How to kill an exhaust leak? Vband or RB flanges
 

OK folks, my exhaust won't seal. RB header, 2.5" cat, RB catback, w/ turbo rotor housings on an NA engine. I tried a copper exhaust manifold gasket, it didn't work. I'm using a used Turbo one now, seems to seal at the engine OK, but there is still noise from around the cat.

Have people had this problem and been able to squash it with new RB flanges and gaskets? Or should I jsut go totally nuts and get some of those $25 V-band clamps from ebay and have the shop set the front and back of the cat up with those? And should I heat-wrap my header? Doesn't seem to me that it will help much, but I'm going nuts here. Help!

Thanks,
Andrew

1. Which cat are you using?
2. If its not that new Bonez Unit shitty welding/fab'ing from a local shop is probably your problem.
3. What gaskets are you using?
4. If you have cheap gaskets go out and buy the RB ones which are good quality gaskets.
5. V-band clamps won't help incompetence at the exhaust shop.
6. Heat-wrap will definately lower your temps but that comes with its pro's and con's: overheated cat, rust, etc.

Its a magnaflow 2.5" cat. I looked at the welds on it and they look OK. RB gaskets. The flanges on the cat are slightly thinner than the ones on the RB exhaust pieces... I think they were just whatever the shop had in stock.

I was mainly thinking about the header wrap to take care of ping or buzz or whichever which might be causing this leaking