After just finishing the replacement of the exhaust manifold and gaskets on my Dad's 2010 Expedition EL and finding almost nothing on how to do it online I thought I'd give a shot at helping anyone who is looking to do the same job, I hope this all makes sense as I'm slightly dyslexic when it comes to keyboards.

To start off with I'm going to recommend only using only good quality six point sockets, even the best 12 point socket will round the exhaust nuts off and be a nightmare of a job and having A second person to help is A huge help and timesaver!!!
Now to get to the wrenching.

- remove the inner fender well on the passenger side and unbolt the exhaust from the manifold and loosen the driver side so it can move. (I had to heat the nuts with a propane torch until they were red hot to get them to move).
- unbolt the passenger-side engine mount and jack up the engine tipping it as far as possible to the drivers side. (I would recommend using a prybar to slightly lift the engine and slide a 2/6 between the oil pan and frame support to Jack on, I slightly dented the oil pan using a shorter board).
- after the engine is safely and securely raised remove the starter and unbolt the manifold. (7 of them turned the stud out of the head and all looked almost like new on the unexposed threads, i'm guessing they are some sort of stainless steal? Regardless I recommend replacing them with new).
- with everything unbolted (two people are a big help here unless all of the manifold studs came out) use a long prybar to push the exhaust down just behind the passenger side converter using the frame as a leverage point and slide the exhaust manifold off any remaining stud bolts.
- with the exhaust manifold loose from the engine and exhaust I was able to sneak it down between the sway bar and engine without removing the exhaust.
- reassembly is pretty much the same but in reverse (remember to install the starter before lowering the engine it's a pain in the ..... To get the bolts in otherwise)

I hope this helps someone, it would've given me a little more hope the first hour we started tearing into this job... I really thought it was almost impossible to do until we did some real brainstorming and to be honest it is a rather big job but not nearly as bad as I thought initially.

 

The other thing I was thinking of adding and forgot was that literally all the exhaust manifold leaks I have found locally or on the Internet on these engines are always the back cylinder on the passenger side..... And the manifold cracking near that location isn't uncommon either (Dad's was)... I love my Ford's but my 05 Expedition has the same exact exhaust leak and will be my winter project. I'm expecting I will find exactly the same thing we found on Dad's 2010, the back passenger side exhaust manifold flange is pitted and recessed from the rest of the ports. Cough cough manufacturing defect?

 

Thanks for the write up and I will be doing this with our Navigator as it needs to get this done.