Why Would Exhaust Manifold Gasket Blow

Unknown

My '29 Essex kept stalling every time I took my foot off the gas and I

had to resort to rolling starts to make it home because the battery was

finally exhausted from all the restarts. Once in the garage, I found

black smoke puffing from under the exhaust manifold next to both of the

long exhaust manifold studs. (Part #BM 63553) I'm probably getting the

wording wrong but I believe it is directly under the carb riser to

exhaust manifold and bounded by the long studs.



My question is before I simply take off the carb and exhaust manifold

to replace the gasket, what would cause exhaust to blow-by this area at

idle (and running) when it was working like a top all morning?



I'm still new to motor teardown so perhaps I'm missing somthing basic

like ????



THanks



David Weinstein

'29 Essex Roadster

'72 Corvette Cvt