On rebuild, I put a brand new metal ring #11 on a cleaned and polished exhaust header but theres still a bunch of spooge leaking out. At idle, I can watch the spooge bubble and also see small puffs of smoke. Its starting to drip out and cover the Engine behind the seat as well. Kind of sucks to see this after replacing the ring and seals. New exhaust manifold/Engine gasket as well - but its not leaking at that gasket.

The one thing I could not figure out is what to do with the crush gasket ring that's pictured here #9 and so I left it out. I don't think #9 works for aftermarket pipes as mine from the Athena gasket kit seemed to not fit anyhow.

https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda ... ot/muffler

Thoughts?

Put a thick coating of Permatex ultra copper around the outside of the manifold, install the pipe, springs and tighten all mounting bolts down in place. You need to put enough of the permatex on so it squeezes out and completely seals the joint between the manifold and pipe. Wipe off the excess that squeezed out to make it look clean.

Let it set in place for a full day before starting it. Your leak will be gone.

Clean and repeat any time you remove the header pipe.

There is an old post on this with some clear pictures of the process, but they might have been on the old site or on Hoser's tech page.

I already bought the Permatex ultra copper stuff so you've confirmed what I need to do.

Thank you.

I used to use some putty like stuff specifically made for two strokes.

Don't know if its still around, but it looked like plumbers putty and stayed soft, making it easy to replace when you pulled the pipe for any reason.

#9 is your problem, it is the actual seal. I do not use any silicone, nothing but the ring and donut gasket and have 0 leaks. The big thing is the pipe needs to be even all around the manifold, some mount adjustment may be required.

This is assuming you have a stock pipe, if it is after market performance pipe depending on the pipe the other guys are correct.

I have done the silicone thing as well but it don't hold up for very long.
I use muffler cement made by kleenflo. See pic below. By the way it don't last forever either.
You could go to a race shop or similar place that sells performance stuff and buy some header wrap. Then make one wrap or two around the leak area and hold it in place with some safety wire. I have not done this myself but I don't see why it wouldn't work well.
A long time ago I thought about making bolt together flanges but ditched the idea because of Engine vibration. The exhaust and Engine must be able to flex or you will break the flange bolts on the Engine side. They are very small and threaded into aluminum.
Just a thought.

It will just leak through the header wrap and soak it with oil. Also if you're exhaust is not stainless header wrap will rust it up by holding moisture against the pipe.

Yup -- valid points.