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I have a 2003 F250 Super Duty with 87000 miles on it. I bought it from the original owner who was an older gentleman, the truck is immaculate, back seat has never been sat in (Crew Cab). It has a 6.8 2v V10. I have a slight tick when it starts cold and goes away after about 1 minute. I am verify picky with my vehicles and hate the thought of having the Triton Tick. I had an F150 with a 4.6 that I had the passenger side manifold replaced at the dealership for $1200. I called them and they said $1500 per side for the Super Duty. I took it to a well established repair facility near my work. They quoted me $1750 for both sides. $480 labor and the rest was parts, studs and stock Dorman exhaust manifolds. I couldn't believe the labor cost, hell I will let them do it for that price. My problem was the cost of the manifolds. I looked at Rock Auto and checked with a friend that manages a local parts store. His price is about 650 for both manifolds (jaw dropped). For that price I am pondering going with a shorty header setup, not necessarily to increase power, mileage or sound but for the longevity of the repair. I have a friend that has replaced his manifold 3 times on his 5.4, granted he drives it everyday and I put about 3000 miles per year on my truck. My questions, and apologize in advance are:
1. Will the headers bolt directly to my stock exhaust, from what I read they will.
2. Heard horror stories about increase temp causing brake fluid to boil, clearance issues, starter getting overheated, etc. Anyone have experience here?
3. Thought process of why headers are longevity, and the thinking of non-cast iron parts bolted to an aluminum surface. I don't want to have to do this again, I only use this truck to pull my camper, I have a 2017 F-150 for my driver.
4. What fasteners should I use, or should I state have the repair shop use?
5. Does the 03 V-10 2V have an EGR setup?
6. Will the modification require a tune, or will the OBC compensate for the increase of air flow?
With the questions out there I am hoping the repair shop will let me bring parts from Summit Racing and install them. I know they get some of their money by list price on parts but having a friend that sells to the shop I know what they pay and their markup on the parts.
I am not sure what header to buy, here is one I am looking at:
Open to any suggestions and experiences others have had. I also read installing headers will decrease power, I find that hard to believe but found 2 forums stating such.
Thanks in advance!
Michael
2003 F250, 87,000 miles 17 F150, Leveling Kit, Fuel Off Road Rims, Toyo Open Country 20s
I called Summit Racing and the header is meant for a non EGR application. I have searched high and low and cannot find one on my truck. I have just 2 o2 sensors in front of the CAT. Attached are some pictures if someone can help me identify if my truck has the EGR provision. From what I could tell it should be on the drivers side near the dip stick, nothing there on mine. I also read there were some electronic versions so not sure if that is what I have. Some suggested looking at the emissions stickers under the hood, again no mention of an EGR. Pics of that are attached as well. Also I read that in 2003 Ford fixed the spark plug issues by having longer threads in the heads:
1C2E – produced from 2002 until 2004 and known as “PI” version. Same head as the YC2E with differences being to the spark plug threads.
These heads had revisions to the spark plug threads because Ford had issues with the Modular engines (meaning the 4.6 liter and 5.4 liter) prior to this that would blow the spark plugs out. The problem was that there were not enough threads holding the spark plugs in the cylinder heads. Over a period of time the spark plugs would work loose and then blow out, stripping the threads from the cylinder head. There is a service tool and procedure for the prior cylinder heads which will ream the stripped spark plug hole to allow for a new threaded insert for the spark plug.
The 1C2E cylinder head is often referred to as “LP,” meaning long plug.
Can anyone verify the information above, it would give me piece of mind on long road trips knowing I don't have the Triton Plug blow out issues. Looking straight toward the firewall on the drivers side Drivers side exhaust Under hood sticker 1 Under hood sticker 2 Passenger Side Emission Sticker Engine bay Passenger rear, not a great pic, but there is something back there with a vacuum line attached to a shinny piece that looks too small for an EGR and no piping going to the exhaust. This is a picture I found on the internet of a 2001 V10's EGR Location, THIS IS NOT MY TRUCK.
1) Those shorty headers you linked to will bolt right to the stock Y-pipe. They are also stainless steel which is GREAT. Not sure why they are stainless, AND coated, but whatever. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go with Banks all the way back to the Catalytic converter flange, but that's just me. Those shorties should work fine.
2) No horror stories. I had both el-cheapo (Chinesium) short headers from ebay (which cracked at the flange), and Hedman headers that rotted out after years of salt and long periods of sitting still with the salt on them. No brake fluid issues, nothing. As for clearance issues, the ebay shorties required the frame to be clearanced - and those Gibson shorties you linked to look exactly like the ebay ones I used, so they MIGHT have the same issue.
3) No problems bolting these up to aluminum heads.
4) Use whatever the headers come with. The cheap ebay ones I bought, I had to find longer bolts because the ones they gave me were too short. I used grade 5 zinc-coated bolts, and STAINLESS washers, and anti-seize.
