Not sure if anyone has posted on this before, but I'm going too because it cuased me alot of grief. I had been dealing with an exaust leak for sometime. I'd removed the uppipes and replaced the donuts several times \ in the last few months trying to chase this one down. I even reworked the end where the donuts sit, think'n that maybe it was just to distorted to seal well also. Well to make a long story short, it ended up being the bolts on my exhaust manifolds. I kept hearing a ticking sound, coming thru and in the cab, and just assumed it was the uppipes. Well all the bolts on my driver's and passenger side exhaust manifolds were lose. I never thought to check them before hand. I tightend all the bolts and no more exhaust leaks or ticking sounds. Moral of the story, don't assume an exhaust leak is automatically coming from the up-pipes.

 

good to know will have to check mine.

 

Could you see any soot around the exhaust manifolds? How loose were the bolts? This is something I'm going to look at as soon as I get some time.

 

Its funny, back when I dealt with this everyone swore our manifolds don't leak...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...eak-fixed.html

 

Only because they don't look and have a hard time hearing a leak over the good ol' 7.3L roar. Mine are leaking as well, even thought the bolts are tight. Just had a set resurfaced and ceramic coated and will be putting them on soon.

 

Very good to know but I also have this question................

 

My exhaust manifolds are leakng aslo,I will check bolts as soon I get a chance .

Hey Clay how much to get manifold ceramic coated? How much deg will temp drop from coated exh.

 

Coating doesn't drop the temps, it raises the temps. The theory is to keep the exhaust temperatures in the exhaust to the turbo to help the turbo spool faster and hopefully higher, other then that it's all about bling baby.

 

There was soot in the area of the exhaust manifold. But 2 things.
1. It never crossed my mind that the exhaust bolts could be loose, causing such a bad leak. I just assumed it was the up-pipes because they're so problamatic.
2. The area would become covered with so much soot and road grime, that it made it even harder to pinpoint.
I tried washing the engine with degreaser, then go out and drive the truck around alittle, then drive home and try to find the soot covered area. But it would blow around and cover a general area as well, making it difficult to find. So next, I degreased and washed the engine bay to help cool the engine first. Once it was cold I blocked the front wheels, I then had my 15 yr old son start the truck, put it in gear and power brake the truck. I crawled underneath and stuck my hand up in the area and began to feel around for the leak. It felt to me as though it was leaking from the up-pipe, and just bouncing off of the manifold. I still hadn't figured it out. I then picked up a socket, an extension and ratchet and just for the hell of it, put it on the manifold bolts to retorque them. I still didn't know it was coming from here! Not untill I began actually turning the first bolt, that I got a smile on my face. Finally, I had found the problem. All the bolts on the driver side were loose. I then went to the passenger side to retorque them as well. Yes, they were all loose as well. I'd had this leak for over a year, and finally, I had found the source. Now I'm not saying that any of you are as dumb as me, but dang it, it really never ocurred to me that it could be coming from the exhaust manifold. So agian I just felt a need to post this, in on order to help others, so's not to immediately assume that it's the up-pipes that are leaking.

 

Thanks for the description.

What were your EGTs and boost #'s before and after? Any change?

 

Yes, thank you, and yea, you have some go-nads to be crawling under a truck being power braked by a 15 yr old, must be some trust and love in your family!

 

HAH HAH HAH, alot a love my friend. Thank you.
Yeah I notice that My egts were alittle higher than normal while cruising, and my boost suffered alittle too, and even more so if I got on it hard. It would hit 1200-1300 degrees pretty easy. My boost seemed to max out at around 30-35+/- psi, which was not normal. Now keep in mind, I have a GT-38R BB Turbo and Stage-3 injectors as well. Under normal conditions (everything functioning properly), my boost will easaly hit 40 psi, and my egts can still climb quickly too, with out any leaks! But I did notice that my egt's would climb quicker than usual with the exhaust leaks. Here is how I fixed my up-pipe donut leakage too. I hadn't posted this sooner because I needed time to verify this repair. I've read in several post's were many of us have had issues with the up-pipes being bent and out of shape at the top where the donut sits, making it difficult to seal properly even with a new Donut in place. I had the same issues with mine. I took a ball peen hammer to the inside/end of the up-pipe in order to reshape it for a proper seal. Once I was satisfied with the reshaping, and the donut had a nice tight fit too, I used a product called (VERSA CHEM-EXHAUST SYSTEM JOINT & CRACK SEALER) between the up-pipe's sliding Collar/Flange and the donut. CAUTION !!! NOT BETWEEN THE DONUT AND THE Y PIPE TO TURBO FLANGE! The (Exhaust-sealer) can squeeze out, and get pushed up into the Turbo as you tighten down the flange bolts, if you apply it to the Top side of the donut. The Sealer lays in kinda like Tub and tile joint sealer, and does dry hard. Anyhow, I laid a bead in between the Collar/flange and donut about 1/4" +/- thick and used blue construction tape underneath and around the Collar/Flange to hold it alinged and in place for the installation. I twisted off the end of the Blue Tape in oder to have a pull point for removal, once the install was complete. Once I got the up-pipe in place, I tightned the bolts down and watched some of the Sealer squeeze out of the bottom of the Collar/Flange. It dries hard, but can easily be removed too. I've already done the removal and the re-installation as well. I didn't have any pieces break off and go up into the turbo, or nothing like this. They fall off, and down to the ground when removing the up-pipes. I can already hear someone complainig about pieces breaking off and going up into the Turbo. So, It wasn't hard at all to remove the sealed up-pipe. Once I removed the up-pipe, I checked the pipe and Exhaust manifold for any pieces that might have slid down and into either one. Anyhow, I decided to try this Exhaust sealer along with the install, and the removal to verify this repair before posting it here. I sealed the up-pipe about 8 weeks ago and have had no problems with leaking, what so ever. Oh and I'm sorry, but I didn't take any pictures during the process. I can however take some now and it will show where the sealer is still in place with no leaks. It beats $450 for the new up-pipes too.

 

Good to hear, seems that kind of love is hard to come by in families these days.
Some pictures would be great, you know we all love to see pictures of work done! But none the less, I think if any of it did break loose the turbo would spit it out pretty quick.

 

Nice, thanks for throwing that post up. Went out and took a look and sure enough, on #8 found a leak.......


Edit: After taking a second look I found out why. If you look at the spot where there is supposed to be a bolt right before the far bolt in the picture you'll see no bolt head
The head of the bolt seems to be missing!!!! Guess this means that at some point I need to take the manifold off on the passenger side and replace that bolt

 

WOW it does look as though your missing a bolt there. Sure enough got a leak too. Have you tried to retorque the other bolts, and what did yah fined? I'm think'n that if one already fell out, you might fined as you go around the manifolds, a few more bolts that are quite loose. Hopefully no more missing bolts though.. Good luck with this too..
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