What to do next - exhaust or fix?

[PotatoExplorer]

So after a few years of ownership I've started moving away from investing in preventative maintenance to finally making modifications. One thing that really grinds my gears is my God awful exhaust manifold leak. Upon start up it sounds horrendous but after like 10-20 seconds she quiets down and sounds perfectly fine. I'm definitely not attempting the repair myself for my own personal reasons so that means a $1-2k (I'm guesstimating) repair that don't guarantee a permanent fix for the issue. Although, guessing again, it would probably give me 100k miles of quiet startups.

What I'm weighing now is this - if I invest in an aftermarket exhaust for like $600, do you guys think that the louder exhaust upon startup will drowned out the annoying exhaust manifold tick? I'm open to criticism here so don't hesitate to tell me this is a stupid thought but at least back it up as to why.

Thanks guys,
Potato

 

[gdgiordano]

Isn’t that issue fixable? I would just fix it and get some exhaust awesomeness. Perhaps replace the headers too

 

[Bill MacLeod]

Fix the manifold leaks. The silence will be deafening. lol

 

[Mbrooks420]

$2000 to replace a manifold? I’m certain you could have it done loads cheaper. No amount of exhaust loudness will drown out the leaking.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Fix the leak. You will continue to hear it if you don't.

(Unless you get a GREAT stereo.)

Good,luck.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Fix the leak. You will continue to hear it if you don't.

(Unless you get a GREAT stereo.)

Good,luck.

Didn’t think of a stereo. My new vote is 4 15s.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

$2000 to replace a manifold? I’m certain you could have it done loads cheaper. No amount of exhaust loudness will drown out the leaking.

You think so? I most certainly have broken exhaust manifold studs and watching videos of the repair procedure shows either:

a) leaving the engine in place but using a lot of hours in moving stuff around and careful tapping and drilling the snapped off studs (thanks to the tight space around the strut towers) with modified drill bits, or

b) pulling the engine to be able to get at the studs that way.

I'm thinking this is easily a $1-2k repair. My leak was there when I bought the vehicle at 119k miles so that makes me think repairing it isn't a wise investment but I could be wrong?

 

[Mbrooks420]

I still don’t think it’d be 2k. You could probably get remanufactured heads for that.

 

[Bill MacLeod]

If you were to supply the parts and "shop" around labour pricing, I would think that it could be done for about a grand.

Any well equipped shop can do this job. You just need to find one with a tech that has experience with this on F-150's, Explorer's, Expedition's, Navigator's, etc. Even some GM and Chrysler products had problems with exhaust manifold studs.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Perfect timing.
30 minutes ago I finished replacing the drivers side manifold (again) and the entire cat back exhaust.
I will post more detailed thread next week with the pictures, but I replaced both manifolds about 4 years ago when the car had 190k miles.
Maybe some shops are well equipped but in most cases it is a horrible job.
I found my old post:
Another thread about exhaust manifolds replacement on 4.6 v8.

At about 260 k miles the left manifold started ticking again so it lasted 70k miles. Also, I found more and more holes in my mufflers so i pulled the trigger and ordered OEM manifold for $ 105 and Walker exhaust for $ 185 plus S&H.
Since I used stainless steel studs when I did it last time, it took me maybe an hour to get the manifold out and all studs came out like I installed them yesterday. So those studs really worked.
But PotatoE is somewhat right. A shop could charge a grand or more for this job.
If I ever had do it again to remove the original studs, pulling the engine would be on of the top options for me.
There are many techniques, one including a steel template with 4 holes so you canbolt it to the head using at least 2 good holes, and drill the broken stud.
But again, the space is so limited, not sure if that can be used, the strut tower blocks # 5 and 6 very well so you can't put an angle drill there.
You can unbolt the engine from the mount and lift it a little, but that might be still to little to access broken studs behind the tower.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

Holy moly that it good timing!

If the stainless steel studs were still good then what caused yours to leak again, Explorer_PL? Gasket problems? I've been rewatching some of the exhaust manifold repair videos and a new video talked about how it will fail again due to cheaply made gaskets. The mechanic recommended this more expensive multilayered metal gasket that allowed the heat to be more gradually transferred to the manifolds.

I've subscribed to a few of these Facebook Explorer groups that actually have quite a few active 4th geners. I asked one guy and he said it was super easy to replace the studs on his 4.6. But he said he had access to a welder and welded nuts to the broken studs and used some shortened deep socket tools.

I feel like I'm getting conflicting reports from several people saying - yes, it's easy! And no, it's a PITA!

