Cutting a groove into a steel plate ~or~ How to seal two flat steel plates

Begle1

Begle1

Active member
I have super-custom adapter flanges between my turbo and exhaust manifold. (T4i to T4) They're 1/2" thick plates of steel, one bolts to the turbo and one bolts to the manifold, then they bolt together with 4x 5/16" (iirc) bolts.

Lo and behold my first engineering attempt was sub-par and I can't get them to seal well even with a whole tube of copper gasket maker and a gasket made out of an Arizona Iced Tea can.


So now I'm planning on either:

A) using some sort of tool to freestyle cut a groove into one of the plates to lay a big thick copper wire (like 1/8" or so I guess?) into it,

B) doing something else entirely.



Anybody know what sort of tool I can use to cut a decent looking ~1/8" diameter groove into a steel plate? Dremel attachment?


Or does anybody have a better suggestion on how I should proceed?
 
Not sure where you are located but if you drop by the back door of a machine shop, someone would likely mill, machine or surface grind your plates to make them flat. A twenty dollars bill goes a long way ...
 
sootie said:
Not sure where you are located but if you drop by the back door of a machine shop, someone would likely mill, machine or surface grind your plates to make them flat. A twenty dollars bill goes a long way ...
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I'm on Maui, my machine shop options are rather limited. And these plates were "pretty flat" to begin with, I think I need something more "positive seal". I wonder if they don't smile and frown a little bit with heat cycles.
 
Sometimes a little bit of gasket maker works better than a lot of gasket maker. Maybe a flat surface and some 80 grit sandpaper to true it up, plus the sanding marks help the gasket maker have something to grab onto. Post a picture?
 
Too bad you cant just oring the plates like you would a head/block after you deck the plates.
 
Its leaking between the plates, or at the turbo/manifold? If just between the plates, use jb weld as your gasket maker, or have them welded together.

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Begle1 said:
I'm on Maui, my machine shop options are rather limited. And these plates were "pretty flat" to begin with, I think I need something more "positive seal". I wonder if they don't smile and frown a little bit with heat cycles.
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Pretty flat isn't flat. 7.3 powerstroke manifolds don't have gaskets but they are machined flat.
 
How flat to seal exhaust manifold gas between two 1/2" plates of steel? 2x4 and emory cloth flat? Mirror flat?

If I cut a groove into the steel and crammed in a soft piece of wire to get crushed, wouldn't that forgive a multitude of sins?
 
If it's just 2 T3 type, Take them to a shop that has a surface grinder. Magnetic chuck and surface grinder will get them flat and parallel.
 
Begle1 said:
How flat to seal exhaust manifold gas between two 1/2" plates of steel? 2x4 and emory cloth flat? Mirror flat?

If I cut a groove into the steel and crammed in a soft piece of wire to get crushed, wouldn't that forgive a multitude of sins?
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Stick the plate in a vice and use your flat smooth or flat bastard file and draw over it in 4 ways. L-R, T-B TL-BR, TR-BL. see where it takes steel off and where it leaves it clean. you file it down flat with your file and some chalk on the file once you get closer to flat , a thin later of copper gasket should make the grade.
 
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Nootch said:
Stick the plate in a vice and use your flat smooth or flat bastard file and draw over it in 4 ways. L-R, T-B TL-BR, TR-BL. see where it takes steel off and where it leaves it clean. you file it down flat with your file and some chalk on the file once you get closer to flat , a thin later of copper gasket should make the grade.
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Never thought of that but sounds like a good trick
 
Make a gasket out of 1/8" copper sheet. You can buy copper sheet sections off the internet.

I did this same thing to repair a leak on a marine app that had some corrosion pitting on the flange, worked perfect.
 
I don't think you'll be able to maintain depth of cut in order to get your protrusion where it needs to be. You could score it with a dremel, add the router attachment a follow the track with a ball bit.

You could RTV the assembly together. The RTV (burnt) should firm a carbon dam.

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jasonc said:
Make a gasket out of 1/8" copper sheet. You can buy copper sheet sections off the internet.



I did this same thing to repair a leak on a marine app that had some corrosion pitting on the flange, worked perfect.
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This was my first vote but I'm assuming materials are limited

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Back in the day, we resurfaced hydraulic stack valves on a 3’x3’ piece of 1” thick glass with lapping compound in a figure 8. Can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent doing that...
 
There are lapping plates available for reasonable prices. They look like those diamond knife sharpeners, but in a 6x6 or 8x8 plate.

Another option, is the stainless MLS t4 and t4i gaskets that offer more squish than a single layer single bead cheapongasket.
 
As mentioned above, file or lap them flat. Simple enough.

I have a 9”x12” granite lapping block that’s flat to the 6th decimal place per the cert. (~$70) It’s used to lap check valves for the waterjet pumps I rebuild. I buy the paper off amazon. ~($15)
 
Try some RTV before you get crazy with it. A buddy of mine convinced me to try it when I had a bad T4 gasket a while ago, only thing I use now. Doesn't have to be high temp or anything, I use ultra black on my manifold charger and primary.
 
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