My camaro hasnt passed emissions so its just sitting here until my cat gets here and i went out there today and figured id start chagning the exhaust gaskets just to do something, soooooooo while pulling the manifold off i was waiting for the farmiliar sound of the old gaskets falling to the ground but.....nothing..... so i looked and looked and still found nothing, i called up the previous owner with the intent to chew him out and i started with "Hey dan......is there annnnyy reason why there are no exhaust gaskets on the manifold?" "Because its a new engine".......something i didnt know lol, after failing emissions i was completely pissed but now i'm pretty happy with it knowing i dont have to invest in a rebuild any time soon lol

 

Yeah, that's perfectly normal. I also have an 89 LO3, and there were no gaskets between the manifold and the head on it either. Guess that's the way the factory did it. I used "ultra-seal" gaskets from Mr. Gasket when I put mine back on just for peace of mind. Cast iron manifolds can warp over time, so it's not a bad idea to use gaskets when putting them back on.

 

Correct, the factory did not use gaskets on the exhaust-head interface.

 

using the standard gaskets on the manifolds is almost a sure way to have an exhaust leak.
check them with a straight edge & put a little bit of high temp silicone such as Permatex ultra copper will work just fine.
if they are warped to badly to seal, the gaskets Pat Hall talked about works great if you don't want to have them resurfaced.

 

nah the felpro gaskets have been doing fine, no leaks and im pretty hyped about it lol plus the manifold was pretty straight as it is, i had to do them on my old 81 silverado and dear god i've never seen anything that bad, i just doubled up the gaskets and that worked too. Now if only i can put my cat on the camaro so i can start using it as my daily driver again

 

Same here. For all I know, my manifolds could've still been perfectly straight. I just felt better putting a gasket in there so I wouldn't have to mess with it again if it did end up leaking. Kinda the same deal as not having the ***** to attempt using a steel shim head gasket like the factory did when you bolt a set of heads back on.