01 explorer exhaust manifold leak and removal question.

[01explorerv801]

make a long story short, i have a 01 explorer 5.0 jsut broke 100k and i am pretty sure it has a leak at the exhaust manifold ( its very rusty!). its pretty bad if i am towing my quads my motor starts to lose power like its losing to much back preasure or something and CEL starts to flash, this is mostly on the high way. with out a load the thing drives fine for the most part other than the fact its embarrassingly loud loud. i jsut went through emissions, the guy said it is most likely the manifold as well (passenger side). so what are my options? i am pretty sure the manifold is shot by the gasket i dont see any physical holes but that the only thing i can think of.

i need to fix this thing asap, she tows my, jetski, sleds, and quads....

anyway, anyone have any tricks to removing the pass manifold? Like i said the bolts look rusted, as well as manifold, when i did the plugs 2 broke due to rust and let me tell you how much fun it was to remove the metal portion out of the block ...

also should i just get a some aftermarket manifolds? stick with oem?

thinking of just redoing my entire exhaust as well any ideas on this?

any and all help is appreciative, oh ya, i would like to keep this as cheap as possible... this is my beater car, and if it is going to cost more than what the thing is worth i will just sell it for what i can and buy a another vehicle.

 

[techieman33]

It may be the egr elbow that's leaking. Also one other thing that's pretty common is the bolts come loose you might be able to just tighten them up.

 

[01explorerv801]

i was told the egr could be the issue but its coming from the wheel well area.. the egr valve assembly looks good still... the manifold is rusted to **** though, and the nuts look like if i touch them they are going to snap, and or strip them.

what tools are needed to remove the manifold?

 

[techieman33]

general hand tools will do it, the only special thing is a 1 1/16 open end wrench that will need to be cut down to remove the egr

 

[01explorerv801]

any tips or tricks to tackling the pass side manifold?

 

[techieman33]

any tips or tricks to tackling the pass side manifold?

this thread should help you out it's for installing headers but it's pretty much the same job
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153944

 

[01explorerv801]

great thread, any other aftermarket manifolds out their? i saw somewhere that sho manifolds flowed better? jsut cant justify spending 650 on headers for my suv.

 

[techieman33]

great thread, any other aftermarket manifolds out their? i saw somewhere that sho manifolds flowed better? jsut cant justify spending 650 on headers for my suv.

you can get stock replacements, but other than that the headers are the only option out there. They're actually cheaper than buying the OEM manifolds from ford. But you can get the stock type manifolds from dorman and maybe others for much cheaper.