I have a 98 expedition 5.4 4x4.
Are the exhaust manafold studs screwed into the head or are they pressed into the head? While checking a noise that I suspected to be an exhaust leak, I noticed that one of the exhaust studs has been twisted off. Must have happened before I bought the truck. I've never worked on the exhaust manafold. I'm thinking of drilling the stud that I can see at the surface of the hole in the manafold and using an easy out to remove the stud. I just want to be sure I don't damage the aluminum head. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Good luck with that. It is a threaded stud into head. My guess is that the stud in question is the rear stud of passenger exhaust manifold. That is the one I see broken all the time.. The reason I say good luck is because of electolysis of steel stud in aluminum head. easy out I think not, but good luck.

 

I have a 2000 expo and 2 of my exhaust manifold bolts snapped right off flush . it was in the same spot . in the rear by the starter . and i had one replaced by welding a ball of solder on what ever is left of the stud basically the top of it then i held a steel nut with a set of vise grips over that ball and then welded the nut to that . i let it sit for a few mins. then took a socket to it and it came out. but you have to use a steel nut . i still need to do the other one but i need to take out the starter so i can have more room . thats how i did it. an exhaust place wanted 250 dollars to start for 2 hrs . and that was taking the whole manifold off to repair the broken studs .

goodluck