280 Z Exhaust Gasket

[jooser]

hi everyone, heres the skinny. My friend has a 280 Z that he recently got a fix it ticket on. He has a blown exhaust gasket, cuz im pretty sure its the stock one from 15 years ago . He doesnt have money to have it replaced professionaly, and our techcenter school said that in order to get to it they have to take the motor out?!...I would like to know its thats true, or if there was some other random way to fix it, and can it be a piece-of-pie weekend job. Oh yeah, since its a 280, its fuel injected so that ads a lot more fun to it.

[Pennyman]

He will not have to take the engine out. The most that will have to happen is the intake manifold will have to be taken off to get to the intake manifold. Both the intake and exhaust manifolds share a gasket, so removing the intake is manditory, but removing the entire engine is not.

Make sure you get the right gasket too. Most of the old Z's had square exhaust ports, but a few years came with round ports.

Also, while he has everything off, it might be a good idea to put on a header to save him the hassle of taking it all apart in the future (if he plans on upgrading the performance).

He'll probably need a repair manual to get the specifics on how to remove everything in the correct order. Just to be safe.

Tell your friend good luck, and that he chose a sweet car.