05 5.4 passenger side exhaust manifold replacement w/ pics
03-07-2012, 04:24 PM
#1
05 5.4 passenger side exhaust manifold replacement w/ pics
So I've been lurking around here for some time, checking stuff out. What I was mainly looking for was advice on passenger side exhaust manifold replacement. I found plenty of posts where people were in the same place as me but gave up and took it to a mechanic mixed in with some posts from people who did it but didnt create a step by step walk through. Well, I decided to do my own and create a walk through.
I will admit, I got lucky. Very lucky. It only took me 7 hours working alone and I didnt break a single stud. Patience and thinking ahead will save you alot of time. Go get yourself a stubby 3/8 ratchet, a good selection of socket extensions, a mid depth 13mm socket, and an impact style swivel socket adapter. These things will make it much easier.
As always, your experience may differ and I am not liable if it does.
Step one:
Remove the inner fender liner and start soaking the manifold and exhaust flange nuts in penetrating oil at least a day in advance. This vital! Thinking ahead will save you a ton of headaches. Removing the inner fender liner is not too hard. This will give you enough room to get the the exhaust flange nuts and the top manifold studs. Jack up the front end, get underneath, and you will just be able to see all the bottom studs. Soak everything every hour, on the hour. While youre at it, do yourself a favor and soak the drivers side exhaust flange nuts too, you will need to remove them too.
Step two:
Day 2, get the truck up on jack stands and remove the front drivers side tire. Unbolt the front sway bar from the frame and the passenger side lower A arm. Swing the sway bar out of the way. Now you can start removing the starter. There are 3 nuts and 3 bolts you need to remove; the 3 nuts holding the solenoid, power, and ground wires and the 3 mounting bolts. There is one bolt on the very top of the starter that is a pain to get to. A good selection of socket extensions will help you here and in the rest of this project.
Step 3:
Heat is your best friend now. Heat up the passenger side exhaust flange nuts. If you have an oxy-acetalene torch or access to one, use a #2 welding tip. If not, at least get a propane torch. Heat up and remove then one at a time. Just get them to glow red a little, let them cool a couple seconds, then remove. If they're still stubborn, re-heat, then hit the stud with penetrating oil while they're still hot.
Step three:
Now stuff gets tense. Begin heating the manifold nuts and removing them.
Here is where my luck started. The nuts were not very tightly torqued on. I was able to easily remove them one handed with a 13mm wrench. My luck continued on the bottom side. I used the stubby ratchet and mid depth 13mm socket but no heat. Each nut came out, one handed, with the stud attached. Again, luck and preparation.
Step four:
Once the manifold is free, you can fish it out through the bottom. This was the hardest part for me. Theres 3 things you can do to make it easier. Go over to the drivers side exhaust and disconnect the pipe from the manifold. Again, heat! Do this the same way as the passenger side. Then go to the rear transmission cross member and remove the 2 bolts that hold the exhaust support to the frame. This will allow you to pull the exhaust pipe down and get more room. The last thing you can do is to raise the passenger side of the motor up. Its easier than you think. Under the passenger side motor mount you will see 2 large nuts with a thick oval shaped washer underneath them both. Undo those nuts. Then take your floor jack and place a piece of wood on top of it. Position it under the transmission bell housing and raise the jack. Make sure you have solid contact before going any further. YOU ONLY WANT TO RAISE THE MOTOR AN INCH! Anymore could cause damage.
These things wont give you a ton of room but it will help. You should be able to get it out now.
This is what I found once I got mine out.
Reassembly is much easier, just do everything in reverse with your new manifold, gaskets, and hardware.
P.S. Yes, this is my first post. Go big or go home. lol
I will admit, I got lucky. Very lucky. It only took me 7 hours working alone and I didnt break a single stud. Patience and thinking ahead will save you alot of time. Go get yourself a stubby 3/8 ratchet, a good selection of socket extensions, a mid depth 13mm socket, and an impact style swivel socket adapter. These things will make it much easier.
As always, your experience may differ and I am not liable if it does.
