Broken header bolt and exhaust leak causing truck to run rich? fouling plugs

[robg2001ls1]

Ive been running open headers for a couple weeks while ive been tinkering with my swap and working all the bugs out. I just got the exhaust put on. 2 1/2" pipes from the headers, H pipe to Flowmasters with turndowns. When i bought my 5.3 off Ebay i paid l paid $450 shipped for my 101k motor. I did notice when i bought it that 2 bolts were broken on each head. figured i d upgrade the heads anyway so it wouldnt be sobad.Once i had the exhaust put on, it became apparent how bad the leak was on passenger side. on the driver side the leak isnt so bad. the first and last bolt are broken. passenger side is the last two bolts. So it is leaking BAD. Now im wondering if that leak is causing my very rich condition.Plugs foul within a day. Or is this beacuse i was running open headers and the o2 were getting too much outside air?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFB84YwYr94

[robg2001ls1]

Im leaning towards pulling passenger side head and getting the bolts extracted since i think it willl be a tough job on the truck.

[RedHeartbeat]

bad exhaust leak will pull fresh air into the exhaust pipe and cause a false lean at the 02 sensor and the PCM with enrichen the fuel mixture trying to get it corrected. You'd be better off disconnecting the 02 sensors and just running off the base tune for now. Get the exhaust leak fixed! You're polluting my air dude!.

[kerrige]

Bangbangskeetskeet has or maybe had this exact issue on his truck. Be very careful on the easy outs though they can be a pain. Redheartbeat was dead on.

[bangbangskeetskeet]

Go to autozone or Walmart and get some copper gasket maker. Lay a good layer down on the header flange and head. Tighten the bolts down hand tight or a little more. Let it sit for at least a couple hours...of you can go a full 24 hours that would be better. I did a small bead on each side of my gasket and made the mistake of not letting it sit. I started and drove the truck less than an hour after doing the gaskets and think that the gaskets got "blown out" so there is still a slight leak but is A LOT better than it was.

[robg2001ls1]

would the copper gasket maker be a permenant solution or just a band aid? Pulling the head and putting it back on is no trouble for me. The hardest part for me is extracting the broken bolts. Im not very good at that

[bangbangskeetskeet]

would the copper gasket maker be a permenant solution or just a band aid? Pulling the head and putting it back on is no trouble for me. The hardest part for me is extracting the broken bolts. Im not very good at that

Just a bandaid in all honesty. If you have a good extractor set its not hard. I had 3 broken bolts on mine got 2 with the extractor and broke the extractor in the 3rd. It's definitely easier with the heads off and on a bench. Obviously the absolute easiest solution is to get a new/used set of heads that has good bolt holes and just swap them.