Is my car supposed to have these? cause when we took off the manifolds from the 87 2.8 there were no gaskets there, so do i need to put some in before i put it back together?

 

you do not need them. But it IS better to have them.

 

Actually, not quite. The gaskets can blow out and leak. Just stick with the metal-to-metal way that GM used. If you were installing headers, you'd need gaskets.

 

When I took my exhaust manifold off to replace the broken bolts (the genius who rebuilt the thing couldn't be bothered) I decided to put a gasket on. I got this strange Fel-Pro gasket that's composite on one side and metal on the other. I don't think it worked very well. I think it may have even started an exhaust leak. I don't even know which way the gasket is supposed to go.

And btw, it's really hard to drill out a bolt that's sheared off at the block.