I recently put in a 350 TBI when my old 305 spun a bearing, now i seem to have an exhaust leak. I drove home about 1500 hundred miles with an exhaust leak i didnt notice and have since blown an exhaust gasket. I tried tightening the bolts down as they were very loose but that didnt help, there was no signs of a blown gasket so my mechanic figured i had a bad header, he told me to take it to the exhaust guy and have them take it off and see if it was bad or not as the system is still under warranty. Today however, my exhaust guy throws my car on a lift and he calls me out into the shop, he tells me i have a blown passenger side gasket which is no big deal since i have copper ones on the way and ill just switch them out. Than he tells me that putting new ones on will not help because my headers are way to hot. He tells me that because the paint on the headers is chipping off they are too hot and whats actually happening is there is a fire in my headers, he tells me to get my car tuned and it should solve the problem as he sees this every once and a while with engine swaps. I have never heard of this in my life before, now my swap isnt fully complete yet im still running the 305 injectors, chip, knock sensor, fuel pump, and ESC but im just baffled by what he told me, i plan on getting the "cop car chip" in a few days and just plugging that into my car but im wondering if that will help. This seems like an odd problem to me and im wondering what you guys think, What kind of tuning is involved? What if i just put the copper gaskets on? Will i be fine? And is there any way to confirm if what he says is true other than peeling paint?

heres a picture of the "peeling paint from my headers getting to hot"


Oh and mods if you feel this is better suited for another board, like TBI or exhaust feel free to move it, i wasnt too sure where to put this one as it involves tuning and exhaust...

 

If your exhaust guy hasn't figured out that "fire" occurs in header pipes, he should maybe become a plumber.
Anyway, until you get done swapping chips and working with the fuel system, get the timing set. Late ignition timing will cause the headers to glow bright red and burn everything around them. It has little to do with header gaskets burning out as they are expecting "hot" conditions.
To learn what causes burned out/blown header gaskets, read my rant in this
THREAD.

 

Thanks, lol. I wouldnt call him my exhaust guy, im home for the summer so my real exhaust guy is down in florida, this guy was simply one guy my dad told me to take my car to, i thought it sounded odd that it was burning up and causing gaskets to blow cause headers get pretty damn hot to begin with.

Your "rant" confirmed what i suspected, i drove home 1500 miles and didnt tighten bolts(stupid me) especially after just putting the headers on, i explained this to him and he still gave me the answer i posted previously, ill be sure to check timing though and make sure its not late before putting the new gaskets on.