so for about 2 out of the 3-4 years ive had my civic, ive had a leak where the header meets the cat. The cat and header line up perfectly. However when i pull it up to redline, i seem to blow an exhaust donut gasket. I checked under the car, adn its almost like the exhaust is angled a tiny tiny bit to the right, so the left side of the collector doesnt seal.

Is there a special ultra sealing gasket to use there? its starting to leak really bad. I know any kinda high temp RTV copper **** is going to burn off there is 2 seconds, so they have to have some kinda over sized special gasket to ensure its leak free, is there such a thing?

DC sports 4-2-1 header...OEM 96-98 cat. with a 2.5 exhaust.

its on a 1996 civic ex 4dr

 

have the exhaust properly aligned, get a new donut gasket, make sure the bolts are tight, it sounds like a botched muffler shop crunch bent job

 

If the stock rubber hangers are fatigued, they aren't holding the exhaust in the proper alignment. That would help destroy gaskets at all joints. Also, your cat is probably clogged full of ****, which is creating a backpressure bottleneck at high RPM.

 

that joint is designed to flex

 

the joint at the collector/cat is supposed to flex...however yes your probably right, either the hangers are not aligned up, or the **** is warped.


that would suck if it was my cat, since i just got a new one off of marketplace like a month ago.

To align my exhaust, do i have to torch the hangers? To check to see if its properly aligned, do i check the distance from the collector to the cat on all sides? for instance

top=.9"
Bottom= .9"
right=.6"
left=1.3"
(which is how mine is right now)

and make it so
Top=.8"
Bottom=.8"
left=.8"
right=.8"???

how to I make sure this will stay in alignment?

funny how this is the dumbest question ever, and i didnt think i would get a response, but the responses i got, were EXACTLY what i needed to hear. Thanks guys.

ALSO, for the hangers on the exhaust, are they supposed to be DEAD even wtih teh hangers on the bottom of the car? Some of them are not straight up and down even. Like the exhaust is being pulled to the right, and all the rubber hangers are being stretched to the right.

However in the rear, the muffler is a little to the left, which doesnt make sense.

is everybody in favor of just worrying about where the collector meets the cat, being dead even? just aligning that spot? or rigging up a rubber bracket to support it there?