Broken manifold studs on my 4.7 PITA!!!!!

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Badart

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I've been hearing the dreaded tick from my 02 dakota for a couple of months then recently it has gotten louder. I found two broken studs on my drivers side exhaust manifold. WTH? Is this common? I hate working on daily drivers. The only good thing is that they are broken off right at the nut and there is enough room to grab them with vice grips or weld a nut on them. Now I have to pull the manifold and pray that I don't break any more. I just have to vent.:angry7:
 
Man!! and I was going to start a thread to vent that I got some chit on my new FABO hoody :angry7:
Sorry to hear your day did not get off to the right start Badart, I hope it was not the one close to the fire wall 8)
 
memike said:
Man!! and I was going to start a thread to vent that I got some chit on my new FABO hoody :angry7:
Sorry to hear your day did not get off to the right start Badart, I hope it was not the one close to the fire wall 8)
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Thanks Memike and yes it's one of them close to the firewall, but the access through the wheel well looks decent. I just hate trying to loosen rusty exhaust parts. They never cooperate.
 
Badart said:
Thanks Memike and yes it's one of them close to the firewall, but the access through the wheel well looks decent. I just hate trying to loosen rusty exhaust parts. They never cooperate.
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Shoot it down with blaster or something a couple time this evening 8)
And do you have an indoor shop ? I forgot if you did or not 8)
 
I just fixed the "ticking" on mine, here is what i did. I bought headers, figured if I was gonna take an exhaust manifold off i wasn't going to put it back on. Drivers side I took the master cylinder and brake booster off for access. Alot of the heads on the manifold bolts had rusted and were different sizes, I used a 10 mm on some, 9 mm, 5/16" Grip-rite socket.

My tick ended up being a blown out gasket on #8.

As soon as the stud is broken loose, they would back right out with fingers. There were two that I could not get off, and had to cut the heads off with a grinder, and once the head was off the rest would thread right out. So i bet that you won't have a difficult time getting the rest of the fastener out of the head.

Good luck and keep your patience.

Steve
 
It's not that big of a deal and yeah Mike I have a heated garage, but the problem is my W-100 is scattered all over it getting ready for paint. Looks like I will be doing it in the driveway or roll the W-100 out in the driveway for the day. I just hope one of the studs doesn't decide to break off in the head. I will drive it until next weekend and fix it when I have all of the parts from the dealer.
 
Bother had the same Ticking on his 06 dakota found the the bolts were there but not tight, seems like there's a problem from Ma mopar!!!
 
Hummm.... I got a 02 Dak with the 4.7 and haven't had any problems. Only got 67,000 on it though. The best way I've found to get rusty exhaust bolts out is to soak them a couple days with PB Blaster and use an impact. The impact will knock the rust loose rather than twisting the bolts/studs off.

68A did the headers make much difference in how it runs? I bought a set of headers for mine a couple yrs. back and haven't been able to make myself install them yet. Don't know why I even bought them as I hate headers.
 
fishy68 said:
Hummm.... I got a 02 Dak with the 4.7 and haven't had any problems. Only got 67,000 on it though. The best way I've found to get rusty exhaust bolts out is to soak them a couple days with PB Blaster and use an impact. The impact will knock the rust loose rather than twisting the bolts/studs off.

68A did the headers make much difference in how it runs? I bought a set of headers for mine a couple yrs. back and haven't been able to make myself install them yet. Don't know why I even bought them as I hate headers.
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Fishy I don't think that you want to put an impact on these. They are tiny. All of them that I have seen are a 10 mm nut. What's up with that? :angry7:
 
Fishy, I don't think the headers added much. I would not put them on if the manifolds are still sealed up. If they start to leak, then you might want to put them on. I actually need to get it in the shop this week to do the first after driving tightening, which is not going to be much fun with everything back in, and I will probably use an end wrench to tighten them.

There is not much room to get an impact in there, i used some sockets, some open end wrenches, cut some heads off with a die grinder, some with a cut off wheel on a grinder, welded some nuts on to get the rounded heads off. There was alot of different tools used. The drivers side was easier due to more room, the passenger side is close to the frame rail.

Good luck

Steve
 
Mines been ticking for the last 10K, not sure if i'm going to even fix mine, truck has 145K
 
Badart said:
Fishy I don't think that you want to put an impact on these. They are tiny. All of them that I have seen are a 10 mm nut. What's up with that? :angry7:
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I didn't know they were that small but a small impact (if you can get it in there) set on low might still be better than using a wrench. The problem I've seen with rusted exhaust studs/bolts is they generally twist right off when using a wrench or socket where-as a impact's hammering action doesn't twist things off as easily. That's been my luck but then again I have never tried it on a stud so small.
 
68 A said:
Fishy, I don't think the headers added much. I would not put them on if the manifolds are still sealed up. If they start to leak, then you might want to put them on. I actually need to get it in the shop this week to do the first after driving tightening, which is not going to be much fun with everything back in, and I will probably use an end wrench to tighten them.

There is not much room to get an impact in there, i used some sockets, some open end wrenches, cut some heads off with a die grinder, some with a cut off wheel on a grinder, welded some nuts on to get the rounded heads off. There was alot of different tools used. The drivers side was easier due to more room, the passenger side is close to the frame rail.

Good luck

Steve
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Thanks for the info Steve. I think as long as mine is working/not leaking I'll leave it alone.

Sorry Badart for hi-jacking the thread.
 
You only have to get about a 1/4 turn and they will back the rest of the way out with your fingers.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Fishy I think we have a small impact at work that I can borrow for the day.
 
Just went by the dealership to pick up a new manifold gasket and the studs. The parts guy said that they can't keep them in stock because they all break on the 4.7. He said the replacement studs are a different alloy and are much better. Just letting you guys know.
 
3.7's/4.7's are maintainence whores....fix the obvious things wrong with it and ditch it!

They like to also get gummed up oil passages to the cams/heads and kill timing cains with a vengence....they do make good power though. For a driver, I wouldnt use one, simply because of the required mechanical up-keep.
 
How did you make out changing the studs?
Mine were broke on the passengers side my 04 4.7L, the rear 2 bolts. I sprayed them with PB Blaster every day for a week. I have a 3" body lift and 34" tires, so I did not even have to jack it up or take the wheel off or nothing, just stuck my head and arms in there. Everything unbolted with ease and after I took the manifold off, the 2 broken studs unscrewed by hand with no tools. I used a sawzall and cut the down pipe bolts and replaced with grade 8's from home depot. For what I was expecting, work wise, this was a pretty simple and easy job.
 

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CUDAGUY said:
3.7's/4.7's are maintainence whores....fix the obvious things wrong with it and ditch it!

They like to also get gummed up oil passages to the cams/heads and kill timing cains with a vengence....they do make good power though. For a driver, I wouldnt use one, simply because of the required mechanical up-keep.
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Maybe i got a good one but i never had to doo any premature maintenance on mine...granted it was cconstantly being modded. The shortblock looked awesome when i pulled the motor at 105k and sold it....i think proper scheduled maintenance (OIL CHANGES) go a long way to keeping 4.7 owners happy. I didnt have any signs of the sludge i hear about...nor do my friends who have 4.7s.

The guy i sold my shortblock to on the other hand...sludge city....but he also did his own oil changes and only had 5 quarts of oil on hand when we swapped his motor, so i have little faith in his common sense. His motor got sludged up and got so hot his cylinder heads started to fall apart...literally. it was crazy.

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