Help with on3 vbands/ clamps?

pmhip · Sep 14, 2023

Ok so here I am trying to get rid of on3 turbo kit leaks of course.....

kit is leaking like crazy, was leaking from all 3 v band connections.

I took all 3 off, put a good bead of rtv on em, let em sit, cure, w/e, tightened down the clamps in stages, finally started it up and it was pretty solid, no leaks or very minimal leaking.

I took it out, car felt better than it had ever felt and by the time I got home it was leaking like crazy again.

My v band clamps are bottoming out before they seem to actually pull the things in tight.

So my question is when everyone says replace v bands, are they saying replace the whole v band assembly, as in weld new connections on or would I be ok with just buying better v band clamps?

pmhip · Sep 14, 2023

pmhip said:
Ok so here I am trying to get rid of on3 turbo kit leaks of course.....

kit is leaking like crazy, was leaking from all 3 v band connections.

I took all 3 off, put a good bead of rtv on em, let em sit, cure, w/e, tightened down the clamps in stages, finally started it up and it was pretty solid, no leaks or very minimal leaking.

I took it out, car felt better than it had ever felt and by the time I got home it was leaking like crazy again.

My v band clamps are bottoming out before they seem to actually pull the things in tight.

So my question is when everyone says replace v bands butt clamps, are they saying replace the whole v band assembly, as in weld new connections on or would I be ok with just buying better v band clamps?

thanks for any help and input

Chuck Leeper · Sep 15, 2023

A couple of possibilities.
1. When welded on, the v band was not assembled and tight, and warped the flanges.
2. Cheapo flanges used to begin with. Past history with that company can be seen with a google.
3 Pipes are in a bind and when hot and bounced around, won't hold seal.
4. A mismatch between the flanges and the clamp.
When using them, I always either do a small offset on the pipes to create an overlap at the mating surface or use hi Q flanges with seal rings machined into them.
There are gaskets made to try to seal up such issues. Not sure if you can use them on yours.

https://racepartsolutions.com

These guys have hi Q stuff.

Repair gaskets.