I tackled my passenger side exhaust manifold last night and thought I would share my experience and tricks I learned in the process. I have done these before but this time it was a total backyard project, no air tools, no lift and in a tight garage.

As usual, I jacked up the passenger side, removed tire and wheel well. I used a MAP gas torch and heated up both downpipe studs, only on passenger side. I did not touch the drivers side downpipe studs as I did not want to open a can of worms on that side because of the shape the nuts were in. I was able to remove the nuts with a little heat and a breaker bar.

Next, I removed both nuts on passenger side engine mount and used a block of wood and floor jack on the side of the transmission to raise engine roughly 2 inches, this actually makes a big difference with the amount of working area you gain.



I did not use heat on the exhaust studs, just a snap on 1/4 flex head ratchet, deep 13mm and a assortment of small extensions. Some of the nuts only came out and some came out with the studs attached. The studs that remained in the head I used vise grips and worked the studs back and forth and they eventually broke free. I ended up breaking the two rear most studs about 1/8th into the head.

I had bought a drill template from maniboltdriller.com ahead of time and it made the job a piece of cake. I was able to use a right angle drill with a 3/16 drill bit to drill perfectly center into the stud and used a screw extractor to remove the studs. both studs took me about 30 mins to remove.





Cheap screw extractor I bought and a 3/16th drill bit I cut down because of the limited space you have.



*** The trick I found to make the job easier was to removed the starter AFTER the manifold is loose. i know some of you remove the starter but once you have the manifold loose it is very easy to access the starter bolts. It takes 2 seconds to remove the starter. once the starter is out you can easily slide the manifold out the bottom. Reverse order to install, slide the manifold back up thru the bottom, position manifold as far forward as possible and then pull the starter up into place, bolt back into place and continue with manifold installation.



From start to finish the job took me about 6 hours. I did not touch drivers side exhaust down pipe studs, i did not unbolt any other piece of exhaust, nor did I unbolt the transmission cross member as some people tell you to do. I hope this helps anyone thinking of tackling the job and I highly recommend buying the drill template I bought. I did save some money by buying the pieces individually ($200) rather then the kit which I believe is close to ($500).

 

What year, make, model etc was this on?

I have to do mine soon (2007 f150 5.4 Screw).

 

They are all the same 04-08 but mine is an 05 f150 fx4 with 166k miles and has seen 10 years of New England winter. Now in Southern California so no need to worry about the rust anymore

 

Can you share where you sourced your replacement manifold, manufacturer, current status of repair, etc... Thnx

 

KMG, I bought it as a OEM Ford kit off of eBay. Comes with everything you need to replace the right side manifold EXCEPT the downpipe studs used to attach the Cat converter, which you will need to buy also.

 

Sorry to necro a really old thread..

But I have an 07 that i am doing the passengers side manifold on and I cannot for the life of me get the second from the rear bottom manifold bolt.. its rounded and i cannot get onto it with anything. I also cannot remove the starter upper bolt.. how on gods green earth do you get that starter out normally?

 

I just did mine today- well finished today, I started two days ago. I knew going in it was going to be bad. Passenger side front three studs were broke off already inside the head. The others were totally rusted and out of all of them one stud came out ok. Welded onto the studs and most came out pretty easily. Front bottom one was a pain. I goobered up the threads and had to retap and put in a timesert threaded insert.
Just about everything that could be a pain was. But I got it done just now.
Just take a die grinder and cut the nut off to get the manifold loose. Then you can get to the top starter bolt.
i even took a sawzall and cut it out right away. I learned this on the drivers side. I'm in illinois and the roads are paved with salt in the winter. I take good care of my trucks but as much as I drive and use it as a truck it's a losing battle with some things.
I finally realized that it had to come out and I was replacing it all anyway so I just got it out of the way first thing.
on the bolt you have rounded, if you don't have a welder, use vice grips, but be careful, pb blaster, soak it, pb blaster, wait, pb blaster, again many times, then take the vice grips and slowly move back and forth a little bit at a time. Take your time. When you see it moving a little bit just keep working it slowly. You don't want to have to drill it out. Believe me.

 

I'm in Vermont.. same issue..they look horrible

 

still a lost battle trucks been on jack stands for almost 3 months.. I cannot get the second to last bottom bolt out and i have no way to get any cutting tools in there.... i have a few good studs still in the head so i can't even spin the manifold to expose the bolt on top. not sure if i should just bolt it back together best i can and take it somewhere and spend the $2500 because I cant be without my vehicle any longer

 

Not sure if you guys read the fact that you need remove both nuts from the right side motor mount then take a floor jack and jack the engine up as far as you can go but be careful not to crush the intake manifold. Then get some extensions, swivel and a ratchet to remove the starter bolts. Get the starter out before even touching the manifold bolts. I’m from Vermont so I️ know all about rounded rusty bolts. Did you guys try turbo sockets? They are very handy in these situations. If you still can’t get the nut off you will need to burn in off with a torch. Or heat the crap out of them and get a turbo socket on there.

 

I am also from vermont. and i did i put the truck up on stands.. removed the y-pipe bolts. removed the passengers side engine mount nuts. and then jacked up the engine from the transmission bell housing as i didn't see a solid spot on the engine it self. and I just bought rounded nut sockets and bunch of wobble extensions and i am going to try and get the starter out on my next day off