If your sure the face of the head can be ground flat, and the rest of
the exhaust
is badly rusted,  hack saw the pipe off.  Do the fix on the head and
reinstall
the pipe.  Have a GOOD  (key WORD  Good) Welder,  MIG the pipe
back together.  I've done this several times, when the exhaust was in danger
of damage when trying to disassemble.  IF and Only If  the welder knows
what he is doing ,  the weld will be clean and stronger than the pipe.

A year of so ago a friend had to cut his pipe and took it to a local
muffler shop for welding.  On return I was horrified  at the butcher weld.
MIG welders only work on very clean steel, with out wind, and not
well upside down.

craig cowan wrote:

> I have installed a new muffler and tailpipe with new gaskets, but to
> no avail, as i still have a gaping leak at the #1 cylinder head. The
> gasket flaked off partially and has started it seems (as indicated by
> my mechanics) to erode the engine head. They feel that in order to
> replace said gasket, they will have to file down the head to get a
> flat surface but are concerned and perplexed by the idea of doing so
> without breaking any of the exaust manifolds. They believe that the
> pipes will have to be split at every joint they connect at in order to
> replace the exaust and that i'm opening up a few interesting issues
> involving rust.
>
> Is there a prefered method of removing a single exaust manifold port
> (or a single side) far enough to get a file in there and file the head
> slightly without having to remove the head studs and without having to
> break the entire exaust system. They told me it could be as much as 4
> hours of work ($75/hr!!!!).
>
> I sudgested the idea of getting a seperate complete exaust system,
> cutting the bolts with it out of the car and replacing them and the
> gaskets as needed to make the mechanics job much easier. Is this a
> good idea? If so.....whos got a spare 1.9L exaust system they wish to
> part with?
>
> -Craig
> '85GL
>