Exhaust donut gasket............

jetta90 · Post by **jetta90** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:31 am

Just replaced the exhaust gasket/donut that fits in the exhaust bowl..................the donut fits in between the manifold where the 4 exhausts join into 1, and the bowl that sits at the beginning of the muffler system.
New donut and 2 new clips.
The bowl area leaks exhaust fumes big time. Does the mesh that makes up the donut need many heat/cold cycles, along with a bunch of soot to go through it to seal up properly? The wire mesh donut seems to be quite porous when you look at it.
What have you folks experienced in the past when replacing this donut gasget?..................uhhh, other than cursing them darned clips.
thank you.

jetta90 · Post by **jetta90** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:32 am

oopppppsss....................me again, forgot to mention - 1990 Jetta TD.

vwkook · Post by **vwkook** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:37 am

It's possible you just need to wiggle things around to get it to seat properly. This has happened to me before.

VanagonExpress · Post by **VanagonExpress** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:47 pm

I guess it is possible you have the donut upside down?

libbybapa · Post by **libbybapa** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:55 pm

Put a smear of Permatex Ultra Copper on the sealing surfaces and your problem will be solved.

Andrew

wbhgrace · Post by **wbhgrace** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:25 pm

A question about the donut gaskets - I previously had the fibrous type (kind of like steel wool with some sort of gasket material molded into the donut shape), and now I have a solid metal one. I believe I get a little leakage, and I'll try the Permatex advice. My question is which kind of donut gasket do you folks think works better - the fibrous one or the solid metal one? Does one type work better than the other with Permatex sealer? Thanks.

rebuilder · Post by **rebuilder** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 4:54 am

Suggest you check the tightness of the two C clamps, Sometimes they get stretched when being installed. This could make the joint loose.

archebald23 · Post by **archebald23** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:01 am

wbhgrace wrote:A question about the donut gaskets - I previously had the fibrous type (kind of like steel wool with some sort of gasket material molded into the donut shape), and now I have a solid metal one. I believe I get a little leakage, and I'll try the Permatex advice. My question is which kind of donut gasket do you folks think works better - the fibrous one or the solid metal one? Does one type work better than the other with Permatex sealer? Thanks.

The metal ones are better because they are designed to handle the extra heat generated by our supercharged engines through our [link to online store removed by mod as per the forum's don't-compete-with-the-host policy].