Manifold gasket question

[BackInA88]

Putting a new exhaust on my 88.
Got to love those free shipping weekends!!

Anyway I ended up having to pull the intake and exhaust manifolds to remove a broken stud.

Mine just had 2 steel gaskets on the intake manifold and nothing on the exhaust. This in itself is not a problem as I have seen other vehicles without exhaust manifold gaskets.
My question is how are these one piece long gaskets that also go under the exhaust manifold that our host sells?
I noticed that my exhaust manifold was leaking a little on the inside of the outside ports and was thinking this set up might be a good thing?

Steve

[gudjeon]

My experience and most of the UK Rover forumers prefer the one piece. Better sealing all around with the long gasket.

[greenmeanie]

If you want to do it properly you need to make sure the manifolds are true and square or the gasket wont seal properly. Take your manifolds off, clean them up and then colour the mating face with a sharpie. Take a flat surface and add sand paper of whatever grade removes cast steel well and start rubbing in fugure of 8 until all the sharpie is gone. Buy a six pack of something good because you'll be at it for a while.

THen use the all in one gasket. Do not overtorque the manifold hardware as you have to allow for the manifolds to expand.

Cheers
Gregor

[Woodslug]

I always replace the gasket that goes between the two manifolds at the same time. Put the nuts on the four studs that hold the manifolds together finger tight but do not tighten with a wrench until you are done mounting the manifolds to the head. This will allow the manifolds to move in relation to each other so they will seat on the head evenly.

Ted