K75 Exhaust Manifold to Muffler Gasket

I used to alternate replacing the 3 copper crush gaskets for the exhaust head to manifold gaskets and the manifold/muffler, one time use gasket (golden color sleeve), with each bi-annual spline job.
I can't remember if it is entirely necessary to remove exhaust system, but it sure is nice to have it out of the way. And it keeps the head to manifold connection from entirely seizing up.

I'm looking for another material option to seal the exhaust manifold to muffler connection.
Is there a good alternative on this stainless connection ?

Charlie

As a side note - I never remove the headers when doing a clutch spline job, just remove the muffler and replace the gold-colored sleeve (muffler gasket?). If you're gentle, you can generally keep 80% of the sleeve intact.

Several manufactures (Mr. Gasket) make high temp gasket material that could be cut and used, but it can be difficult to work with for round applications like this.

To keep from having to replace the sleeve, you could remove the exhaust system as a whole, having extra hands would make it a lot easier.

I see your point with keeping the manifold from seizing up, but you don't really gain that much room and the trade off is (busting an exhaust nut or worse, plus all the extra time) for me is too high. A 6" extension overcomes any lack of clearance.

My preferred method to take the exhaust system off as a whole. This eliminates the need to split the muffle from the header, and seems to put less stress on the header, which is infamous for developing stress cracks.
If you do it regularly, you'll want to use plenty of Never-seize compound on the exhaust studs, and use new, copper plated nuts.