Originally Posted by F150Limited

You the man, Tex71. I really like to keep everything stock on the Limited.

Originally Posted by kozal01

You got lucky, most have have to extract a couple broken studs during this swap, thats what really adds alot of difficulty, there is not much room to work an extractor in there. When I swapped mine the front bottom stud was broken (one leak source) and I broke two more taking the manifold off. Getting those out was a major pain in the ***, took the better part of a day just to get them out.

Originally Posted by F150Limited

Hey Melrose99, what kozal01 said. If any of the broken stud is exposed you should soak the exposed threads down with PB Blaster and hope it migrates into the head. As kozal01 said, you can try to strike it with a hammer to break it loose and then lock on it with vice grips. If you cant get a grip on it you might try a stud extractor which is a device that locks on to the atud with a cam action, i.e., the harder you turn-the tighter it grips.

Another option to consider if the stud is exposed is to weld a nut on the stud that is slightly larger than the stud size. Slide the oversized nut on the stud and weld it on. The super heat sometimes will break the bond in the head and you will be able to turn it out with the nut.

If that does not work you will need to drill it out, probably with a short right-angle drill motor and stubby drill bits. Then use an easyout to get the remnant of the stud out. Then chase the cavity with a tap.

And if all of that fails it probably means that you will need to remove the head from the motor and take it to a good machine shop.

Originally Posted by F150Limited

My truck is a 2008 Supercrew Limited 4x4, 5.4 with around 140,000 well maintained miles. I scheduled an appointment with my non-dealership, but former longterm dealership mechanic, to replace the passenger side exhaust manifold. I ordered the parts in advance from Tasca including new genuine Ford studs, nuts, flange bolts and nuts, gaskets, and manifold.

I dropped the truck off the night before. The next morning about an hour after the shop opened I received a call from the mechanic. He said that the job was too risky since after he saw it firsthand he realized it there was limited space and the job was very much harder than the previous generation trucks. I told him I didn't care how long it took or costs, just please do it. He said no.

I picked it up and brought it home. This morning I started on it myself at 11:00 am and finished putting my tools away at 7:00 pm. Stopped only for a quick lunch. 7 1/2 hours.

As so many on this forum have stated; it's a difficult job. Here is what I learned and recommend-
1-Remove the Battery cable from the battery
2-jack the truck up and secure on Jack stands on the frame rails behind the front wheel.
3-Remove the front wheel
4-Remove the inner fender
5-Spray PB Blaster on, let soak and then remove the nuts on the exhaust manifold/exhaust pipe flange. This is the only place I recommend the use of PB Blaster. More about this below.
6-Remove the stater mounting bolts without removing the power cables to the bendix. Remove the started and slide it back onto a structural member.
7-Remove 2 nuts on the right side motor mount.
8-Remove 2 nuts on the transmission mount.
9-Place jack under front mounting lip of the transmission as extreme far right as possible. Use a piece of wood 2x4 between the lip and the jack to cushion the lip
10-Jack up the engine until the transmission fill tube firmly contacts the fire wall. This should be about 1 1/2 inches or so.
11-Make sure you have a good selection of 6 point 13mm deep well sockets, various extentions, ratchet (flex head) wrenches, flex and non-flex ratchets and universals before attempt removal of the manifold studs/nuts.
12-Remove the manifold studs by trying to remove the nuts. In most cases the nuts will be seized to the studs and they will come out together. I mentioned about that I do not recommend PB Blaster. I say this because you are better off removing the stud and the nut as one piece. If you are able to do this it will allow much more room to snake the manifold out.
13-if the nuts loosen up before the stud comes out you should try to spin on a jam nut and remove the stud.
14-Once all the studs are out you can snake the manifold out and down behind the front sway bar. Since you moved the starter toward the front of the vehicle in step 6 you should have plenty of room.
15-Remember the orientation of the exhaust gaskets while removing the old ones. They are directional as far as which side goes toward the manifold and which goes toward the head.

Put it back together in reverse order.