasket go missing. Good to hear of someone with the same problem. Is your turb braced to the block?
I still feel there must be an issue causing the problem which I need to identify. I know of other competitors with much larger boost levels running the normal stainless gaskets, with only an annual replacement needed.

Laurie D

[off-road]

Our turbo is not braced but exhaust is only about 400mm long and it is braced.
The problem I am pretty sure is excess heat. Our manifold and exhaust housing glow red.
I don't know if this heat can be 'tuned' out or not but eliminating the gasket has solved our problem so far.