Well, the exhaust manifold leak never did get any better. Rather than try and mess with the old gasket I bought a new one.
At the same time I replaced the exhaust pipe flange nuts with
stainless ones.
Getting
the manifold out is a pain with the engine in the car but I
had it out inside of an hour. We were leaking some gas
here.
There
was a little leaking on the #1 cylinder too.
Here
is he old and new gaskets. The old gasket was a metal
crush gasket. Once the hot exhaust gas started leaking
past the gasket it was toast. The new gasket is a
fiber type. I used a high-temp copper spray sealant on
it too. I did not take after pictures but it looks
good now.