VY exhaust manifold and flange gaskets?

[yz300]

Hi everyone, this might seem like the stupidest question ever but I must ask it. I've taken off the exhaust manifold from the left-hand side of my wife's VY and there's no exhaust manifold gasket there nor is there a gasket where the exhaust manifold joins the pipe that Heads to the cat. Does anyone know if it should be this way? I assume every surface that meets is supposed to have a gasket, I've never seen an engine without them. Can anyone shed some light? Thanks, Gus.

 

[krusing]

No that is correct, I think they [GM] used surface to surface [face to face] some time back,
then they used metal shim type gaskets,
I found the same on my VY Super6, when I found an exhaust leak in the passengers side,
I could hear it when it was cold, but it would disappear when up to temp.
Being the flange bolts were loose, and when I tried to undo a couple, the heads snapped off,
The though then was (insert you own words here),
Lucky enough, I was able to remove the broken studs with a small pair of vise grips, and a LOT of WD40.

So I then sourced replacements from eBay [from a GM dealer]
Where I could of used HT bolts, but decided not too.
But I am finicky about using OEM parts where possible,
I also purchased "normal manifold gaskets" and installed those with the new bolts,
and that fixed the leak.
As for exhaust manifold to exhaust, the flange is metal to metal, as its subject to vibration and movement.

 

[yz300]

Thanks for your reply krusing. Yeah i found it so strange there were no exhaust manifold gaskets. The car.s done 220 and one of the bolts didn.t take a lot to crack along with one of the flange nuts. People were selling me the wrong gaskets for the flange and once i got what i thought would be right it didn.t allow the bolt holes to line up on the manifold so i put it together without any gasket on the flange. It.s good to know it.s right so thanks. Maybe the sprays of wd i.d given the flange nuts over the past week saved me from your troubles? Out of interest, did you have an 02 sensor acting differently on the side with the leak? Gus.