Step one:
Remove the inner fender liner and start soaking the manifold and exhaust flange nuts in penetrating oil at least a day in advance. This vital! Thinking ahead will save you a ton of headaches. Removing the inner fender liner is not too hard. This will give you enough room to get the the exhaust flange nuts and the top manifold studs. Jack up the front end, get underneath, and you will just be able to see all the bottom studs. Soak everything every hour, on the hour. While youre at it, do yourself a favor and soak the drivers side exhaust flange nuts too, you will need to remove them too.
Step two:
Day 2, get the truck up on jack stands and remove the front drivers side tire. Unbolt the front sway bar from the frame and the passenger side lower A arm. Swing the sway bar out of the way. Now you can start removing the starter. There are 3 nuts and 3 bolts you need to remove; the 3 nuts holding the solenoid, power, and ground wires and the 3 mounting bolts. There is one bolt on the very top of the starter that is a pain to get to. A good selection of socket extensions will help you here and in the rest of this project.
Step 3:
Heat is your best friend now. Heat up the passenger side exhaust flange nuts. If you have an oxy-acetalene torch or access to one, use a #2 welding tip. If not, at least get a propane torch. Heat up and remove then one at a time. Just get them to glow red a little, let them cool a couple seconds, then remove. If they're still stubborn, re-heat, then hit the stud with penetrating oil while they're still hot.
Step three:
Now stuff gets tense. Begin heating the manifold nuts and removing them.
Here is where my luck started. The nuts were not very tightly torqued on. I was able to easily remove them one handed with a 13mm wrench. My luck continued on the bottom side. I used the stubby ratchet and mid depth 13mm socket but no heat. Each nut came out, one handed, with the stud attached. Again, luck and preparation.
Step four:
Once the manifold is free, you can fish it out through the bottom. This was the hardest part for me. Theres 3 things you can do to make it easier. Go over to the drivers side exhaust and disconnect the pipe from the manifold. Again, heat! Do this the same way as the passenger side. Then go to the rear transmission cross member and remove the 2 bolts that hold the exhaust support to the frame. This will allow you to pull the exhaust pipe down and get more room. The last thing you can do is to raise the passenger side of the motor up. Its easier than you think. Under the passenger side motor mount you will see 2 large nuts with a thick oval shaped washer underneath them both. Undo those nuts. Then take your floor jack and place a piece of wood on top of it. Position it under the transmission bell housing and raise the jack. Make sure you have solid contact before going any further. YOU ONLY WANT TO RAISE THE MOTOR AN INCH! Anymore could cause damage.
These things wont give you a ton of room but it will help. You should be able to get it out now.
This is what I found once I got mine out.
Reassembly is much easier, just do everything in reverse with your new manifold, gaskets, and hardware.
P.S. Yes, this is my first post. Go big or go home. lol
The following 8 users liked this post by jeepinjason51:
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03-07-2012, 04:57 PM
#2
Nice write up, welcome!
im sure that will be a big help to people
im sure that will be a big help to people
05-26-2015, 12:35 AM
#5
On the off-chance there are still people around interested in replacing 04-08 manifolds on the 5.4 3V (4x4), I offer some comments after finishing mine today.
I started getting the dreaded passenger-side 'tick' during highway acceleration several weeks ago. The local Ford dealership confirmed my suspicion of a cracked manifold. Quote for one side was approaching 2 grand, incl one new manifold & tax. After I got them off it turned out to be a case of advanced corrosion of the cast iron. It was so bad the exhaust was just leaking under the gasket of the rear port. The second manifold was not far behind. 160 000 km, 10 yrs old, had the truck since new.
I decided to get a good pair of stainless headers (12mm bolts) & catted y-tube (Dynatech's), bolted to the stock muffler. That worked out real well, fitment and manufacture was excellent. I would never put on another cast iron thing which would just give the same problem(s) again a few years down the road. The stainless was a fraction of the weight of the cast manifolds and steel pipes they replaced too. The long-tubes give a noticeable bit of low & mid-RPM performance boost right off the bat, before any dyno testing and ECU programming, which is to be done shortly. Reused all 4 O2 sensors, no CEL codes thrown.
