That gasket making process looks easily doable and that material looks like something that would hold well. I will need to study the entire page bc for now I only had time to look at the main pictures.
That gasket of yours, looks like one of the ones that my car had in there. Another one was also kept in similar condition from a car with 182k. Probably that was its factory gasket... I still have it, will inspect it later.
About the CI manifold...
occassional extensive torching (some every 8-10yrs??) and banging studs or even repairs involving removing of manifolds or turbo could have resulted the exh manifold getting that hairline crack...
I thought it was me who caused it to crack, because i did torch it quite a lot... even painted it a few times so it got moved around a lot and knocked it a little when placed it on bench or in the wise for sanding.... I only blamed myself for it until I found out that my spare manifold also has it, at same spot.
With my kind of luck I think a third one would have it too, in case I bought one
I have four different kind of gaskets for the area and i`ll take a picture of each. Matter of finding them now...
