Explorer_PL
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- November 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,916
- Reaction score
- 223
- City, State
- Rockland County, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 06EB V8
2006 v8 with 190k miles.
I’ve been debating this for a long while (since about 110k miles), but got really sick of that problem in my Exp and decided to take care of that. First of all, not really a major issue but I still do not like the idea of exhaust gases leaking under my hood, and some of it maybe entering the cab. Never smelled it, so probably it’s just my imagination. Second, I wanted to do it while the weather is still OK here on the east coast, and not be caught up with it in the middle of the winter when my inspection expires and I fail it. And third, I could not stand that noise it was making.
The whole repair took me 2 days. I did passenger side few weeks ago, and it was probably 5 hr affair, and just last week, I did the driver side. Prior to that, I removed both sides of wheel liners, and kept spraying the studs with Kano Kroil oil, same one that is recommended for the spark plugs on these v8’s. I still had it in my garage. I believe it helped some. On both sides, the studs that snapped were cylinders # 4, and #8 .
Just as a refresher: #1 is by the air box, passenger side front, # 4 is passenger side last one by the fire wall, # 5 is by the battery, front, driver side, # 8 is the driver rear by the firewall.
The fact that #4 , and 8 studs were missing already or snapped when I tried to loosen them was a good news since those are not obstructed by the strut tower, and you can get there with some angle drill and some luck. The studs on cylinders 1,2,3,5,6, and 7 came out intact with some efforts. I used a 3/8 breaker bar with 13 mm deep socket, that I cut about 3/4“ shorter to fit over the stud, and between the frame. I avoided using any swivels when breaking them loose as I did not want to introduce any bending or additional stress. Not sure how much that helped. Also, it seems that the studs closest to the down pipe are subjected to most vibration and warping ????
On passenger side, I removed the plastic liner, starter, and unbolted the motor from the mount via 2 18mm nuts. Then I jacked up the engine about 2-3 inches and that helped a lot. I had to drill out the studs on #8 , one came out with reverse drill, the other one I had to drill completely out and tap the hole with new treads. The passenger side is so tight, that I took me a while to pull the old one out of there, and replace it with a new manifold. Impossible with starter in place, and engine on the mount – you need to do both.
On the driver side, disconnected the steering shaft upper joint, and swung it to the front. I was thinking of unbolting the motor on this side as well, but the manifold came out thru the bottom with very small effort. Same as on the other side, one of the broken studs I was able to spin out with a drill, the other I had to tap to 10 mm bolt. One of the studs did not snap, but also did not come out, the nut came off. I needed to lock 2 nuts together to use a wrench since vise grips could not turn that one.
This was by far the biggest PITA job on this truck so far. But it sounds now like a normal car.
The mess of tools and old studs:
The driver side, you can see wher it was leaking, also, the downpipe stud snapped.
Old manifolds
The one stud that did not come out, and needed 2 nuts locked to create a "head" for a wrench.
One of the pieces that I was able to extract
Passenger side replaced and new stainless steel studs
Good view at the passenger side engine mount, 2 nuts you need to remove to jack up the engine
Passenger side without manifold, once you remove them, there is some room for tools, but nothing great.
The driver side replaced
I’ve been debating this for a long while (since about 110k miles), but got really sick of that problem in my Exp and decided to take care of that. First of all, not really a major issue but I still do not like the idea of exhaust gases leaking under my hood, and some of it maybe entering the cab. Never smelled it, so probably it’s just my imagination. Second, I wanted to do it while the weather is still OK here on the east coast, and not be caught up with it in the middle of the winter when my inspection expires and I fail it. And third, I could not stand that noise it was making.
The whole repair took me 2 days. I did passenger side few weeks ago, and it was probably 5 hr affair, and just last week, I did the driver side. Prior to that, I removed both sides of wheel liners, and kept spraying the studs with Kano Kroil oil, same one that is recommended for the spark plugs on these v8’s. I still had it in my garage. I believe it helped some. On both sides, the studs that snapped were cylinders # 4, and #8 .
Just as a refresher: #1 is by the air box, passenger side front, # 4 is passenger side last one by the fire wall, # 5 is by the battery, front, driver side, # 8 is the driver rear by the firewall.
The fact that #4 , and 8 studs were missing already or snapped when I tried to loosen them was a good news since those are not obstructed by the strut tower, and you can get there with some angle drill and some luck. The studs on cylinders 1,2,3,5,6, and 7 came out intact with some efforts. I used a 3/8 breaker bar with 13 mm deep socket, that I cut about 3/4“ shorter to fit over the stud, and between the frame. I avoided using any swivels when breaking them loose as I did not want to introduce any bending or additional stress. Not sure how much that helped. Also, it seems that the studs closest to the down pipe are subjected to most vibration and warping ????
On passenger side, I removed the plastic liner, starter, and unbolted the motor from the mount via 2 18mm nuts. Then I jacked up the engine about 2-3 inches and that helped a lot. I had to drill out the studs on #8 , one came out with reverse drill, the other one I had to drill completely out and tap the hole with new treads. The passenger side is so tight, that I took me a while to pull the old one out of there, and replace it with a new manifold. Impossible with starter in place, and engine on the mount – you need to do both.
On the driver side, disconnected the steering shaft upper joint, and swung it to the front. I was thinking of unbolting the motor on this side as well, but the manifold came out thru the bottom with very small effort. Same as on the other side, one of the broken studs I was able to spin out with a drill, the other I had to tap to 10 mm bolt. One of the studs did not snap, but also did not come out, the nut came off. I needed to lock 2 nuts together to use a wrench since vise grips could not turn that one.
This was by far the biggest PITA job on this truck so far. But it sounds now like a normal car.
The mess of tools and old studs:
The driver side, you can see wher it was leaking, also, the downpipe stud snapped.
Old manifolds
The one stud that did not come out, and needed 2 nuts locked to create a "head" for a wrench.
One of the pieces that I was able to extract
Passenger side replaced and new stainless steel studs
Good view at the passenger side engine mount, 2 nuts you need to remove to jack up the engine
Passenger side without manifold, once you remove them, there is some room for tools, but nothing great.
The driver side replaced
