Broken Exhaust Manifold Stud question
 

New to the site. I have a used 2000 F150 SuperCab, 4x4 with 5.4 with 82,500 miles. bought it a while back and recently I have taken it into the shop (not dealer but a good mech I have used for several years and does good work).

Normal replacement of lower ball joints, change plugs etc. I asked him to check what sounded like an exhaust leak on the passender side of the engine.

He tells me I have one (1) broken exhaust manifold stud and 2 more than are darn near rusted through. I ask for an estimate and he says he really would prefer not to do the work, for fear of breaking the remaining studs off in the head.

I am going to get check with the local ford dealer for an estimate and a couple of machine shops. can anyone tell me (ballpark) best and worst case scenario (money and repair)???

I am quasi mechanically inclined and have pulled heads off of straight 4cyl, but don't know if I have all tools/time/expertise to undertake this replacement.. I have the haynes manual...

Thanks

Id bet that its going to cost you $500-$1000. At $80 an hour labor, it might cost you even more.

Stopped by the mechanic on the way home. He said he can get to it to fix it in a couple of weeks, but cannot get into it right now. I was quoted best case scenario, about $200 if the remaining studs come right out and he has no problem getting the broken one out. Significantly more if it breaks off in the head...

Local Ford dealer quoted a starting point of $200, up to $1500.

Other than the annoyance to drive with the noise, (not loud) is there any problem continuing to drive until I get them replaced??

I wouldnt drive it too long with broken studs. The more broken studs you have, the more stress you are putting on the remaining studs and that is going to increase the possibility of those studs breaking as well.

I had both the back two studs on both sides break off. I got quotes from both a local Ford dealership and a good mechanic's shop. The mechanic shop was up for the challenge but wanted a open end on the price. I eventually had the Ford dealership do the work, which ran in the neighborhood of $ 850.00 to replace all the exhaust studs. I figured that if I only replaced the broken ones, for basically $ 600.00 with my 97 F150 5.4 with 120K+ miles I would simply have it back in to replace some of the other exhaust studs in the near future.

Granted I was rolling the dice by replacing them all as it increased the odds that one or more of the studs would break off in the head, requiring the head removal to extract the stud at a machine shop. That risk was identified by the dealership, but it all came out good.

hugger94

I had a leak awhile back, and found 3 broken studs. 2 I got with vise grips, 1 was broke inside. I couldn't get a hard enough drill bit to extract it, so finally I got p'd off and took a hardened rasp from Grainger's and went crazy. Rethreaded to 3/8" and put a 1 1/4" bolt in the hole. $72 for gaskets and new studs/nuts- $30 in useless (for this job) drill bits.

I had a couple break on my 02 Screw, and did them myself. Fortunately The stud broke flush with the outside of the Manifold so I just took it off and grabed it with a pair of vice grips and it came out. Went to Ford to get the Gaskets and they wanted $40 a side and $4-$5 per stud, do the math for 16 studs that is 64-80 bucks then another 80 for the gaskets. I told them noway and went to autozone and got the gaskets (for both sides) for $18 and put hardened bolts in place of the studs. So far so good.

The routine maintenance is complete, lower ball jointsreplaced, rear pinion seal (which leaked) changed fluid in both diff, transfer case, transmission fluid, changed spark plugs, lube, wheel balance and alignment.

Will take a good look at the manifold studs and read the manual and see if I am willing to undertake this endevour myself.

Any suggestions of special tools I may need before I start, or any specific do's or dont's would be encouraged.

You can handle it, as long as you have something else in the driveway to drive if you need. No special tools involved, I have an extra stud and nut if want them!

For anyone that has done this stud removal job how many other studs have broken trying to remove the manifold? I am in the same situation and I am debating taking this job on. I can handle one or two breaking but more than that I don't think I have the patience for.

I only had one other stud break will I was taking it off, I did replace all of them with new ones even though they looked fine.

