Been playing around on the old girl, (2009 flht),, waiting for bits and pieces to arrive for other things...

Been messing around with exhaust gaskets over the years cursing and swearing .. Installing stock gasket as I have stock header pipes..

Been told many times to put them in the freezer, but always needed to install them staight away ....

Now if you have the time,, put them in the freezer overnight,,, ( I left them in for 2 nights),,,  Make sure exhaust port is clean etc,,, a little wd40 on a rag and wipe, (not to much, you dont want it smoking to much when you fire her up),, around the gasket surface area in the port ,,,, A wipe of wd40 around the gasket ,,, Just with fingers, push the gasket in square,, push around the gasket ,,, Bingo,, pops in like a finger in the bum !!!!!!    Finsh up (again) , with wd40 on a rag, and wipe around and clean up the exhaust studs for easy header nut install..

I fucking love WD40 !!!!!!!!

 

I'd be interested to know if there are any ill effects to the gasket later on down the track. I've heard a million "great for gasket" ideas and never done one of them.

Interesting point you bring up Bonkerz ,,, I dont think it would be wise to install header pipe immediately after installing so called frozen exhaust gaskets, as they would be brittle and not ready to crush around the header pipe to make a good seal, as they are meant to do.. If you are going to use the in the freezer method, it would be mandatory to leave them for at least a day, and wait for them to thaw out and expand to normal size in exhaust port .... As mentioned above,, if you have the time, it is just a good easy way to install gaskets without cursing and swearing ....

Leave them to defrost for a day! Where the fuck do you live, Antarctica?? About 15 minutes at room temp should be right.

 

Never had an issue. Grease on the inside of the exhaust port and a bit on the gasket. or buy some copper crush gaskets... still a PITA to fit. There are also the S&S ones that are not tapered to fit the headers. My view if it gets destroyed then replace. If not reuse.. Just a tad more torque on fitting