Exhaust Pipe gaskets

[TWOOD]

OK, here was my problem and tha solution I tried.
When my pipes were bolted to the headers with just high temp rtv, both pipes kicked out on an angle. About a inch to inch and a half. I didn't like forcing them outward and placing tension on the headers. Anyways the RTV blew out after 1600 miles.
So,....I found a carbon fiber, laminated to a thin sheet of SS, gasket material at Summit. Made for uneven mating surfaces. Cut my own gasket shape , with snips, and applied with the high temp RTV.
I had a .030" gap on one pipe and .100" gap on the other.
The gasket material measures about .035" thick.
The RTV seemed to hold just fine on gaps up to @.030".
So I made partial gaskets. Which covered half of the face of the flange, to fill on the large gap side (happened to the the rear side of the flange).
ON the .100" gap side, I made a 1/3 and a 2/3 gasket and stacked them to provide a tapered gasket effect. Counting on the RTV to fill in the voids.
I did this last winter and it held just fine all this driving season (another 3000 miles).
Summit part # is PHP-68006, cost $8.95 and is described as "Gasket material, Exhaust, Carbon Composite, 10" by 10", .040 thick.
This stuff is flexible and compressible. Feels like heavy soft flocking on a thin metal substrate.
Hope that this might help someone else. It worked for me!