craziness with the exhaust leak
Ok. So its been a week that I've been fighting this exhaust leak. The local exhaust shop pointed to #4 cylinder exhaust gasket (block to manifold). So I bought 2 of them and the manifold to pipe gasket. They are installed, torqued to the Rave CD specs. Leak is still there. So I start the engine this morning and put my hand under the manifold and try to feel for the leak...I feel it coming from what feels like between the block and the head. Due to the heat, I can't really keep my hand there long enough, but with welder's gloves I clearly slide past the exhaust manifold before I feel the puffs hitting the glove. It is below the gaskets and further inward on the block. Thinking it might be a head gasket, I do a compression test on the #2 and #4 cylinder. #2 is at 160 PSI and #4 is at ~145 +/-1. The gauge does not go down when I stop cranking the engine.
Its a 2000 D2 V8 w/80K miles.
Questions for you all:
1. Can a head gasket on the rover 8 leak only exhaust? My oil and coolant are perfectly clean - no milkshake.
2. Can a leaky head gasket only leak under running pressure? There was no sound of it leaking under the 145 PSI...but I know combustion pressures reach much higher.
3. Can you think of any other way to narrow down what it could be? Tomorrow I will pull the exhaust manifold and de-grease the area and see what can be seen...but under that cylinder there is a lot of oil and carbon build up, while the rest of the block is relatively clean.
4. What can it be at worst? Cracked head or block? Has anyone even heard of such shit?
On a lighter topic, who the fuck put the SAI pipes behind the intake manifold and above the spark plug wires?!!
What's the Land Rover part number for the monkey that can replace the spark plug wires LRT-MON1234?
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