Exhaust gasket

Has anyone cut gaskets to go between the header and the head.
After removing my exhaust, I can see were it's been blowing past the joint.
It looks to have a copper or brass gasket now.

 

Just go and buy a new set of copper gaskets... They're not that expensive

 

What Alive said -- these are metal gaskets here, not material. They're pretty cheap.

 

XJ exhaust gaskets

 

Or is that one of those things that doesn't usually need replacing?
They look ok.
The exhaust was alittle lose which may have caused the leak.
I wouldn't have known that they were leaking if I hadn't seen the carbon
were the exhaust was blowing past, after removing the headers.

 

Exhaust washers are designed for one-time use. Only re-use them if you have no other option, and plan on installing new ones at the first opportunity.

You might get away with re-using the old ones, but if you don't...
Given some time, the leaking exhaust gas will cheerfuly erode a small channel in the hot aluminum sealing surface where the gasket has failed. When that happens, you get to pull the head and hope you can find a sympathetic machinist to fix it.

 

OK. New ones it is.
Thanks for the warning of impending doom.
I tend to over do it sometimes and need to be checked.

 

Just out of curiousity, is it possible to make some of these copper gaskets? I need one to go from the collector to the turbo on my 650 LJ and the part is discontinued. Am I SOL?

Rob

 

No; ask at the local hot-rod shop about making you some. Your friendly neighborhood machinist may also be able to help you.

If it's a ring-type crush washer, you may be able to track down a duplicate that's used in another application that's still available. The Yamaha parts manual may even list its' dimensions to help you in your parts-quest.