Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and a newer truck owner at the age of 21. I bought my truck in April of 2015. It's a 95 f250 4x4 with 351w extended cab long bed with 4.10 gears. Looking for a bit of advice regarding an exhaust manifold leak which will eventually lead to an ugrade to headers and a full exhaust. I am no mechanic but I have been eagerly trying to learn about these trucks and motors and how everything works.

So when I test drove the truck it had a ticking noise coming from the passanger side of the truck. Owner said it was the egr tube that was cracked no big deal. Well I had my mechanic install the new egr tube and it still ticked. My mechanic found the passanger exhaust manifold to be leaking. He took one attempt to replace the manifold but snapped a bolt and decided to back off for now claiming it will cost around 1000 to replace the manifold with all the labor involved. So I've decided to give it a try myself with the help of a buddy who is a mechanic in training. He has a lift in his dad's shop that we have access to. So my thoughts on removing the manifold were to try and heat the bolts first to see if they would budge. If not I was thinking of taking a dremel tool and cutting the heads off of the bolts flush with the manifold so that there was still some threads sticking out of the heads to put a pair of vice grips on after the manifold is off. Last resort would be to use a bolt extractor or drill and tap them. As far as a replacment manifold I've seen a lot of people recomending the dorman oem replacment. Should I go ahead and use that? Also what bolt/stud kit should I purchase? And lastly what gasket? Some people say use a gasket others say use silicone grease and then others say no gasket . Since I've had the truck I've been averaging 8.3mpg . Will the manifold leak cause this? Also if you guys have any other tips on how to replace the manifolds I would appreciate it.

Now moving on to my next question. After I save up I am looking to purchase and install a set of headers. I would like a quality set but nothing overly expensive. The problem is that most headers I've looked at dont have threads for the egr tube or air injection. What am I to do about this? Tap into the brand new headers and create my own threads? After the headers are figured out I want to run a true dual exhaust that exits Both driver and passanger side just ahead of the rear wheels. I am in PA and we have inspection and emissions tests to worry about. My mechanic was saying get rid of the cat but then it won't pass visual inspection. In terms of mufflers I was thinking of going with a flowmaster super 40s or super 44s.

I apologize for this being so long but I've been searching the Forums for months and haven't really been getting the answers I'm looking for. I am open to all suggestions with any of my plans and would really appreciate your guys help.

Thank you,
John

 

Are you sure your truck doesnt qualify for historic tags? I know here in MD anything 20 yrs or older can get a historic tag, aka no emissions tests or inspections (for better or worse). If PA is the same way and you can keep under the mileage limit if there is one, then you should highly consider it.

 

If I understand right, your manifold is still in place and your mechanic broke the first bolt he touched? If that's the case stop going to him, he is a moron. You need to soak those manifold bolts and studs in PB Blaster for days before you take them out. You will certainly break the rest of them off if you don't. Heat the motor up to operating temperature and then saturate the bolts. The heat will draw the PB Blaster in and help free the threads up. Then when you take the bolts out, heat the motor up before you pull them. I've had great success with this method here in WI, in the middle of the rust belt.

As for the broke off bolt, if there's enough material sticking out, you could try welding a nut onto it to extract it, otherwise an easy out might do the trick. Always a pain, especially when it could have been avoided.

The Dorman replacement manifold will work, they're as good as factory. You need a gasket, don't let anyone tell you different. Don't get a paper gasket, use something with a metal core, whether it's copper or steel. They last forever, and could probably be reused if you're putting headers on later.

Your poor mileage is not likely to be caused by the leaking manifold. A code reader will tell you much more than any of us can.
As far as headers go, long tubes would be worth installing, since you sound like you want to redo the whole system. Couldn't tell you what brands have the AIR injection or EGR on them though. Don't have to worry about that here. Some states require that your exhaust pipe extends beyond your rear axle, you might want to check if your state has the same requirements. Also, your fuel tank is on the drivers side, and will likely be in the way of any exhaust you want to run there. Getting rid of the cat will definitely get you to fail your inspection. A high flow catalytic converter would do a world of good though.

