I have 2000 with the 5.4. I have been trying to track down a mysterious squeak coming from under the hood. Its not my belt or any of the accessories. Today i think i have tracked it down to my passenger side exhaust manfold. It is rusted as crap and the two studs closest to the cab are sheared off. I think this is the root of my problem. My question is if there is a way to clamp it tight or seal it up without taking off the entire manifold? I would like to get headers but that isnt in the budget right now and I dont have time to mess with this now. Also could I just use an "easy-out" or some other type of bolt remover to just back out the old studs and get new ones? All of the other studs are rusted so bad i am afraid to try and get them off with breaking them, just to get out the already busted ones. Please help. This squeak is both embarrasing and annoying.

 

This seems to be a common problem on these trucks, the easiest way to repair is to remove the manifold then you can get ahold of the brocken studs with vicegrips and remove them. You will need new studs, nuts and gasket. You will want to remove the plastic innerfender to make easier access. Same job as installing headers.

 

Thanks for the reply. I actually purchased some headers this past weekend and hopefully they will be here buy Friday so I can start the install. I couldn't afford the ceramic coated headers at this time, does anyone know of a high temp. paint that i can use that reaquires no baking so I can at least make them an aluminum color.