I recently purchased a '95 Bronco 5.8L and just noticed the passenger side exhaust manifold is cracked and needs replacing. Having owned many vehicles over the years, this is my first cracked exhaust manifold.

Anyway, is it best to work on it from the underside by removing the plastic fender well cover, or is it better to tackle it from the topside? There seems to be a lot of stuff in the way on the top side.

 

You'll end up doing it from top and bottom before your done. First thing to do get a good penetrating spray and soak it for a day or so before you start removing bolts. I choose to replace my exaust bolts anytime I do part replacements on the exaust system but sometimes it's not necessary. This will happen again in the future,same place,same side. The only way to solve it is to install a good set of headers. Also I've never tried removing the fenderwell cowl, If you do remove it let us know if it's easier.

 

i highly suggest finding a good set of headers, you will be half way into it anyways.
removing the innerfender is a good idea and ive heard good things doing it that way. the stock manifolds are very restrictive and will crack again, even if you buy new.

gibson,jba,bbk and bassani all make great headers that are a bolt in swap. do as AG said and soak the bolts. if you decide on headers get some allen bolts at least 1" long. this will help keep things tight.

 

Thanks for the great suggestions.

I've already soaked the manifold bolts that I could reach with Liquid Wrench and will do the others when I remove enough stuff to get to them. They look very rusty and the suggestion to replace them with socket-head type bolts makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Regarding the headers, I'll do some pricing and see if I can work it into the budget. It looks like the driver's side manifold is okay but it's easy to access. Of course, the cracked one would be that's difficult.

 

I agree with the other guys, replace with headers now. I changed three stock manifolds (cracked) on my other Bronco before getting smart. On my new one I swiched right away. If you are deturmined to stay stock, you can have mine. You making a trip to Florida any time soon? Dont ask me to send them. I work two jobs and renovating my house. (no time to pack up)

 

Thanks for the offer for the free stock exhaust manifold. I don't have any plans to come your way, so I'll gratefully decline.

I guess I'll try headers since everyone seems to think I will be spitting in the wind by putting another stock manifold on it.

I just need to find out which headers bolt up best to the stock exhaust system. Since I'm in Houston, I have to be sure all of the pollution control devices fit up.

It has been suggested that Gibson, JBA, BBK, and Bassani headers are good choices. Anyone have any preference among these? I'm looking for ease of installation and don't intend to replace the Y pipe as it is too expensive for my budget.

 

I like JBA myself. You want to find a shorty header that states it's direct fit, then it'll bolt right up. If you can find a set of ceramic coated get 'em. They'll cool better and last longer. I've had trouble finding them in the past so I found a local chemical company that will coat metals. If you can take that route, do. I found less costly headers and had 'em coated and spent less than a set already coated new. I've also seen a new set of header bolts that are self locking. They come with tabs that lock against the tubes. Haven't tried them or heard anything about them, though, but I thinks it's a pretty sound, good idea.

 

Make sure they have 3/8" flanges so they dont warp. The shorty headers have a tendency to burn the plug wires. I recomend Boash plugs to go with shorty headers as they are the shortest plug available. I got high temp boots from Summit. These are like socks that go over the boot and wire for about six inches. Also use some good wires. I got coated headers now. (Maybe they run cooler.)

Some sware by ford racing wires and sware at Summit headers. On my first Bronco, I burned Ford wires in short order and now run eccell high-temp. I had edlebrock headers on that truck and now have Summit headers on my new one. I cant say there is any differnce. The biggest problem is leaks . Use good gaskets and re tighten the bolts several times. Mine have been trouble free (and leak free) for some time now.

 

After all the good advice, here's what I've worked into the budget in case anyone's interested:

Flowtech 91628FLT shorty direct fit headers from Advance Auto Parts $214.44
(had to be ordered but arrived in 3 days - free shipping to store) They have 3/8" thick flanges and look pretty good to me.

