I have done exhaust studs on 2 V10s. Its not hard but takes me 3 full weekends to do. Thats with over 10 total studs broken off. Its very time consuming and I personally would throw the flat steel gaskets in the trash......even if they were new oem gaskets. I use the thick Remflex gaskets that only need torqued once when you install them. I believe they help with sealing pits that can be caused by exhaust leaks and help with the expansion and contraction issues.

One over looked cause of broken studs is exhaust hangers and non OEM exhaust. If a new exhaust install puts too much stress on manifolds than you will fight exhaust manifold leaks until the exhaust is "well hung." The 15 foot lever arm prying on the manifolds is substantial when bumps are hit, when exhaust hangers are not correct. Once installed the y pipe should mate up to the pipe in front of cayatilic converter almost perfectly. No prying should be done to get the bolts in the flanges, and bolts should not be used to "align" the system. If so you will stress the manifolds and they will eventually leak.

In my opinion there are probably several issues causing the OP his issues.....and motor mounts are definately something I would check too, as mentioned above. Although the exhaust is designed to take a certian amount of flex from the motor. Again if the hangers do not alow for some motor flex they are installed wrong. Too much is still bad.

The OP issues are not difficult, they just take time and a little knowledge about the system to get it functional.

Allowing non owners to work on a vehicle has always cost me more then if i do it myself and they tend to breake things that cost even more to fix in the long run.

I do all my own work because I got lazy once and had a shop do a steering sector. They compeletly screwed it up and I ended up reduing it myself. So I can see why he is fustrated.

 

All I have to do for full disclosure is send any potential buyers a link to this thread. It is generally not a good idea to publicly document a problem on the internet if you wish to keep it a secret. I have no problem with disclosure. I expect it from others and especially from myself.

The other thread about the muffler is to make the truck more appealing to a potential buyer. The monster exhaust sounds like crap on this truck. I doubt anyone who hears it run would find it appealing. Plus, my other truck is in the shop so the V10 is fulfilling the role of my DD and I am sick of hearing the drone. There's no contradiction in the two posts.

As for the motor mount issue, I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I really need someone in the truck to do the brake torque while I watch the motor. Unfortunately, I do not trust my wife to do that and she would probably be too nervous to attempt it. It might have to wait until I can get a friend to come over and help me. BTW, the first thing I did when the driver unloaded the truck was to brake torque it and listen for leaks. I didn't hear any.

The manifold stud issue was covered under the warranty so it made sense to have the dealer do it. That problem became a different problem when the dealer's tech hosed up the stud holes. Since then,the monkeying done by the tech has been the problem.

This thread is devolving into a troll fest so maybe I should just stop posting and let this thread die.

 

Please don't stop. It's entertaining.

 

I think the take away is buying a used vehicle, with a warranty, so far away from home has the potential to turn into a nightmare when trying to get warranty work done.

Has the OP considered paying a local trusted mechanic to just fix the issues and be done with it? If you like the truck enough it might be worth it. I know he shouldn't have to but sometimes the best resolution to a problem is to just bite the bullet and do it.

 

He discussed that early on but made unreasonable demands on what he'd accept. He also turned down money from the used car dealer to get the repair done - he wanted more than what the dealer was willing to offer. He backed himself into this situation by demanding too much. I bet that the used car dealer has had worse situations with other sales, so this is nothing new and they're not losing any sleep over it. At this time, the OP has stated that he'll never be happy with the truck and wants to sell it, but only at a price he's willing to take.

Many years ago, a young kid bought a new Lightning. After putting a bunch of money into it, he decided it wasn't the "car" he wanted. So, he put it up for sale but his asking price was the cost he paid for the truck, plus the cost he paid for upgrades, plus the cost of the loan, etc. He was asking thousands of dollars over the cost of a new truck and didn't understand why it wouldn't sell. But, he had his mind made up on what he though was fair, and what was his bottom line.

Obviously, this is a different situation. But the lack of negotiating skills, demanding too much, and outcome is very similar.

 

That was always a consideration after I learned of the botched drill job on the heads. In fact, it was at a local shop when I learned about it. The dealer had recommended I take to someone local and indicated that he would pay for it.

The bottom line here is that the jacked up stud holes in the head can possibly NEVER be fixed. Like I said before, you can't fix bad drilling with more drilling. If it were possible to do that, it would have been fixed the second time. It could start leaking badly again any day now. If the gasket blows out then all indications are that it cannot be fixed without replacing the head and that will cost a LOT of money. To replace both heads is around $8,800 but I can put a brand new motor in it for $10k. Replacing the head is not something my local muffler shop is willing to do, understandably so.

The repair seems to be holding, for now, so it might be the best time to sell it. I had an ad on autotrader.com to sell it that I had to suspend because it was in the shop so much. By now, the dealer has eaten up a lot of his profit on the sale and that's his fault. HE provided the warranty. Why shouldn't I use it?

Now that it is finally out of the shop, I have the opportunity to really go over it and check everything else out. But if you are asking yourself, "Why is he spending money on a truck that he intends to sell?" then my answer is that if I don't fix anything else that may be wrong with it, then I am no better than the dealer who sold it to me. If your personal philosophy is to pass the the problems onto the next owner, then that's a ****ty way to treat people. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, right? It's the golden rule for me. Instead of disclosing what needs to be fixed on the truck, I'd rather just say, "There's nothing that needs to be fixed on this truck". I am more likely to get my asking price if that last statement is actually true.

You do you and I'll do me. Mkay?

 

Unreasonable demands? Are you ****ing serious? I get it, you are just trying to get a rise out of me. I think I explained my line of thinking earlier in this thread so I don't intend to re-hash this.

Quick! Somebody get Spike a life! He doesn't seem to have one outside of this thread. Poor guy!

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. However, I was compelled to go outside my state because there were zero trucks for sale that met my requirements in my area. You can find diesels all day everyday and they are most likely ragged out and beat up. Trying to find a V10 DRW Supercab in KY is like looking for a unicorn.

 

Maybe you already covered this, but why are you selling the truck if the repair seems to be holding up?

 

There are multiple reasons:

I don't trust that the repair will last forever and my experience with this dealer has borne that out. There's a chance that it will, but who knows? It will get really expensive if the repair fails because the only recourse is to just replace the head.

Also, this truck isn't better than my old truck considering what I paid for it. Plus, I don't need 4x4 which is why I bought it. I thought it would be good to have but its completely unnecessary for my use.

If you compare the performance of the V10 in the '07 with the 7.5L in the '97, the V10 just doesn't add anything. All of the extra HP and torque goes to hauling around the extra 2,000 lbs that the '07 weighs compared to the '97. Some of this is the 4x4 and some is just an unnecessarily large cab that is 3" taller than the '97.

There just isn't enough added value over the '97 for me to keep it.

I did a side-by-side comparison here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1501373-1997-f350-vs-2007-f350.html

 

Another moderator has cleaned this thread AGAIN.

Someone has bought himself a ban.

 

To be honest, I think enough has been said about this topic, and it's time to move on?

 

I completely agree.

 

Then with the OP's confirmation, thread closed.