Exhaust Leak ??

[cary]

I pulled the heat exchangers off the son's 1.7 to clean them up. The left side didn't slide right in when I went to put them back in. Had to kind of twist it into place. .Didn't feel quite right. Now I seem to have a slight leak at idle. Seems to go away after you rev it up. Son says it sounds like a lawnmower.
Tryed to find it with a stethscope. Can't hear anything.

At the AX on Sunday I talked to one of the local VW wrenches.
He recommended taking it off and fileing the flange to square it up. Plus use my torch, let it blow back soot to see if air is leaking out. But wouldn't the fan move the air anyway ?

Oh yeah, it backfires on decel.

I know what I have to do. Just your thoughts before I get in there.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The fan moves air around the exhaust ports, so feeling for leaks isn't the easiest way to find them. Not sure what is, frankly...

Filing the exhaust flanges flat is a known practice. Use your largest file and file both of the flanges at once to keep them straight with respect to each other. Wear hearing protection, as it makes a lot of racket.

I actually had to use a hammer to tweak my right-side SSI to make it fit nicely. (Before filing the flanges, of course.)

--DD