JimO

When I go on boost I get a sweet smell, which I assume to be exhaust.
While I assume the leak could be anywhere in the exhaust system, I wanted to ask the group if there are points in the exhaust system which tend to fail more than others. Has anybody seen a trend that indicates the top 2-3 failure points?

Andral951_S

a) wastegate doughnut area to main pipe
b) crossover pipe to headers
c) down pipe to main pipe
d) front pipe to tail pipe

Techno Duck

Header flanges where they meet up to the cylinder head typically crack around the welds. Also where the runners merge together is typical. If you know of anyone with a smoke diagnostic machine it will make short work of finding every minuscule leak in your exhaust and intake system.

F18Rep

Any sign of soot is enough to fail a saftey inspection. Even a dented seal ring can cause a small leak.

Another thing I've learned, never let an exhaust shop perform a state saftey inspection. Bruce

Synth

You said a "sweet" smell, that makes me wonder if you're burning coolant. does it sorta smell like maple syrup? It always makes me think of pancakes when I smell it, hehe. Anyway, it might be a coolant leak that's leaking onto the headers possibly from the heating line that runs along the engine block on the passenger side.

Bri Bro

1+. Exhaust fumes don't smell sweet to me. Anitfreeze tastes, and it also smells sweet when burned.

JimO

Yes ... like "maple syrup"... you guys are right.. let me see if I can track down and see if I can find a coolant leak. Thanks again.

cubby944

If you are running rich, caused by a bad FPR or FPD for example, the exhaust should smell sweeter. Atleast that is my experience. I too have the exhaust smell on boost and it was definately sweeter before I replaced those two items.

Also, recently I found a big exhaust leak... upon removing the headers I realized about half the nuts were finger-tight. There was also the accompanying black soot around the flanges.