On3 turbo manifold leak
 

So I've been working on my 2000 Silverado turbo project for about two years. Took forever, finally got everything together, got a really friggin bad tune, so I've been going over all the little things to get it ready for round two on the dyno. I found out that the On3 turbo kit I got had a warped turbo header (the flange that meets the head) so it was leaking like crazy. I took it to a machine shop, had the flange surface trued, and put it back on the truck with triple layer metal gaskets and some hi temp gasket material to make sure it sealed. Fire it up again today to test for leaks, and I'm still getting residual exhaust leaks from around the header flange.

Any suggestions? I've already pulled the whole hot side off twice now and this is burning me up. Anyone run without gaskets? It's an aluminum head and a friend suggested trying that.

Weld on another flange and have it milled flat.

On3 stuff is garbage, hence why its so cheap. All of the welds on the manifold should be suspect as well.

nothing worse then crap going wrong. Sorry for your troubles. Either buy a quality manifold or have a new flange welded on like said above. Good luck.

Welding another flange to any manifold will warp it.
Will need to be remachined.
Then if any area is off lining up other parts could be fun.

Well, after the machining was done, the flange was straight. Both the machinist and I put a straight edge to the surface and it was much better. I assumed it would work, but no. The gaskets should be on correctly, unless I majorly boned it (which I dont think I did).

I did the same procedure, and it still leaks.

Upgraded header bolts helped my situation, I reused the old ones, and they would keep backing out little by little. I have the on3 as well, and its garbage. The bung hole that has a plug leaks as well, horrible turbo log.

removing the turbo and header is a pain in the but, i would in all honesty, just buy a quality turbo log from trick or even a flipped header, and just fabricate a turbo log from it.

I'd buy a blem to save money.

We also have studs for the manifold flange if customer want them. ;)

TrickTurbo, I've decided on running studs. Do you offer any manifolds that will replace this crap without too much hassle? I'm really only concerned about the mounting points for the crossover and downpipe. I also had a local shop recommend using RemFlex gaskets, but I don't know what the failure rate is on pure graphite gaskets.

No it will not match up.
Head flat and manifold flat a standard metal gasket should work.
UNLESS the manifold is touching something prior to clamping down. Or the weight of parts pulling on it are not allowing it to set straight.
Or it's so thin as soon as you cranked it up warped it again.

A set of blem pipes would be 1400.00