i remember thinking "hey those rivets look like they won't let my manifold get a good seal" after installing the gasket that came in EB's head set, as it started leaking quickly...

nevermind that one of the studs was busted from heat or something when i bought the truck(when i extracted it, not much effort was needed), and i snapped both bolts that hold the air injector setup on. i was in a hurry so it all got slapped together...

about 2 months ago i decided to fix this leak, so i bought a good gasket and a sheet of asbestos material for the air injector ports. turns out, the rivets were no problem -- where the hit the edge of the flange, there was nothing behind them so no worries! what caused my leak was several factors -- the busted stud, both broken bolts on the air pipe, and *drumroll*....

one of the downpipe bolts was gone, and the one of the donuts had gotten scorched to the point where there was nothing left but a little spring-like piece of metal!