When i turned off my Trans Am the other day, i noticed there was a blackish smoke spitting up from the joining of the exhaust manifolds to the heads. This occured at both heads at the same time. I assumed the catalytic converter was clogged, went to investigate, took it off and SUPRISE! no insides to the cat (sorta nice to find out, but a biotch to get to).

So my question is, do i need new exhaust manifold gaskets, or is it valve cover gaskets? I just put in new Felpro vavle cover gaskets not more than a month ago on both heads. Thanks for any help.
(PS stock exhaust system so far.)

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--Steve S--
1984 Trans Am 305 LG4, 5 speed
Daily Driver, Flowmaster 80 Series
NOW FEATURING: Holley 600 cfm & vacuum advance

 

btt

 

valve cover gaskets

 

SON OF A....

 

Make sure you have good exhaust flow first, but I'd say ODB is right. It would be unlikely that both manifolds leak at the same time. Did you use a torque wrench on the valve cover bolts when you reinstalled them? I used Fel-Pro too, but torqued the covers really carefully and I've never had a leak. May want to make sure your PCV system is operational too. Good luck with that, man .