I'm running 2 "Summit Racing Street and Strip" mufflers and I like them a lot. They're copies of the Flowmaster 40, for less than half the price. Mufflers are really a personal taste thing, I love the Flowmaster sound. My dad had them on his vehicles when I was a kid, and its something I enjoy because of that. Some guys refer to them as drone masters. Fair enough. The key is to install them as far back as you can in the system, so ideally immediately in front of the rear axle. 2.5"-3" pipe would be more than sufficient for the whole system.

Hope that long response helps you out, and welcome to FTE.

 

Don't even bother trying ez outs...they'll break and you'll be worse off than you are now.

Welding another nut on is your best bet, the heat from welding often helps also. Always be careful welding around cast iron, too much temp change too quickly leads to distortion and cracks.

If it were mine, and I broke bolts off, I'd use that as an excuse to put some gt40s on at the very least.

 

My truck does qualify for PAs classic tag title but that requires the truck to be under a certain mileage per year which I cannot do as this is my daily driver. Also the law states that you are not permitted to haul anything with an antique or Classic title.

 

Thank you for the response.

Before i took my truck to the mechanic I had been spraying the bolts down for a couple days but now I've been spraying them down almost daily with a few different types of penetrating oil. And to answer your question yes my manifold is still intact on my truck. My mechanic was however able to get a few of the nuts off the studs if I remember correctly. I personally don't have any welding skills so Welding may be out of the question.

As for the poor mileage, I was under the impression that the manifold leak would cause the 02 sensor to get a bad reading, thus dumping more fuel into the system. I have on obd1 system in my truck and the last time I ran the codes (about 2 weeks ago) I got nothing.

As for the exhaust system I will look into whether or not I can run the pipes before the rear axle or not. Maybe someone else came chime in about the headers.
Again, thank you i really appreciate the help.

 

That Mechanic sounds like a hack forsure. He should have known better u got to soak studs and bolts for days. Like said already and also I like to let the motor run till the manifolds get super hot.then try to remove them if that don't work u will have to take sum of the other steps you talked about. If I was u I'd def go with some aftermarket headers instead of stock manifolds. They will come with all needed hardware and ull also get alittle hp gain...,, good luck

 

I wouldn't call him a hack with such certainty....there are instances where broken bolts are inevitable.

I'm not saying he isn't a hack with certainty, but I'm definitely not a hack and I've broken bolts despite all efforts to avoid breakage. I've also bypassed any attempt to free crusty bolts and cut the heads off, or broke them off on purpose.

 

Depending on where the head came off & how much is left, you could easily as I did, clean up the threads with a die & use it as a stud on a set of headers.

I have a set of JBA stainless shorties with EGR port. Very stout, I bought for $369 at the time.

If interested you can look at my album for the rest of my exhaust set up & I'll answer any question. It runs a cat & could be 100% legal if I had the AIR injection hooked up.

 

So while spraying down my bolts on Monday i decided to see if i could get any of my bolts loose just for chits and gigs. Well miraculously all of them came loose to my surprise. I also got a good look at the broken bolt. There seems to be a good inch to inch and a half sticking out of the head. My buddy is going to let me borrow his stud wrench to get the rest of the bolt out. i did however buy a set of screw/bolt extractors and also a set of drill out power extractors just in case and as a last resort i will have my tap and die kit ready. Yesterday I went to Napa and ordered my replacement manifold, the stud and bolt kits, and also the premium Felpro gasket kit. Saturday i will be replacing the manifold so i will let you guys know how it goes.

I do however have a few questions.
When i get the manifold off should i plan on replacing all of the studs even if they're in decent shape?
When i install the new bolts/studs, should i put any loctite in them, or maybe some anti seize grease?
Lastly, is there a gasket that goes between the manifold and the exhaust pipe flange? The counter guy at napa told me that they didn't sell them which led him to believe that there wasn't a gasket between the two.

Again thank you guys for the help.

 

I would replace the studs. Makes more sense to put fresh ones in than work with the rusty ones again. Put antisieze on the new studs for sure. And there is no donut gasket where the flanges meet between the manifold and exhaust pipe.