16v turbo exhaust manifold gaskets

[chadr]

My 16v has developed a exhaust gasket leak (at least on cylinder 1) that most noticeable when cold. I've used the stock vw exhaust gaskets from tectonics tuning. The gaskets have about 1 year and 5000 miles on them since I rebuilt the engine last year. Should stock gaskets work fine or are there better options?

[Sparknock]

your manifold is warped or you bolts have backed off. i have a 16vT with the same gaskets and they've lasted much longer then 5000 miles

[206danebmx]

Yeah I had a similar problem and it was the manifold (warped), I had each runner cut separate (hack saw) from each other to relieve the stress a little and then had the manifold planed and now no problems. I Use stock gaskets.

[Scrubbs]

Stock metal gaskets are the best ive seen. Surface of the manifold sounds like its warped. Have it planed. Should be golden then.

[chadr]

The problem was that the nuts had backed off on some of the studs. This caused the gasket to go bad, so simply tightening them down didn't help with the annoying leaking sound. I got new gaskets and copper lock nuts from techtonics. The real cause of the trouble was that I reused the copper lock nuts once and they should never have been reused.

Sounds much better now!