My 97 F-150 has a "light" exhaust leak on drivers side. Bottom stud furthest back is broken off flush with outside of manifold. If the other 7 nuts come off I could get a vice grips or something on this stud and hopefully back it out. What do some of you guys think? I can take off the inner wheel well and tire and get at stuff fairly well. My biggest concern is of course breaking those studs off flush with the block. Do you think muffler shops etc., are used to dealing with this stuff? I've worked on cars for 30 years , but this looks like it could get ugly. Any input would be great.............. Thanks!...........


Spotty.......

 

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I just got done doing this job on my 95 E-350 van with 460. My rearmost stud right side broke flush with the manifold-common Ford problem. If you are lucky enough to break the other studs free, usually a cam action stud remover will get it out. Put penetrating oil on it the night before and let it soak in. The real cure for this is headers cause it will happen again. I put Banks on mine-real spendy but I'll never have to do it again. If you break it off flush with the head and drill it out, dont go too deep or you'll hit the water jacket. Dont let Ford tell you that their new and improved manifold will not warp-cause it will. the RV'ers that have put the new Ford manifolds have mostly ditched them-money wasted. Alot of muffler shops wont touch it cause they know they might end up taking off the head. Some muffler shops will blast the broken bolt out with a cutting torch-I know sounds crazy but it works.

 

The modular exhaust studs are known to rust and break right at the nut, flush with the manifold. The manifold isn't warped, the studs just rot out. But I'd still get it checked/cut to make sure it's straight.

Lots of people have reported having good luck with a pair of vice-grips.

Be careful taking out the other studs/nuts. Use penetrating oil (NOT WD40!), and let soak overnight.

Since you're in there anyway, think about headers

 

I'd like to put headers on, but would they stand up to salty slushy winter roads from October to March?



That's what I've done several times, but a 460 has cast iron heads. At least they used to. I've gotten the one's that stick out with Vise Grips, but ofcourse, on my own truck, it rotted inside the head. That was pure fun to get out. Other than that, the job went smooth.

 

I'm sure you can get stainless ones... check Ebay.

 

The Banks headers are stainless with a 5/8 steel flange/lifetime guarantee. As far as using a torch to blast the bolt out of a cast iron head. It works perfect in the right hands. There is a thermal break between the threads of the head and bolt and the bolt just melts and blasts right outa there. Find somebody with experience at it and they will have no trouble doin it. The way you tell if the manifold is warped is if you remove it put it on a flat surface like a piece of glass, and you should not be able to insert a feeler gauge larger than .010 underneath it. Fords manifolds have been warping for years now and they dont improve it cause if you take it to them their gonna pop you for $1700 bucks to replace the two of them-only to have them fail again. Get yourself the Banks if you can afford it or Thorleys if you want to spend less. Thorleys are good but not Banks good.

 

Thanks everyone for the input. I talked to one of my customers today who owns a local repair shop. He says he's done about 10 of these and the studs have always came out. He said to try to soak the nuts overnight with JB 80 or JB 40, (I don't remember), then soak the studs and they should come out. If they do happen to break flush with the head he said you then have the manifold off so it's much easier to drill, extract the stud, etc. with more room to work. I did call a Ford garage just to see what they would say. Unfortunately they basically said we have no idea of cost, just leave your truck and credit card, "you'll find out what your limit is". So, it doesn't sound too bad, well worth a try. Thanks again to those that responded............

Spotty............