6.8 exhaust stud advice

little luke

New member
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
1,246
Reaction score
1
Location
Union County, Kentucky
I’ve got a 2003 excursion with a 6.8. The exhaust gasket blew out after 5 of the 10 exhaust studs on the driver side rotted off. While removing the remaining studs 1 more snapped. Most are below flush and I’m having no luck at all. 1 was slightly above flush and I attempted to weld a nut to it, but It is so brittle it just snapped off. I’ve used a pick to clean the corrosion off the edges and keep soaking them in pb blaster, drilling and attempted to use a bolt extractor. No dice. The entire truck has pretty bad rot, so I’m not to optimistic.

So I’m thinking of just buying a head and being done with it. Problem is every thing I read says to pull the cab (not an option) and I’m not seeing why. Seems like on the driver side there is plenty of room. Am I missing something here?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

DEEZUZ

NO PUKESTERS
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
6,821
Reaction score
179
Location
NWI
Suck it up and drill them out. Sounds like a job that should have been quoted out of the shop
 

little luke

New member
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
1,246
Reaction score
1
Location
Union County, Kentucky
Pretty much, but it’s an “is what it is” situation. Going to pull the head and get it on my bench where I can work on it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

6.0 Tech

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
3,473
Reaction score
97
Location
Mesa, AZ
They say to pull the motor on a bunch of stuff for really no reason. Best I can figure is so you dont gouge the head on the dowel when fighting the exhaust or something when reinstalling. You should be able to pull it in frame no issue. You may wanna address the otherside now too before it gets just as bad.

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk
 

little luke

New member
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
1,246
Reaction score
1
Location
Union County, Kentucky
Yeah, I noticed the other side have 2 missing, but they are still flush with the manifold. I get to were I don’t hate this truck after awhile I’ll tackle that side.
After talking to a buddy who maintains the county trucks, he convinced me to leave the head in. I figured I was well armed with $200 worth of easy out kits and decent drill bit I ran out and bought, plus a snap on easy out kit I rented. Wrong. Ended up drilling them all out till I started seeing the threads exposed. I never could get the holes exactly dead center, so I used a combination of burrs to finish chewing out the studs. Amazingly I only buggered up one hole and had to put a helicoil in it.

I just finished up the manifold. Wish I had tooling for my mill so I could have saved an hour.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Members online

Top