I did all the work solo, out in the back parking lot, using common tools (no impact), on jack-stands, over a period of several days. Good weather.
* I did not raise the engine or tranny or remove any cross-supports at all. No unbolting the sway bar or A-arms either.
* You definitely have to remove the starter to get to the lower row of nuts, and to put in corresponding bolts on that side. Would have taken the opportunity to replace the starter if it hadn't already been done.
* Combination wrenches from the side and bottom and sockets, universal extensions, and extension rods from the bottom were needed to get to many nuts/bolts. The worst was the driver's side forward cylinder. The stud comes out at a weird angle that the 1/2D universal and the insertion angle of the extension just can't get to properly from below. I was lucky to get enough bite on the nut to break it out, but couldn't anchor the replacement bolt cleanly to torque it up properly. Maybe would have had better luck with an impact wobbly, or a pair of those; don't know. The most amazing arm/one-hand contortions were needed just to get new bolts started in too, due to tiny spaces at bad angles. At least half the work was done blind by feel.
* No heating used, no broken studs although I had angle drill-extensions and easy-outs and butane prepped. I soaked the nuts with Kroil overnight, and tapped them with a hammer if I could get to them. Then studs too. Engine stone cold when I did the work. Half of the nuts spun off the studs, the rest came out with the studs. The toughest part was the nightmare of getting to the lower forward nuts, as well as inserting replacement bolts there. Mostly I used the back-and-forth torquing that worked for the spark plugs, until I felt the crack of the seize breaking. All the nuts and studs seemed to have their own character in how they came out. Some quiet and grinding/tough, some with a sudden snap (usually the studs coming out of aluminum). The amount of initial force varied too, but was always high.
* The worst (middle) stud on the passenger side had to be cut off long with a hacksaw, in order to get the manifold out but keep enough stud to torque onto. Had to reach in sideways with tinsnips to cut the old gasket away to get a decent bite with the saw (blind).
* All studs including the cut one were cleanly torqued out using a pair of M8x1.25 nuts. Two nuts were spun onto the end of the stud, then torqued hard against each other. Then a 13mm box-end was used on the inner nut. I'm surprised I didn't read that trick anywhere in any of these writeups. Never would have been able to fit vice-grips onto some of the studs, even if you could clamp them down hard enough. Probably couldn't fit a TIG welder fitting near enough to those either to do the nut-weld trick, or be able to put enough torque onto a 5mm hex end of the studs before stripping it. (No 5mm hex sockets around here with 1/2D or 3/8D anyway). Interesting to note the OEM stud ends were actually 5mm hex, but replacements are E7 torx.
* There are open slots on the top of large brackets welded to the main frame, beside the engine. Those will eat any socket that you drop in there, and it will be difficult to find and retrieve it. Cover over those slots with aluminum foil before starting nut removal, and have a strong magnet-pencil available.
* The replacement LT Dynatech's go in easier than the manifolds come out, but squaring up the y-tube components takes a little patience.
She sure runs nice now though.
I started getting the dreaded passenger-side 'tick' during highway acceleration several weeks ago. The local Ford dealership confirmed my suspicion of a cracked manifold. Quote for one side was approaching 2 grand, incl one new manifold & tax. After I got them off it turned out to be a case of advanced corrosion of the cast iron. It was so bad the exhaust was just leaking under the gasket of the rear port. The second manifold was not far behind. 160 000 km, 10 yrs old, had the truck since new.
I decided to get a good pair of stainless headers (12mm bolts) & catted y-tube (Dynatech's), bolted to the stock muffler. That worked out real well, fitment and manufacture was excellent. I would never put on another cast iron thing which would just give the same problem(s) again a few years down the road. The stainless was a fraction of the weight of the cast manifolds and steel pipes they replaced too. The long-tubes give a noticeable bit of low & mid-RPM performance boost right off the bat, before any dyno testing and ECU programming, which is to be done shortly. Reused all 4 O2 sensors, no CEL codes thrown.
