my 97 f150 went to the shop to get exhaust fixed the bolts that mount the manifold to the pipes are broke and they say i need new manifolds 200 a piece plus labor can i drill out please help

 

Are you talking about the bolts/studs that mount the exhaust manifold to the heads broke? That would be the only bolts I would think you are talking about to "drill out" and yes, they can be removed. Unless your manifolds are cracked or warped, I doubt that need to be replaced..... Replacing them won't fix a "broken" bolt. Either way, it's not cheap. I had a few broken studs on my passenger side and paid $350 to have them removed and a new gasket installed. But try to clarify which bolts you are talking about or why they said the manifolds need replaced. If they are the manifold studs, they will have to remove the manifolds and extract the broken studs. Then replace with new studs and new gaskets. Which 200 per side seems fair to me. I just don't know why you would need new manifolds unless theres something wrong with them.

 

my guess (only a guess) is the OP is refering to the two studs that stick out of each manifold and hold the rest of the exhaust system to the manifolds. i know mine are bad and leak.

 

Then they can be drilled out. You will need a good bit though as the old studs are heat treated and not easy to drill. But it has been done. I would use a 3/16 bit, drill all the way through and then use an easy out, the square ones. I replaced mine with a set from rock auto. There is no gasket there, just needs new studs. They're a bit trick getting in there. I had to use 2 nuts on them to seat them in as far as I could into the manifold. Once they were most of the way in, remove the other nut and tighten to the flange.

 

you are right farmer and thanks for the replys and thanks for the help toyz

 

can this be done on the truck? i was told it could not. also would it be possible to drill them out and instead of putting in new studs, just using stainless bolts instead?

 

in a thread i had a while back about this issue, someone posted this as a fix http://studfix.com/Home.php
i know that drilling and new studs/bolts would probably be better, but that really seams like a major pita.

 

Never seen that before, crazy. Looks like it would work though... in some cases, if the stud was broken off short enough. And yeah, it would be a PITA to do the drill out with it on the truck. Unless you remove the Y pipe and upper exhaust, its all but impossible as the upper cats are in the way. If you take the manifold off, youll risk breaking manifold studs. Which can make your project much harder. How much of the stud is left?

 

i know that one of them is gone comepletely (except for the bit that sticks out towards the front bumber and doesnt actually hold anything) im not sure about the other three. but i know they are bad enough that both sides leak when the metal is cold. one of the other three i know is rusted down to the size of a toothpick so i think maybe i could file it and the others down flush and try to use the stud saver. i will try to get some pics of what i am working with tomoro.