So after much debate i dedided to remove my stock exhaust manifolds on my 82 f250 400 because they were leaking and one was cracked. As I had read, and feared, i broke several of the manifold bolts. luckily they all broke off with part of the stud sticking out of the head. I'm debating pulling the heads just for ease of getting to the exhaust manifold studs. Also, i'd like to replace the headgasket and intake manifold gasket while i'm in there. I've looked over the job with my repair manual and it looks fairly straight forward. I'm just wondering what the chances are that i'm gonna end up with more broken bolts. Do the head bolts tend to come out easier than the manifold bolts? Any tips on this job.

 

Drain all the water out of the block first or you will have a mess. Use Silicone sealant to seal the ends of the manifold and valley pan, instead of the rubber pieces supplied with the valley pan. Use the Fel pro performance head gaskets. The valley pan is expensive, but you should use it if you continue to allow the exhaust crossover port in the intake to remain operational. You should replace all of the head bolts, as the old ones will be corroded. Use good head bolts like ARP. The head bolts should come out much easier than exhaust manifold bolts.

 

I wouldn't say the head bolts need to be replaced. They will work fine and I've never seen a corroded head bolt yet in 25 years of rebuilding engines unless a head gasket was leaking. If your head gaskets are not leaking coolant then your head bolts will be just fine. Sure it is a good precaution to replace them if there has been another rebuild before by an unkown individual. Still even then, I personally haven't had problems. To each his own.

The head bolts are very tight and unless you are really strong you'll need to use an 18-20 inch flex handle to break them loose.

When reinstalling the heads, oil the threads and the underside of the heads of the head bolts. Never install them dry because this will not allow the proper tightening of them. That is how Ford did it when your engine was built which is why they should have oil and not corrosion on them when you remove them.

Just remember these things when building an engine. If a load is applied to it during assembly or when running later or it is a bearing, lubricate it. The backsides of bearings and where they go should be oil free and no sealing surface can be too squeaky clean (oil free).

 

OK...got em off no problem. they are REALLY HEAVY!!! I think the hardest part was actually lifting them out of the engine bay. The head bolts came out and look like new. I ordered the Fel-Pro head gaskets from summit racing. Now all i gotta do is get the 4 broken studs out and clean them up

 

If you have the time and money I would take the heads to a machine shop and have them surfaced, this serves 2 purposes one it gives a nice surface for the gasket and 2 it makes the heads flat, it's not unusual for them to have a slight amount of warp some worse than others. When ready to reasemble, cleanlyness is real important. I clean up the block surface with the 3m rolllock pads on my diegrinder but what ever you use clean that surface real well then clean it with brake clean (do NOT use carb clean it leaves a residue brake clean doesn't), then when you have it perfectly clean do it again. any oil between teh metal and the head gasket, can cause you a problem, it won't always or even most of the time but why take the chance.