I did all the work solo, out in the back parking lot, using common tools (no impact), on jack-stands, over a period of several days. Good weather.
* I did not raise the engine or tranny or remove any cross-supports at all. No unbolting the sway bar or A-arms either.
* You definitely have to remove the starter to get to the lower row of nuts, and to put in corresponding bolts on that side. Would have taken the opportunity to replace the starter if it hadn't already been done.
* Combination wrenches from the side and bottom and sockets, universal extensions, and extension rods from the bottom were needed to get to many nuts/bolts. The worst was the driver's side forward cylinder. The stud comes out at a weird angle that the 1/2D universal and the insertion angle of the extension just can't get to properly from below. I was lucky to get enough bite on the nut to break it out, but couldn't anchor the replacement bolt cleanly to torque it up properly. Maybe would have had better luck with an impact wobbly, or a pair of those; don't know. The most amazing arm/one-hand contortions were needed just to get new bolts started in too, due to tiny spaces at bad angles. At least half the work was done blind by feel.
* No heating used, no broken studs although I had angle drill-extensions and easy-outs and butane prepped. I soaked the nuts with Kroil overnight, and tapped them with a hammer if I could get to them. Then studs too. Engine stone cold when I did the work. Half of the nuts spun off the studs, the rest came out with the studs. The toughest part was the nightmare of getting to the lower forward nuts, as well as inserting replacement bolts there. Mostly I used the back-and-forth torquing that worked for the spark plugs, until I felt the crack of the seize breaking. All the nuts and studs seemed to have their own character in how they came out. Some quiet and grinding/tough, some with a sudden snap (usually the studs coming out of aluminum). The amount of initial force varied too, but was always high.
* The worst (middle) stud on the passenger side had to be cut off long with a hacksaw, in order to get the manifold out but keep enough stud to torque onto. Had to reach in sideways with tinsnips to cut the old gasket away to get a decent bite with the saw (blind).
* All studs including the cut one were cleanly torqued out using a pair of M8x1.25 nuts. Two nuts were spun onto the end of the stud, then torqued hard against each other. Then a 13mm box-end was used on the inner nut. I'm surprised I didn't read that trick anywhere in any of these writeups. Never would have been able to fit vice-grips onto some of the studs, even if you could clamp them down hard enough. Probably couldn't fit a TIG welder fitting near enough to those either to do the nut-weld trick, or be able to put enough torque onto a 5mm hex end of the studs before stripping it. (No 5mm hex sockets around here with 1/2D or 3/8D anyway). Interesting to note the OEM stud ends were actually 5mm hex, but replacements are E7 torx.
* There are open slots on the top of large brackets welded to the main frame, beside the engine. Those will eat any socket that you drop in there, and it will be difficult to find and retrieve it. Cover over those slots with aluminum foil before starting nut removal, and have a strong magnet-pencil available.
* The replacement LT Dynatech's go in easier than the manifolds come out, but squaring up the y-tube components takes a little patience.
She sure runs nice now though.
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01-15-2016, 10:31 PM
#6
Junior Member
Contortionist - thanks for following up on this post! I have started to prep my truck for new manifolds next weekend and I'm sure both the original post(thanks jeepinjason51) and yours will help out a bunch. My only issue so far has been finding the bottom-front half studs from a creeper to shoot from PB Blaster on them -- I will give it a go again tomorrow.
04-02-2016, 01:02 PM
#7
* Combination wrenches from the side and bottom and sockets, universal extensions, and extension rods from the bottom were needed to get to many nuts/bolts. The worst was the driver's side forward cylinder. The stud comes out at a weird angle that the 1/2D universal and the insertion angle of the extension just can't get to properly from below
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06-18-2017, 04:25 PM
#8
Thanks a ton for all this info, My 010 5.4 has a cracked manifold in the pass side and its getting worse, 1700 was the quote from my Denver area exhaust shop so I'm doin this myself, Can anyone tell me if I go with headers will I then also need a new Y pipe.
06-19-2017, 07:01 AM
#9
Mark
iTrader: (1)
Most sets of shorties bolt right up to the OEM flange