Did mine today, I coated them with PB blaster last night. I only had one broken and I got all of the others out pretty easily. The broken one had a good 3/8 of an inch left with threads. I screwed the nut on as far as I could then welded it to the stud and let it cool. Then I heated the head, said a prayer and got it out. Went to the stealer-ship found out the manifold was warped so I got a new manifold($120), gaskets($60), studs and nuts($50) for the low price of $230.00. The parts guy said he sells a ton of them very common problem.

What a joke, 2002 f250 with 37,000miles.

I had this problem on my 97 5.4L. I bought a set of Gibson headers from Summit and had them installed by a muffer shop. Total cost about $700. I figured why not spend a few more dollars on the headers and improve the truck. While they had the truck I had them install a cat back Flowmaster muffer and oversize pipe.

Done, eaier than it sounds
 

Okay guys, had to wait for the weather and work schedule to get it done. First thing I will say is this is not as hard as it sounds.... I will outline what I did for those contemplating doing this yourself. Truck is a 2000 F150 4x4, 5.4 liter. I will try and break down time line, cost, etc. First I read the Chilton manual on removal procedure and such...

I have never taken a auto shop class, but have trialed and errored my way around enigines for about 30 years.


I had one confirmed and two suspected broken manifold studs on the pasenger side exhaust manifold. Rear top, suspected rear bottom, and 2nd from rear bottom.

5 days ago. Parked the truck, jacked it up and removed front right wheel and inner fender well (30 min total). Inner fender well is easily removed with screws holding fender liner in and a few plastic gromet peices of ^%#* that bend and break when you are removing them. Still, very easy. Later that evening, sprayed all studs and nuts with PB Blaster....let soak

4 days ago..before work, sprayed studs/nuts with PB Blaster (30 seconds).

3 days ago, used a flashlight and extention miror and looked at condition of all studs and figured best way to get to all of them.... determined what tools needed (see bottom of post)

Bought the studs (8) at the dealer for $1.62 each (no I am not kidding) for a package of 8. (Package of 8, part number N811313-S431) stud. The dealer originally said $5.20 each as I went in to get measurements/size and specs on the studs and I told them I only needed the specs as Napa was saying $1.75 per stud. So they sold them to me for $1.62 ea. (*Hey, not complaints from me).. The parts guy said they could not compete on the manifold gaskets so Napa was it. Exhaust manifold (set) $8.26, anti sieze $4.13.

Okay, have all the parts, check the weather report, no rain until Sunday, temps mid 50's, no problem (hahahhahhahaa)

2 days ago and one day ago, PB Blaster studs and nuts (once in the morning and once in the evening).. I did not drive this truck during this week, just let it sit. 03 March 06, disconnected battery and removed bracket holding wires for starter to get them out of the way. Disconnected whatever wire harness' we in front of the manifold and zip tied them above to hold them out of the way.... I did not diconnect the oil dip stick bracket (easily done) but from looking at it, it was not in the way..

0900, 4 March 2006 stopped by local NAPA, borrowed stud puller. Our Napa shop is great, just walked in and asked, no paperwork, no nothing, just a friendly bring it back when you are done.... great place. It is not raining.. Time to give this a go. Drive hom, it starts to rain/sleet.... damn.....

0920: 13mm long 3/8 socket and rachet could not budge the first nut.... Changed to a 3/8 breaker bar with the 13mm, and slight to moderate turn, and feel it give. Put on rachet and removed 1st nut and stud. At this point I decided to use the breaker bar to "free every nut stud" and then used the ratched for removal

Note: Every stud (which was not previously broken) came out with the nut. None of the nuts every broke free of the studs.

0935, Top row removed, no problems. 13mm deep socket (3/8) and ratched and breaker bar. I am now soaking wet....Hail my success and go get a cup of coffee....sit in front of fire and warm up/dry out...(15 minutes total removing three nut/studs on top)


0945, coffee break over. Time to remove the bottom row of studs/nuts...
I began at the bottom front stud,. again 13mm deep socket, breaked bar/ratchet...no problems There is enough room. moved down the manifold to the next one, no problem.....3rd one back, used a breaker bar to free the nut/stud, then switched to a 13mm deep socket with 3/8 universal joint adapter and ratched to remove as just did not seem to have enough room. still, no problems... Last stud, bottom rear, made a slight movement with breaker bar, "SNAP" and feel it bust. I look at the nut head, which was completely rusted (previously) though at the lip of the manifold... Total wrench time 15/20 minutes... Coffee break, the sleet is now rain and pouring... manifold is currently held off but still in wheel well attached to exhaust pipe.. Drink coffee and read Chiltons again... get warm and dry....

