Well, I've purchased my 04 F150,and as soon as I have it outfitted for service, my 96 F150 will be getting some much needed TLC. I have the long bed XL, just a basic work truck, the only options are auto tranny and AM/FM radio! I have the 300 straight six, and it has a bad exhaust leak at the manifold. My shop says its $500 to remove the manifold and replace the gasket, and they have to make sure the manifold isn't warped, and if it is, they have to either machine it flat, or get a new one. Hopefully the gasket just blew, anyone else ever had this problem, and if so was it just the gasket? I'd imagine it would be hard to warp a cast iron exhaust manifold! Also, since I'm constantly in and out of the truck all day, the drivers side of the seat is totally collapsed, should I just hit a wrecking yard and get a seat there, or does anyone know of a good aftermarket seat? Thanks!

 

The key question here is how long do you want to keep the truck for ???

As for the manifold leaking, I beleive that they are directly bolted to the motor without a gasket. When mine started leaking on the 302, I just went and bought a set of headers for the truck instead of paying that much for one manifold job. If you look at it, you fix this one and then the other one decides to let go then you have to fix it too. Do it once and get it all done and over with.

As for the seat, yes I would go to a junk yard and find another one or even find a set of buckets for the truck that you can put in there instead.

Have Fun & Keep on Truckin'
Dean

 

You can get a header for that bad boy. Look in a Jegs catalog.

 

Just my two cents.....Header on stock 300 second truck ...WHY? replace with stock manifold.. which are on eBay all the time.. No header gasket to leak..no collector work to have done...etc...

Seats...hmmmm... I found mine on-line... just did a couple of searches and have been happy...wish I had gotten the lumbar bladder for $50 more..

Mine are twin reclining buckets....center wood console with dual cup holders and storage ( my friends call it the wooden pimp daddy console ) console flips up for third seat and it has under bottom seat storage...( they called it and "ice bucket" )....
Total with shipping and new frame was around $625...

Anywho... just another perspective.....

 

My manifolds warped and leaked on my truck at about 80k miles...had them replaced right away. I"m at 130k now w/out any problems (knock on wood)

 

Thanks for the replies,I'm not going to put a header on the truck, its a work truck, and when I get the 04 into service, it'll only be driven about once a week!I'll just go with the stock manifolds, hopefully they aren't warped, and the gasket just blew for some reason. I was thinking about an aftermarket seat, but I don't need anything nice, since, again, its a work truck. I do have the base cloth seat in it, not vinyl, in my line of work, the vinyl seat burns your butt in the summer time! I'll just try the local truck wreckers and see if any of them have the cloth seat for my truck! I just wish it had A/C for those hot summer days, but oh well, the 04 has it! I appreciate everyone's input!