good advice thanks. Never heard of that candle wax trick, will have to look into it. Unfortunatly, the first stud I took out of the passanger side manifold is most likely broke off in the block. On the bright side, that is the easiest one to drill out. The stud next to it broke off at the nut, so that should hopefully come off.

I found that cutting through the nut relieved a lot of tension. Going to try to do that with the 3 remaining studs on the bottom of the passenger manifold tomorrow, If my air cut off wheel will fit,


It not the funnest repair, but its not that bad if you have the tools. Honestly, you have a huge amount of room to work in compared to vehicles with IFS. I would definitely recommended removing the shock tower. Its 3 bolts and the nuts have an anti spin tab that makes it easy. Also, consider the aftermarket headers. Thats my biggest motivation right now is seeing those sweet tubes there when its all said and done.


.... Still super worried about the oil dipstick now though. Going to try to heat it up real hot and melt that o ring.

Just ordered this for $21 or so shipped:

 

Although I have a V10, 14 of my studs came out with a socket and breaker bar. The remaining 6 was another story. Most of those 6, the studs just broke off. Welded nuts to 4 of them and finally got those out. The last 2 studs -- local mechanic buddy of mine had to drill and tap for a case of his favorite beer!! Finally got those out and replaced the old manifolds with Gibson SS headers, reused the down pipes to a SPD Y pipe, reused the CAT and now have the Gibson single side CAT back exhaust as well. 3 full days of work but well work it.

 

Has nothing to do with geography or exposure to salt. My '00 Excursion was in Alabama its whole life until I bought it, and it had two broken studs when I got it. Had the Ford dealer replace the manifold because I wasn't interested in going through the hassle, and they had a third break off during the process. At this point the truck had never seen salt in its life.

 

Thanks for the shock tower tip AAubinoe...what type of aftermarket headers are out there for these trucks? at least cheaper ones?im hesitant to get new ones cuz I have an extra set of stock ones..

 

Oh by all means use those. The ones I am taking off are OEM with 200k miles on them. Id personally avoid the cheap aftermarket cast manifolds as these were not a great design to begin with. Id get stainless studs and used antiseize though.

What did that cost you at the dealer?

 

My guess is that would be an access cover so you can get to the
bolts that hold the flex plate to the torque converter.
That is if I am looking at the right direction.

Sean

 

NOT cheap!



I was fortunate to have an extended warranty from when I bought the thing, and that covered most of it. By far the biggest expense was the manifold, the dealer charged me $850 for it. They charged an hour labor for each broken stud which I didn't find to be that bad.

 

I have done plenty of the triton exhaust manifolds, don't even bother with pb blaster, I use a torch cut off all the remains of once was a nut, remove the manifold, the heat from cutting to the nut usually loosens the stud, I try my stud extractor, usually I get about half off them out, then the weld a nut on trick, remember you have about an inch of bolt showing, that along with heat usually gets them all out, I had to do some drilling on a couple of them, be real careful you drill to deep and coolant will start to come out the hole and lube the drill bit for ya. I always remove tires and wheel wells. tons of room that way, and when using heat protect the a/c compressor with a fire blanket, or sheet metal if you dont have the insulating pads.

 

Been down this road before on my 2000 V10 plow truck. No new advise for removing the old studs that has not already been mentioned. I used stainless bolts to replace the manifold. I would recommend having a right angle air drill on hand just in case. For the dip stick tube, my local mechanic did mine once. He threaded a slide hammer in place of the adjuster **** on a pair of vise grips. Clamped on the end of the tube and yanked that baby right out. He spent more time installing the new tube.

 

So, it's a design problem?

 

The factory hardware is also stainless.

As I understand it, yes. Did lots of research on this when I had mine done, and some of the photos I saw were of studs that broke just above the surface of the head without any corrosion at that point.

 

So he stuck the slid hammer in the tube itself, where it broke off? Man I keep reading that it tends to snap at the block


Thats a pretty good idea. I never considered Oxy- acetylene. What kind of stud puller do you use? I have this one:
It sucks and I regret buying it.

 

WHAT!!?! The list price on the 1999-2004 cast iron manifold from ford is like $180!

Great motivation for doing the work myself! Not bad at all though considering what a pain this is. No wonder there are so many leakers on the road...


Think I will gain any MPG? Always seem to get 9-10. highway or city. do have a large ladder rack and 33s with stock 3.73s though.

 

No he used the vise grips to clamp on to the dip stick tube where it broke off. Because the slide hammer was threaded into the the vise grips he was able to get enough "pull" to break the o ring at the end of the tube inside of the block to break free.

 

The OE V10 exhaust manifolds are stainless and are quite a bit more expensive than the 5.4l manifolds. I still have my OE V10 manifolds and they have about 25k or so miles on them. You can still see the shiny stainless at spots where the gaskets covered.

An exhaust leak at the manifolds can hurt mpg if the leak is bad enough. Basically the O2s are not getting as accurate readings due to the leak.

For your dipstick tube. It pulls out when the bolts is removed. Some pull out easier than others but they usually pull out very hard. If you take the oil manifold and cooler off you can get to the dipstick tube better. The vise grip/slide hammer sounds like a good tool for the job.