1030: Remove the two nuts from the passenger side exaust pipe where it connects to the maniflold. Both of these can be reached from under the truck. 15mm deep socket, one long extention and one short one together and breaker bar to free...no problem, removed with ratchet..... less than 5 min... Move over to driver side exhaust, and loosened the nuts to the end of the studs where the exhaust manifold and pipe meet on the drivers side... removed center nut from exhuast support where it crosses under truck.... This allows room to manipulate exhaust pipe on passenger side when pulling manifold out and when re-installing. Removed manifold and gasket..... (total time 10 minutes...+ or - ... Look at two rear studs and cross my chest, pray and spray with PB Blaster.....get another cup of coffe

1050.. Using stud puller and 1/2" breaker bar, say a prayer and slowly rotate and continue to pray, feel the stud give...stop...wiggled to determine if I broke it flush...no...keep slowly turning it out.....1st one out.....move to second one and say another prayer.....2nd one out..... Once I had them loosened I switched to a 1/2 ratchet on the stud puller 10 minutes...studs out..... Scraped manifold and head to ensure clean and remove any debris... 15 minutes..... (25 min total) still raining....get more coffee...... changed shirts, as I am soaking wet.....still raining....

1130, inserted new studs (put anti sieze on thread on head portion) and put all 8 in. I do not recall what the socket size was for the end of the studs (pretty small), this took longer than expected and then torqued into place. Checked the book and it said tourque specs were 80 to 100? pounds... (yeah right)... tightened them bastages as hard as I could but my tourque wrench would not fit on all of them due to limited room. I got to about 90 on two of the and them just tried to reproduce feel on the rest with the breaker bar....
Wiped off any excessive anti sieze..... This probably took better part of 30 to 45 minutes or so...

** Dry run without gasket** Without putting the new gasket on, put manifold back up against the head over new studs.... just to get sequence.....Spent about 10 minutes just deciding how I wanted to get ii back in... book says to install nuts and tighten from the rear in 3 progressions..... realized I only have two hands....curse.... remove manifold....still raining....get coffee.....

1230, put on new gasket, put on manifold over studs and place two new nuts (tope front and rear) on studs...about 1/2 wat, finger loose) to hold manifold in place..... Thread remaining nuts on studs with fingers..... and then bagan tightening series from the rear. I started with the top rear , then bottom and alternated back top and bottom as I worked toward the front.... specs I believe were about 18 to 20 pounds on the nuts....check you manual... (30 minutes)....

Re-connect passegenger side pipe to manifold, tighten driver side pipe to manifold, put on nut on center exhaust support.. (10 minutes....)

Reonnect battery, start truck.....no more exhaust leak noise..... turn off... re-install inner fender well, put wheel back on, take off of jack stands.....

Test drive.....sounds good, no identifieable exhaust leak... dry off and clean up tools...job complete....

1330: Sitting in front of the fire, hot soup and a grill chees sammich.......and an ice cold beer knowing I just saved myseld about 300 bucks...

Tools:
Exhaust pipe to manifold
15mm deep socket
1/2" breaker bar
1/2 socket these for for the stud puller...all others 3/8"
Center exhaust support nut
15mm short socket

manifold nuts/studs
3/8 breaker bar
3/8 ratchet
extention long
extention short
13mm deep socket
unviersal joint 3/8" for ratchet

Guys, thanks for the suggestions and if any one is contemplating this, I would say go for it. Save yourself the money and do it yourself.....






















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Thanks for a very good post :)
I'm sure it will help others here.