5) Looks like your 2003 V10 is OBD-I - which, if you do not have a 3rd O2 sensor, means you do not (or should not) have EGR. If you look at that driver's-side manifold, that big round "boss" is where the EGR tube would go, I believe.
6) The MAF system these vehicles use will compensate for any increase in air flow. HOWEVER - I do recommend a 5-star tune, because of the improved transmission shifting if you're going to be towing. There is a mild performance increase with the tune, but the biggest difference is tranny shifting. A 5-star tune knocked a whole second off my 0-60 (10 seconds stock to 9 seconds with the tune). That's 10%... I feel it's mostly tranny shifting.
As for your choice of headers, I'm not completely "sold" on those Gibsons. I think they are the same thing as the ebay cheapos. If it were me, I'd go for the complete Banks setup, but those are around $1000 for the complete set, with y-pipe, and probably will increase your labor costs because of the extra work to replace the y-pipe.
However, the stock necked-down y-pipe on these 2-valve V10s is a restriction, and just removing the necked-down portion made a HUGE difference in throttle response, and I did that before I put any headers on it.
No, your truck does NOT have an EGR system. And having the third O2 sensor after the cat doesn't mean that it should either, a common misconception, my V-10 EX is OBDII with the third sensor and has no EGR.
I have the long tube Banks headers, they are expensive but are top quality. They come with not only all the required hardware but very good gaskets (I've never had to retighten mine after installation, 6+ years ago), a nice full flow Y pipe and an assortment of heat shields for the starter, sway bar end link and AC lines, a truely complete high quality package. . They go all the way back to right before the cat inlet flange and required no modifications to the truck to fit correctly like the ones Art mentioned above.
Due to access, room to work and dealing with broken studs the labor to do either manifolds or headers will never be cheap, breaking out the tools and getting your DIY on for this job can save enough money to buy that SCT tuner and custom tunes from 5Star, another top quality must have for the V-10 in my opinion! I did my own installation, here is the thread on the job. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ll-w-pics.html
In my experience the addition of the headers and Y pipe did provide a noticeable increase in performance, most noticeable while towing at higher throttle openings on highway grades. Those custom tunes from 5Star also brought some towing goodness to the party with their improved trans shift strategy, good stuff!
To me, going after those broken studs in enough work to either do yourself or to pay someone for that doing it to go back with the same restrictive stock exhaust manifolds and break prone studs is pointless, drop the extra change and upgrade to headers if you are going to have the stock manifolds off the heads!
Howerever, if you are set on just doing the stud replacement and running the stock manifolds I don't see the need or any good reason to spend all that money on new manifolds, either from Ford or the aftermarket (unless obviously, one or both is cracked or broken). Just send them off to a competent machine shop and have the mating surface machined back to flat and true and reuse them, there is no need to replace them if they are not broken. But I still favor the swap up to high quality headers.
My truck is OBD-II, has the third sensor, and NO EGR. My local (highly rated) muffler shop charged me $900 to install the Gibson Stainless headers I provided. That included drilling out broken studs, fabricating a custom Y-pipe, and putting on a new Magnaflow muffler. If you're going to have the stock manifolds off anyway, why not replace them with a good set of headers?
Skip all headers and machine stock cast stainless exhaust manifolds.
Unless you drive around above 3200 rpm all the time.
"Drive around at 3200 RPMs all the time"...............Really?
How about if you don't drive around at 3200 RPMs all the time BUT, when you do hit 3200 RPMs or higher and (obviously, you have your foot into it!) you want the increased performance that a good set of long tube headers offers? I run my rig (dedicated tow rig for an 11,300 lbs TT) fairly hard pulling hills all over the East and I can assure you (wether you choose to believe it or not) that the headers do offer an increase in performance over the factory exhaust manifolds both below and above the magical 3200 RPM threshold.
I too am looking at replacing my stock cast iron headers, since one is cracked. Hedman, Thorley & JBA all appear to be decent headers, but the Banks seems to have the best setup. Since you don't have the EGR, (I believe that "circle" on the driver side exhaust manifold is were the EGR would be attached) that will save about $100, and right now JEGS will give you $100 off on a $1000.00 purchase, JEGS also has free shipping so you can get the banks setup for about $1000.00 delivered.
I too am looking at replacing my stock cast iron headers, since one is cracked. Hedman, Thorley & JBA all appear to be decent headers, but the Banks seems to have the best setup. Since you don't have the EGR, (I believe that "circle" on the driver side exhaust manifold is were the EGR would be attached) that will save about $100, and right now JEGS will give you $100 off on a $1000.00 purchase, JEGS also has free shipping so you can get the banks setup for about $1000.00 delivered.
Stock exhaust manifolds are cast stainless steel, not cast iron.
I've never seen one of our cast stainless manifolds cracked. This is very intresting, could tell us where it's cracked and maybe a photo for future reference?
03-09-2019, 07:15 AM
. They go all the way back to right before the cat inlet flange and required no modifications to the truck to fit correctly like the ones Art mentioned above.
