Ok on the wife's s40 we hear a wisping sound. I believe there is a problem at the header's connection to the muffler. I can feel some air puffs on the other side of the heat shield, but inspection of the "connector" doesn't show any soot traces where I'd expect exhaust to be leaking out.

Any ideas on how I can troubleshoot this? I've done little exhaust work besides polishing mufflers!

good idea. We use the same thing for finding pressure leaks in broadcast transmission line. I didn't even think of that, mostly because the muffler would be hot, but it should work great when cold.

verslagen1 wrote on 05/18/09 at 14:54:56:


I think a candle would be good when I can't feel it with my hand anymore.

But now I have the header and all off and the heat shield off, I still don't see anything wrong at the connector joint, but I did find a small exhaust leak at the head. I need an exhaust gasket and two bolts, are these available at local stores or just the dealer? Keep in mind we don't have the selection of stores Dallas does here in East Texas (Tyler).

One trick I've heard about but have never tried is to introduce a little Sea Foam (or, maybe, 2-stroke engine oil) into the combustion chamber (perhaps via the petcock vacuum port on the carb).

Your exhaust will then be smoky for awhile, perhaps enabling you to find the exhaust leak.

IHTH!

I just bought two header pipe seals from the local Suzuki dealer. The gaskets ran $5.99 and are listed as part number 14181-45C00