I wanted to take some time out to help my fellow PFfers on this subject. While I'm not certain of which side of the gasket gets put where, the orientation of the runner, the material that runs lengthwise does makes a difference. I took and posted pictures to show how.

Here is a picture of the old gaskets, you can see the extra material that runs lengthwise between the ports. Notice that the runner is not as wide as the ports rather it is much narrower and it is placed along one side of the ports.



Now here are two pictures of the exact location on two different Fieros showing the orientation of the runner. In the first picture the gasket has been placed on so that the runner sits on the lowest part of the manifold. This is the significant aspect of the point that I am trying to make here, in this case there is plenty of room to install and remove the spark plugs.



In this next picture, the gasket was placed so the runner sits along the highest part of the manifold. You can see that this makes it difficult to install and remove the spark plugs.



You wonder why I did this to my Fiero? Well I wasn't aware of this until I had brought back lunch for the professional mechanics who had stopped by to help me finish up on my upper end rebuild. It wassn't until I was installing the plugs that I realized what had happened.

Anyways, I just wanted to pass this little tibit along, maybe I can save someone some aggravation sometime in the future.

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jetman
Silver 86 SE 2M6 4-speed, with "check wallet light"

Having done a few hundred exhausts in my lifetime, I would add some things to also consider at re-assembly time. I beleive Jetman did an admirable job explaining the prep for removal, tho he may have left out earplugs for people who are sensitive to some of the better sequences of 4 letter words that are itricately tied to exhaust work and the sharp edges of heat shields!

if possible, get stainless steel bolts/studs. for the end connections to the y pipe, drill out both sides to 3/8", go to your local home center, and buy a length of 3/8"ss threaded rod, 18" is fine, and buy 8 ss nuts and split type lock washers. cut them to the proper length, about 4" IIRC from mine. regular threaded ss rod is more than strong enough for this.
For the head bolts, check out a marine supply shop if you have any in your area, they do have ss metric bolts. I made the studs for mine from 4 longer ones. (metric SS threaded rod is obscenely expensive, for no good reason)

get a tube of permatex ultra copper high temp exhaust gasket silicon. put a paper thin layer on each side of the gasket before re-assembly. Do NOT blob it on, a little goes a long way, and will insure a 100% seal. I've used it without gaskets with no leaks on some motors.

now some may not like this, but never use locktite thread locker on exhaust bolts. use never-seize. always. even on the Stainless bolts. don;t skimp on it, you;ll thank me when you have to remove it all in a couple of years. properly torqued, I have never had a neversiezed bolt/stub back out on it's own on any exhaust system. besides, you'll like your silver fingers more than the normal black greasy ones.

p.s. you get plus from me for your efforts here, it will help alot of people!

[This message has been edited by tjm4fun (edited 08-06-2006).]

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jetman
Silver 86 SE 2M6 4-speed, with "check wallet light"