Mr. Gasket 7160 Copper Seal gaskets from amazon.com $26.06 and free shipping

Thermo-Tec Spark Plug Wire Heat Shields (2 sets of 4) bought on ebay $40.25 incl. shipping

Meineke Muffler says they will install the headers for $172.50 (2.4 hrs. from their flat rate manual)

I haven't yet installed them but will post a note when I get time to do it (or get it done).

Thanks again for all of the responses.

 

be very very careful of meineke, they will burn ya man. i would not take any vehicle to those guys. if they find anything wrong with the rig, they try to give you a speel about how it cant leave because its unsafe to drive and will charge you up the azz for repairs. ive seen this so many times on here and other sites its not even funny. take it to an actual muffler shop. better yet save that 172 , get some better headers and do the work yourself. you will be a happier person knowing you did the work yourself. its not hard and should only take ya 3hrs

 

After what Kemicalburns said about Meineke Mufflers, I decided to tackle the job myself. I took the cracked passenger side manifold off yesterday afternoon without too much trouble. I had soaked everything for several days with Liquid Wrench and PB Blaster so none of the manifold bolts snapped off. Even the nuts on the connector to the exhaust pipe came off easily. The EGR connector was a PIA, however.

I was able to drop the cracked manifold out through a space on the underside of the Bronco, but I can't get the new shorty header back through the same opening.

I can almost get it to go through from the top but not completely. I can't quite make the turn to drop it into place. The only way it will go at all from the top is exhaust pipe connector end 1st.

On the top side, an A/C freon line to the condenser is in the way. On the underside, the motor mount apparatus is in the way. I don't really want to remove either of these is I can avoid it.

Anybody got any suggestions?

 

take some rope and try to tie the ac line up out of the way. removing that side tire might also help along with removing the inner fender.

 

I've had to take a few days off from my header installation due to a pulled muscle. Anyway, the Mr. Gasket copper seal 7160 didn't fit up properly, so I've gone with Felpro MS90000 gaskets.

I removed the passenger side plastic fender well cover to get better access, and I think that's the best way to do it on that side. I don't think it will be necessary on the driver's side.

The passenger side Flowtech header is loosely attached at this point and seems like it's going to fit up okay. I used the header bolts that came with the headers, but I bought allen-type socket head bolts for each end due to clearance problems. There just wasn't room between the header pipe and the bolt head to fit a socket onto it.

The problem I have at this point is getting to the allen-type socket head bolt on the firewall end of the passenger side header. So far, I haven't been able to figure out how to get a standard length allen-head socket into the space that I have to work with. I may just have to use an L-type allen wrench to get it snugged up, and then see if that gives me room to get a socket-type allen wrench in there to torque it down. ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE MOST WELCOME.

The other concern I have is whether I'm going to be able to get my 3/8" click-type torque wrench into the tight spaces around the header tubes to actually torque the header bolts down. It looks like that's going to be very difficult. AGAIN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY SUGGESTIONS.

PS. I was pleased with myself for not breaking any header bolts on the passenger side when I removed the manifold. However, Murphy got me on the driver side. One of the long bolts toward the front snapped off, and the bolt on the firewall end won't free up. So, I soaked it one more time with PB Blaster and tapped it with the hammer a few times. I'll let it sit another day or two before trying it again. Fortunately, I already have some titanium coated drills and the proper size easy-out, so I won't have to buy those. However, I'm not looking forward to doing the drilling and easy-out work.

 

Not sure if ya finished up yet but you can put in shorty headers fairly cheap Thats what i did when mine craked when it had the 302 and the bolt up just like the original manifold. no tweaking or pushing on pullig took me about 3 hours did it all under the fender through the wheel well

 

Good luck drilling out that broken bolt. I was installing headers on a friends truck and we broke a bolt. He insisted on drilling out the bolt himself...even though neither of us ever done it before......and sure enough he drilled through the threads.....good news is he decided to upgrade his heads and got some cobra jet heads but it was still a pain in the 8.8