Exhaust Manifold To Turbo Gasket Exploded

[Leeroy94]

Rb25det neo with high flow turbo making 220rwkw. Track car.

Last two track nights I've blown two turbo gaskets. Had some crappy $7 composite gasket on when I bought the engine, so I replaced it with a factory metal one but that also blew out I double checked all the nuts and they were tight, aswell as having the clips on them to reduce movement.

Turbo glows red.. I don't know if I need a special gasket to withstand the heat? I've tried searching the forums but couldn't find a clear answer.

Which type of gasket is the best for track cars? It's just such a lengthy job to change it so I want to do it one more time but make sure it doesn't break this time.

Cheers

[Dale FZ1]

The factory MLS gasket is the best.

Suggest using a straight edge across the flange faces to make sure no warps are promoting leaks.

[GTSBoy]

Also, 220rwkW is not much for a high flow. Especially to be getting it hot and red. So the question becomes.....what sort of highflow is it? A less restrictive rear end might be needed. You might have a hell of a lot of back pressure and heat going on in there.

[Ben C34]

Have you got the nut locking tabs on there? Maybe nuts are coming loose.

Plus one on glowing red being not cool....

[Leeroy94]

Turbo is only running 10psi.. Unsure of what type of highflow. It's steel wheeled and about 8mm larger in diameter. 220rwkw maxed out the stock injectors using a nistune.

I've got a 3 inch bell mouth dump pipe going to twin 2 1/4 inch straight pipes. No mufflers or cats.

Tabs are done up tightly. Warping definitely could be plausible. The gaskets blow out long ways inbetween the bolts, parallel to the rocker covers.

[Blackkers]

interesting. perhaps have the surface of the flange inspected

[Leeroy94]

I've purchased a multilayered steel gasket, permaseal I believe.

I got a small metal ruler (closest straight edge object I could find) and the flange is slightly bowed in a concave shape. That being, the centre surface of the flange is further in than the surface of the studs.

What can be done to fix this? And to further prevent this from happening. It's only bowed 0.5-1mm roughly.

[Badgaz]

make sure your exhaust is supported by more than the manifold. check your fuel pressure is good...this glowing red hot thing isn't good. Just get the manifold surface machined flat. I used a cometic multilayer steel gasket had no problems since.

[jiffo]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the glowing red turbo, if that's how she looks after hard work. As a track car it would be spending most of its time doing just that.

Around 500 deg C is cherry red for steel and a hard working turbo runs a lot hotter than that.

Of course when just puttering along, a different story.

As for the gasket, I'd straight edge check the manifold and turbo, may need to have both machined.

As has been posted, check that the exhaust isn't exerting too much weight, might need some assistance via extra brackets.

Does the engine move around a lot, mounts may be tired allowing the exhaust to hang differently to when at rest.

[tricstar]

Had this issue several times and in the end the only gasket that lasted for me was an Inconel gasket from summit racing or one of the US online shops. Just google Inconel gaskets