ok so . i cant contact pineapple racing because their sight is down "under construction" right now . for good reason though.

i have a pineapple racing graphite gasket. i installed it 280 miles ago. and it still smells like its "Settleing" in . i can still smell gasket.
its a header gasket. from engine to turbo manafold.

is this normal to smell it for this long?

 

graphite gasket? When i got my racing beat true dual system, i just got a racing beat replacement gasket from mazdatrix.......worked fine, dont smell anything but pure exhaust and vaporized oil from my gearbox

 

this isnt a metal gasket. its more of several layers of compressed graphite (yes like in a pencil) with a sheet of metal threw the center.
i was really impressed by it. and it felt like it was protected by some sort of plastic or film mashed in with the graphite.
hell it even writes on paper.

thats why i think its smelling for a longer period of time.

 

Wait ... you can smell new gaskets?

 

of cource. when ever i install new gaskets.on my n/a . tii, convertible. you can smell it for a while.

 

You must have a great nose or my car just reaks of gasoline.

 

well concidering i have a mid pipe leak.... i can smell it alot

 

Have you ever used a graphite gasket before? Maybe its normal for them to smell for longer than standard gaskets?

 

I hate to tell you, but in my experience those graphite gaskets blow goats. I had a fellow bring me an FD recently with a BAD exhaust leak at the turbos. Turbos on an FD are about 4x harder to r/r than a turbo on a t2, but I had to remove those bastards to find out what the problem was. I remove these thin, flimsy, blown apart pieces of **** and then ask the guy what the story was. They looked like something he cut out of a cereal box. HE tells me they are the PR graphite gaskets.

Think of all the heat and backpressure (between engine and turbo) produced by a modded turbo rotary. Then study your exhaust gasket. IF it isn't solid metal, it isn't going to hold up. If it doesn't have a ring of metal adjacent to where the exhaust air is going to flow, it won't hold up. That ring of metal keeps the edges of metal underneath from getting blown apart.

These graphite gaskets obviously have no inner metal protective ring, and so they appear to be easy to blow out.

I am not bashing on PR at all. But I am not sure where they were coming from with this idea. They are trying to fix a problem that doesnt seem to exist. The stock gaskets can last for 100k or more and are usually reuseable, and though they are a little expensive for new ones, 100 bucks is not that big of a deal when you compare it to the likelihood that these cheaper replacements will blow out and necessitate a turbo r/r within a year. That turbo r/r will cost you a hell of a lot more than 100 bucks in labor/time.

This is another situation where an aftermarket "upgrade" turns out to be a far inferior part to stock. Guys in their back yards or small shops with a few grand and a few hours in r/d budget are usually not going to out-engineer a major automotive manufacturer who has invested tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of man-hours into r/d on a particular setup. Sure, the aftermarket comes up with ways to make more power than stock, because factory engineers have a set of restrictions to work around to make the car sellable, priced well enough to move units, pass government safety and emissions restrictions, etc.

 

Very thoughtful reply to this post. Well said and explained.

GG

 

Well i have a s5 turbo and I cant seem to get the downpipe to quit leaking. Ive tried two new Mazda gaskets and they work for awhile but then will start. Is it possible to double them up and maybe put longer studs out of the turbo to put two nuts on it? How do you guys get them to quit? I hate the sound of it leaking.

 

it is possable the the DP flange is warped..I would check that and if it is time for a new DP..

If you doubble up on the gaskets the gaskets will give up and blow out too...

Dan

 

This is true. I have had to double up on gaskets on na cars. So know I just send out the pipe or header flange to get resurface.
Thanks Robert

 

The downpipe to turbo flange is usually okay, but I would check it. The downpipe-to-rest flanges are ALWAYS warped pretty significantly on turbo cars. I usually wind up cutting this flange, and it's mate, off, and welding a piece of pipe in its place. The flange back where it bolts onto the main cat is also usually warped. Sometimes I grind/file about 1.8" of material off the sides, where the bolt holes are, to get the middle area to be flush with the gasket again.

One nice thing about the racing beat exhaust, their flanges are thick and will never warp, and seal 100% on the first try.

 

s4 downpipe/turbo gaskets are diffrent from s5
YOU could try and use two bolts so the one bolt won't back off.(am I saying that right).

 

The gaskets are differently constructed but either one can work on either setup. The issue is normally not the gasket, but the flanges it is mated with (or the tightness against them).

 

did you read the thread? i was asking if it was normal because i cant call pr because they are down .

 

If a bolt backs off, you need new lock washers. I ran into that several time myself.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question

I suppose I should have omitted the question mark and just used a period instead... My Bad..