 

[Explorer_PL]

I see that I used some cheap soft gaskets back then. One per each cylinder. But at the same time I did not see any black marks indicating exhaust leak anywhere so I was concerned that I had a leak somewhere else. But now I used the multi layer metal gasket OEM style and no more ticking from the manifold or the exhaust.
So to answer PE question, I would do the manifold before the new performance exhaust.
Find a good shop that knows what they are doing. I know the trick with the nut welding, but you can't see part of the head less sticking a welding stick in there and weld a nut exactly over the broken stud.
It looks nice and neat with an engine out on the youtube videos .....

 

[PotatoExplorer]

Gosh darn it, I feel like this is another case of I know what I want to do but I also know what I should do... oh wells. I guess I'll start planning on getting this job quoted out and start saving up some. Thanks guys!

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Gosh darn it, I feel like this is another case of I know what I want to do but I also know what I should do... oh wells. I guess I'll start planning on getting this job quoted out and start saving up some. Thanks guys!

It seems that life goes that way often. But your thought process is good. Best of luck with the project!

 

[08EddieCA]

Perfect timing.
30 minutes ago I finished replacing the drivers side manifold (again) and the entire cat back exhaust.
I will post more detailed thread next week with the pictures, but I replaced both manifolds about 4 years ago when the car had 190k miles.
Maybe some shops are well equipped but in most cases it is a horrible job.
I found my old post:
Another thread about exhaust manifolds replacement on 4.6 v8.

At about 260 k miles the left manifold started ticking again so it lasted 70k miles. Also, I found more and more holes in my mufflers so i pulled the trigger and ordered OEM manifold for $ 105 and Walker exhaust for $ 185 plus S&H.
Since I used stainless steel studs when I did it last time, it took me maybe an hour to get the manifold out and all studs came out like I installed them yesterday. So those studs really worked.
But PotatoE is somewhat right. A shop could charge a grand or more for this job.
If I ever had do it again to remove the original studs, pulling the engine would be on of the top options for me.
There are many techniques, one including a steel template with 4 holes so you canbolt it to the head using at least 2 good holes, and drill the broken stud.
But again, the space is so limited, not sure if that can be used, the strut tower blocks # 5 and 6 very well so you can't put an angle drill there.
You can unbolt the engine from the mount and lift it a little, but that might be still to little to access broken studs behind the tower.

That’s some seriously good pricing. I have to buy CARB approved exhaust systems. Super expensive. I’m considering ordering a system and sending it to a buddy in NV then picking it up - great excuse to go to Vegas. My cats are tired and fried from running rich. Good luck!!! Lots of work drilling out studs.

 

[Tike]

i have the tick too. BAD. it goes away after about a minute which reminds me to let the car warm up, so whatever.
if i accelerate near another object at anyspeed tho. that bounces the ticking sound back and i can hear it again.

i have the Gibson 3" exhaust on my ST its meant for the Ex but i modded it to fit. sounds phenomenal i have audio/video clips in the ST gen 2 thread if ur curious at all. just know that the y pipe bolts gave me issues mounting to the Gibson parts. $5 in bolts and hardware and that was fixed. EX and ST do not have a 3rd o2 sensor or cat so u could legit just unbolt the cat back system and run that it would just dirty up the underside of your vehicle. or get a shop to fab a short elbo and dump our between driver and passenger door. Straight pip 4.6L v8 sounds MEAN.

if anyone knows a mechanic in the Northeast USA that is competent in this job let me know been itching to get it fixed n hear the true potential.

 

[PotatoExplorer]

i have the tick too. BAD. it goes away after about a minute which reminds me to let the car warm up, so whatever.
if i accelerate near another object at anyspeed tho. that bounces the ticking sound back and i can hear it again.

i have the Gibson 3" exhaust on my ST its meant for the Ex but i modded it to fit. sounds phenomenal i have audio/video clips in the ST gen 2 thread if ur curious at all. just know that the y pipe bolts gave me issues mounting to the Gibson parts. $5 in bolts and hardware and that was fixed. EX and ST do not have a 3rd o2 sensor or cat so u could legit just unbolt the cat back system and run that it would just dirty up the underside of your vehicle. or get a shop to fab a short elbo and dump our between driver and passenger door. Straight pip 4.6L v8 sounds MEAN.

if anyone knows a mechanic in the Northeast USA that is competent in this job let me know been itching to get it fixed n hear the true potential.

Nice, and thanks for the reply! I'm in the bottom of the Northeast (south central PA) and will eventually find someone locally to tackle this. I'll definitely fill you in once its accomplished. I'm in no hurry to fix this though so it might be another year before that happens.

 

[Tike]

Nice, and thanks for the reply! I'm in the bottom of the Northeast (south central PA) and will eventually find someone locally to tackle this. I'll definitely fill you in once its accomplished. I'm in no hurry to fix this though so it might be another year before that happens.

i live in Philadelphia, and yes im doing the lift and some other mods before i get around to this, so let me know!