A bad gasket, I knew it!

 

im hoping that and the few holes we found in the weld is all it is.
once the gasket is off ill post a pic of it, picking up new felpro gasket at AAP on way to the clubhouse tonight so i already have it.

 

Bringing up the past..

So that weld was fixed and clamped... getting the sound again so I'm gonna get a set of gaskets for the manifold and manifold to down pipe.
anyone have a suggestion on brand for gasket, a good heavy duty set?
Also I'll good torque specs for the header nuts, I just keep strong arming it and that is probably wrong ha.

 

Those exhaust to head studs and nuts get torqued to 106 in lbs.
I have had great service from FelPro. But there are others.

 

I ended up first round with junk store brand gaskets all they had in stock... you get what you pay for ugh...

try felpro this time. And correct torque specs

Fyi I laugh when I drive it, wife HATES the loud drone of 3" full exhaust haha

 

I went thru 4 different exhaust setups with Oldblue, that 2.2 preferred the 2” down pipe the 31” resonator from a 2.4 2LT and the muffler, with the 2 1/4 pipes, for the BlackSwan, I’ve considered a GMPP / Borla setup, but found that a little to much drone , at least in the videos on YouTube. So, I still have the OEM exhaust from engine to tailpipe.

 

I'm an older guy and I spent a lot of time dealing with exhausts on various cars. What I learned is that it really depends on how you use your car. If your car is just used for cruising around town or short trips, aftermarket exhausts can be fun and sometimes really make the car sound good. If you take longer trips or spend a lot of time in the car, especially with the window close, almost every aftermarket exhaust I've tried on various cars - from the Jeep 4.0 to the Chevy LS and many in-between - eventually wear on you, either by being too loud, droning or just generally just sounding like crap. People have gotten some really good deals by buying them from me after I eventually went back to stock.

 

I hear ya! A magnaflow stainless steel muffler with the custom pipes to adapt it to the HHR and a polished stainless steel tip , was over $200, it sold here for $40 dollars 💸, that is hot rodding.