Hello all,

Looking for ideas on what to do with my annoying situation. I have a 97 f150 4x4, 4.6L, 5spd w/150,000miles roughly. I have just had an exhaust leak start on the left side and have pinpointed it to the flange to manifold interface.

It looks like one of the nuts on the manifold is rusted/stripped and a 1/2 socket just turns on it. There is lots of metal on the muffler side of the flange, it just looks like age and wear have taken the toll.

Would you suggest replacing the manifolds (very rusty, but not leaking) or just trying to replace the flange bolt or something.

Thanks in advance.
mr_m

 

i would suggest spraying pb blaster on the bolt and then you can remove with socket or by hand.

 

I would do that but the bolt is stripped and I don't think PB blaster will loosen it up to the point where I can turn it by hand. I will have to try the EZ out sockets I guess.

Any other suggestions.

 

I had the same thing on my 97. It was a pain but I drilled out the rusted bolt and put in a new one. You need to crank it pretty hard so get a grade 8 or so. When you think that it is as tight as you can get it crank some more. Mikne has held for better than a year now and NO problems

Good Luck

Ps it is a two man job. and you need a flexable extention and some creativity to drill the bolt.

 

Same here…I used an pneumatic angled drill, it was still a pain…. but worked.

 

That is the hard side (hard to get to). Remove the inner fender and use a grinder where possable to cut the bolt/s and remove the exchaust manifold. That way you can drill and tap it a lot easier. You may be able to find a manifold at a junk yard with better threads. And be sure and pick up a tube of "antiseze" at your local auto shop so this won't happen next time.