New to forum, not new to Ford trucks. I just bought a 2002 Excursion with 107,000 miles. Clean truck for being in Michigan. The manifolds look clean, but the studs and nuts are rotting away. Some are missing already. I see some soot on the head on the drivers side. I can hear it ticking too.

I had this problem on my 97 F150 5.4L I paid a shop to do this swap which was about $400 labor. I provided the new manifolds. My question is: Has anybody tackled this repair themselves? Any studs snap flush in head? What other issues have you discovered? I had a couple broken studs in a 4.6L Mustang that I got lucky and they came out, but this looks worse.

 

Yes , Yes . and Yes.. I ended up welding onto the studs that were broken off below the surface and got two out of the three below the surface studs, the last one I ended up having to drill it out and retap the threads..

 

Yep, 2 broken studs here when I did my Banks headers. Got one out by welding a nut to the broken below the surface stud and had to drill and easy out the other one. Tight quarters to work in but doable. Here's some reading (and purty pics too) on the subject.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ll-w-pics.html
Christina didn't have nearly as good of luck with hers.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...r-dummies.html

 

$ 400 in labor for both sides! I wish I could find that cheap of a price. I would just pay someone at that rate.

 

Where in michigan are you? A fair amount of work but you can do it yourself. If you can get someone to do it for 400 I would not bother though.

 

Bought my truck from Scottsdale Arizona. Live in Houston Tx. I had one bolt shear right off in the block flush! And this was on passenger side when doing my swap. I left it in the block trying to weld something on that side of the truck to pull it out wasn't worth the migraine!! well to me it wasn't. And so I bought new headers and y pipe from hedman headers. Lovem

 

Mine fought me like cornered racoon all the way, but I did eventually win the battle....

Now that being said, I would have stroked a check for $400 all day long to have someone else do it, but no way I could have had mine done for less than $1,200 and I didn't have anyone I trusted to do it right. $400 is a great price only if it's done "right". I spent that in drill bits, alcohol and band-aides.

 

Thanks for the reply!

I read your entire thread, before signing up. Everyone here seems like a great group of guys (and gals in any). Some of the bolts look easy, but certain lower ones do look like tight quarters.

Yeah, he hooked it up. Most studs were new too. I wanted all replaced, but 5 years of driving after the repair...it was still nice and quiet.

I work in Warren. Yes, he charged me $400 last time for a 5.4L Triton. That was with new hardware too. I inspected the work afterwards. Great work, although not every stud was replaced, but the originals he left were still in decent shape. I drove the truck for 5 years after the repair. It never leaked or ticked again. I just called him yesterday to ask about doing just the left side and reminded him it's a V-10 (since that appears to be the worst). He said $200-$300 depending on stud difficulty. So it could be 400 to 600 for BOTH sides this time. I'm leaning more toward the high than the low cause that's how life goes. I'm running over there FAST when I get the rest of the truck done.

I'm shocked you had problems in the south. I figured the studs breaking would only be in the salt states because metal just gets eaten alive here.

I WISH cars and trucks here in Michigan were as clean as what you guys can find. My truck is pretty clean. Yes the doors do have rust, but it's not thru to the outside skin. And at least the gold moldings cover it up or will when it gets worse. I'll try and grind down as much as possible and POR it just to slow things down.

LOL, great analogy. Yeah, I talked to my Dad (we work together) and we do everything ourselves, but even this one, he agreed...hand the money over, let the "pros" do it. Just not something I have time with with a 1 year child at home and a wife who works midnights. Totally opposite schedules.

Thanks for all the replies. I am a new member here, I've been around the Mustang forums since 2001, I do know my cars/trucks, thanks for the convo!