Hey guys!

I'm narrowing in on a couple used trucks, excited to be joining the team here. I'm coming from a '92 GMC 1500 Extended Cab Short bed, so the idea of a '00 CCLB truck is both awesome, and just a little bit terrifying. I'll start looking for parking spots now...

But, the question. I've been doing lots of reading here, about Y-Pipes, headers, air filters, MAF's, spark plugs spitting, etc, and the one thing that has me concerned is all the talk about broken header studs. It would seem from this forum alone (not a large sampling of the 1000's of trucks on the road, I'm sure) that every single V10 engine has at least 4 broken header studs. But I also recognize most people don't log into the internet and post "I like my truck, I have no issues with it."

So, with that, has anyone made it to 150k miles (or beyond) with NO broken header studs?

Thanks!

 

My 02 f250 V10 is at 183K miles and still revving along.
My prior 98 F150 V6 started to sound like maybe at about 170K when I sold it.
No probs with my 06 E350 5.4, which I sold at 70K miles.

 

Had to replace the studs on my 2008 after 100K. Not a fun job...

 

I could see a couple nuts missing, I knew it'd have to be done at some point if I were going to keep the truck, that and the performance gain opportunity , steered me toward the headers, I like killing a few birds with one stone so to speak.

 

I bought mine 19 months ago, it had 113,000 miles on it, and it already had a few broken studs. Now I'm at 187,000 miles and I believe it's still the same.

Fun fact: my previous van had the 4.2 LV6, and it had a couple broken studs.

As you said: nobody's logging on here and checking your post to tell you that they don't have any broken studs. You should start another thread with a specific question asking "who does not have any broken studs?"

 

My '05 at 80k had 2 broken studs but no exhaust leaks due to them, I took the situation as an opportunity to upgrade to Banks headers. . The performance improvement from the headers was second only to the regear to 4.88s.

 

just shy off 200k and no broken studs

 

4 broken studs at 80k but take into account where you live and some of the nasty things that get put on roads in the winter. Im a firm believer this caused most of my problem

 

No broken studs at 111K.

 

110K here, no broken studs.

 

2000 v10 with 183k no broken studs, although I think that will change when I got to remove them for headers.

 

You should look at average breakage by location in North America. Is weather a factor?

 

Bought mine with 56k miles @ 11 years old with 1 broke stud.

 

Broken studs at something like 40K miles, but in the "salt belt" ... and quite a few years on it - I think it was like 6 years old at the time, but I don't really remember, might have to go back to the Hedman thread to figure that out

I believe it has a lot to do with rust buildup, and if you regularly use the truck, and do NOT live in the salt belt, you might have better luck.

It seems that the nuts corrode themselves to the manifolds, and when the manifolds expand and contract under normal use, they drag the nuts with them, and fatigue the studs.

The nuts themselves seemed to be normal steel, while the studs were stainless. At some point, I think Ford copper-plated the nuts, which didn't seem to help, given many people using the updated stud kit and still having problems later.

The only think I can recommend is that you look closely at the truck you want to buy, and if any of the nuts are missing, bring it up with the owner, get some money off, and use that money to get the studs replaced.

Let us know what you wind up doing

 

Bought my 02 in Feb of 2014 with 68k on it. It has one broken stud. Truck is originally from Iowa. Most of the remaining nuts look bad. Just waiting for some time to install my Thorleys. Pretty sure I will break some then.