Exhaust Manifold Leak

[GKIII]

So, credit where credit is due. AFE has reviewed my pictures of the crack and have shipped me a replacement header for the driver's side. No hassle of returning a broken part, they simply replaced the defective unit. Good on them.

These days you're not necessarily paying for quality, but rather customer service. I had a similar experience with my Borla exhaust, initial fitment was terrible but they fixed no questions asked.

 

[Bt10]

Companies must make a good profit margin












doing it twice.

 

[GKIII]

Companies must make a good profit margin












doing it twice.

Quality production has an exponential cost factor. Companies make more money by making a 99% product and warrantying 1% of them rather than making something that will never need a warranty. (I pulled these figures out of my ***, in reality it can be any % but I just wanted to keep it simple).

 

[RAMREB]

Has anyone who replaced the manifolds themselves been able to source a kit with the manifold such as the 68591572AA lately? my RH side is leaking due to broken manifold stud. I can't afford headers right now.

 

[Bt10]

Has anyone who replaced the manifolds themselves been able to source a kit with the manifold such as the 68591572AA lately? my RH side is leaking due to broken manifold stud. I can't afford headers right now.

If you are out of warranty, you can’t afford cast iron from the dealer?

 

[Ramjack]

Well I have installed the JBA shorty headers. What a pain that was . Don’t recommend it unless you have tiny hands and long arms. I will post pictures when I get home.

Damn, man. You posted on 5/18 that you were "considering" going with aftermarket headers. The next post was early morning on 5/23 that you were DONE with the install (even though it was a PITA). I'm impressed: That's serious gettin'-it-dunnage !!

 

[Ellisstrong]

Has anyone who replaced the manifolds themselves been able to source a kit with the manifold such as the 68591572AA lately? my RH side is leaking due to broken manifold stud. I can't afford headers right now.

I have a set of factory manifolds I took off in atlanta ga area

 

[RAMREB]

If you are out of warranty, you can’t afford cast iron from the dealer?

The part number kit I posted is very affordable coming in at less that $80. It’s Not available from the 3 dealerships parts departments I talked to on Saturday.

 

[My1stHemi]

I installed my repaired AFE shorties. Ceramic coating seems to be holding up this time.

This time I chose to use hex socket set screws(m8 x1.25 x 40mm) and locking stainless nuts rather than bolts. If I were to do it again I would use 45mm to bottom out in the hole. I can say that this fastener combo made installation much easier.

After 50mi I had a few leaks and found that the only nuts to loosen were rear uppers on both sides.

 

[My1stHemi]

Has anyone who replaced the manifolds themselves been able to source a kit with the manifold such as the 68591572AA lately? my RH side is leaking due to broken manifold stud. I can't afford headers right now.

Swapping factory manifolds is rather easy compared to the headers.
If I were you, I would strongly consider getting some of the factory manifolds ceramic coated to help with the heat. Maybe they will last longer that way(they should in theory).

 

[RAMREB]

Swapping factory manifolds is rather easy compared to the headers.
If I were you, I would strongly consider getting some of the factory manifolds ceramic coated to help with the heat. Maybe they will last longer that way(they should in theory).

I would love to do the headers but just can't justify the money right now. I actually do not even have a cracked manifold. The only reason I am doing this is because the pass side manifold was leaking at the 70k mark. The reason I determined was the technician that performed the loose ground bolt recall when my truck was relatively new over torqued one of the studs that retains the heat shield and broke it off. Of course it did not immediately start leaking and finally did give out when the truck came out of warranty. This was a long time ago and I was not going to go down that road with the dealership of finger pointing. It only took about an hour to remove so I'll just reinstall with new gaskets and hardware and deal with it down the road. I would replace with a new manifold but cannot source them at this time.

 

[RAMREB]

Job is complete. Something I learned today while visiting the dealership parts department that could have been already covered in this thread is that they changed the manifold setup with tie bars tying the exhaust manifold bolts together. I have no evidence to prove this and its a theory but I could see that this could cause the manifold to crack instead of breaking an exhaust manifold bolt like these trucks are traditionally know to do. My truck did not have the tie bars and I put it back together without installing them. Just rolled over 70,000 miles

 

[Bt10]

Job is complete. Something I learned today while visiting the dealership parts department that could have been already covered in this thread is that they changed the manifold setup with tie bars tying the exhaust manifold bolts together. I have no evidence to prove this and its a theory but I could see that this could cause the manifold to crack instead of breaking an exhaust manifold bolt like these trucks are traditionally know to do. My truck did not have the tie bars and I put it back together without installing them. Just rolled over 70,000 miles

Well, in the big picture, this would definitely be cheaper and easier to warranty.

 

[Ramjack]

Job is complete. Something I learned today while visiting the dealership parts department that could have been already covered in this thread is that they changed the manifold setup with tie bars tying the exhaust manifold bolts together. I have no evidence to prove this and its a theory but I could see that this could cause the manifold to crack instead of breaking an exhaust manifold bolt like these trucks are traditionally know to do. My truck did not have the tie bars and I put it back together without installing them. Just rolled over 70,000 miles

What is the purpose of the tie bar? To somehow reduce stress on the bolts?

 

[patriot_tech]

Well, I guess I am in this boat too.... Exhaust seemed real loud on passenger side. Truck has 65k on it. Dealer looked at it 2 weeks ago, head tech walked out to my truck and instantly said both sides were cracked. Parts not available until end of June. Luckily, I have an extended warranty.

 

[CopterDoctor]

Well we can put my name on the list. 18,000 miles and the driver side bolt head broke and caused the exhaust manifold to warp. Checked vehicle in on Wednesday afternoon and the part came in on Monday. It is at the dealer now being replaced.

 

[JF19Longhorn]

Called the dealer to see if there was an update.. apparently my manifold came in but they were waiting on the swaybar endlinks before calling me. The endlinks ETA is now Sept!!! So who knows how long I've been dealing with the chugging / ticking sound while my manifold was sitting on their shelf. She goes under the wrench Monday.

 

[Talon4U2NV]

Curious, On the ones that have dealt with the cracked manifold issues; how often have you towed on the truck?

 

[Bt10]

Twice for me.

 

[Jeffjad]

Curious, On the ones that have dealt with the cracked manifold issues; how often have you towed on the truck?

Tow a boat twice a week May-Sept. Both manifolds replaced.