I've successfully replaced the exhaust manifolds on my 240k 2016 EcoBoost and thought some here would benefit from my learnings. There's lots of F-150 info out there, but there were some unanswered Transit-specific questions I had, and I've seen a couple other threads here that didn't fully seem resolved.
This post is going to be long and not-very-entertaining recreational reading, but for someone attempting this themselves I hope some firsthand info will be useful when the time comes.
Manifolds:
So the biggest thing that I didn't realize until I was elbows-deep in rusty van bits is that the new stainless 9-bolt Ford exhaust manifold uses 3 different holes than the old 8-bolter. They both use the one most rearward, the one that always breaks. But then the next 3 are virgin holes, so it doesn't matter if the next two studs break off, which are the ones next most likely to bring despair. Before realizing this, I elected to use the BD Diesel manifolds which use all 11 holes in case I messed up a hole or two. But the odds of doing so would have been lower had I stuck with the new OEM parts. Nobody knows how either one will hold up over time, but if I had to do it again I probably would go with the OEM 9-hole manifolds.
Access:
I removed the headlights, front bumper, radiator support, fuse box support, airbox, coolant bottle, and numerous other things that were in the way. This was very much worth the access. The time spent disassembling and reassembling is tiny compared to the time spent in awkward positions and any little bit helped my middle-aged body survive the ordeal.
Most of the work except for a few turbo bolts, the exhaust, and some of the coolant lines was done from above. I drove the front tires onto a couple of 2x10's and never jacked the van. Intercooler, subframe, cross-braces underneath etc. all stayed in place.
Exhaust:
After disconnecting the cats from the turbos, I was able to ratchet-strap the whole exhaust system to the back axle and get it rearward enough to clear the studs in the turbo easily. I was ready to disconnect exhaust hangers but it was unnecessary.
Turbo coolant lines:
Many internet sources say that getting the turbo coolant lines out of the Jiffy Tite fittings is easier with a pick. I didn't find it so. The first one took me about an hour with various picks, the second about 20 minutes. After getting a Lisle 3/8 low profile disconnect, the rest took about 30 seconds each (except for the left side fitting to the head, see below). Well worth the $15, but everyone else on the internet must be more skilled with pointy sticks than I am. I can live with that.
I planned to replace most of the Jiffy Tite fittings and steel coolant lines, on Internet wisdom. The left side fitting to the head on the back of the engine is difficult to reach, impossible to see, and too wide for the quick disconnect tool. I gambled that it wouldn't leak, and left it. I totally lost that gamble, and had to go back in and replace the fitting and the line after everything else was buttoned up. I won't go into details of how I managed to actually do it, since my method was not a good one. I will say that I had to unscrew the fitting from the head with the line still in place, and if the neighbors had looked out of the window the judge would probably put my name on some registry somewhere.
To give access to the oil/coolant line bolts to the block, I unbolted the A/C compressor and alternator, but left them hooked up. Likewise, the starter needed to come loose for some other bolt access.
I am actually not convinced that the lower coolant line on the turbo (the one inaccessible from above) actually needs to be disconnected before taking the turbos out. I installed the line into the turbo before installing it, and together they fit into the space fine. Next time, I would try leaving the line on, disconnceting it at the block and only removing the line from the turbo once both were out of the van, where I could see and not have rust falling into my face. Various F-150 folks seemed to have trouble installing this line back in the fitting, but I just clicked it in before installing the turbo and it was easy.
Turbos:
The service manual says one of the turbo to manifold bolts needs a socket-to-hex adapter for clearance, hilariously referencing a Harbor Freight part. I had a 3/8" T50 and didn't have any clearance issues.
Most of my turbo-to-manifold bolts broke off. I wasn't exactly wanting to reuse either these manifolds or bolts, so maybe it's a strategy to try and break them off right away. It might be faster, or at least more cathartic, than struggling for a while and then breaking them off.
Getting the studs out:
Now onto the main event. Two of my exhaust manifold studs were already broken off, as usual the rearmost ones. Four more heads broke off, and one nut came off of the stud, with the stud remaining in the head like I'm told is supposed to happen but I've never seen in my rust-belt life. After breaking the first head, I got an electric induction heater. I'm not sure if this actually helped remove any of the studs that successfully came out. I probably would skip it and save $200. But hey, cool new tool.
Five of the studs broke off with a good bit of thread sticking out of the head, but I was unable to turn them by any combination of a propane torch, induction heater, old cheap locking pliers, brand-new proper Vice Grips, welding a nut/washer/scrap metal on, penetrating oil for days, hitting with a hammer, scratching away at the interface with a pick, turning clockwise, quenching, putting a nut on and destroying the threads behind it, various incantations and blood sacrifices, and anything else that the internet said might work. My 120V wire-feed MIG wouldn't get enough penetration on the studs, trying both gas and flux-core wire for mild steel. I don't think this steel is so mild.
Ultimately the studs had to be drilled out with the Promaxx Elizabeth II jig, like $400 but I got a deal on eBay. It has holes in the right place and bushings to hold the drill bits perpendicular. The standard kit comes with extractors. My studs laughed at those, so I had to get the Extractorless Upgrade, which is bigger drill bits and bushings and a tap with bushings.
There is no way I would have been able to drill out all the studs on-center without a jig. Possibly the right side, but I couldn't see the left side straight on. If I were using the Ford manifolds and only had to drill out one stud per side, I might have attempted it without the Promaxx jig, hacking the old manifold into a jig or something since the way the head is it looks like there isn't a water jacket running by the rearmost stud. But if you're reading this far, you can probably tell that I'm willing to attempt things that smarter people would not.
Back to what I actually did. After thoroughly molesting the exposed part of the studs with the various combinations of destructive elements described above, grinding the studs close-to-flush with the head was a little nerve-wracking. I separated the old manifold gasket into layers and bolted a third of it back on in case my grinder slipped. They don't need to be totally flush, but with a mm or so to get the bushing to fit flush on the jig.
Promaxx says to use a 1/4 air ratchet with a drill chuck for drilling. I didn't have a 1/4", so did most of my drilling with a cordless angle drill, figuring replacing a few burned bits would be cheaper than investing in more air tools when I've mostly switched to lithium. They were right, it was hard to keep the speed down and I overheated a few bits. I also tried an electric ratchet, but found the angle drill more effective. I'm not sure how those YouTube videos drill through those studs in 30 seconds. It took me more like 30 minutes per stud, maybe more, as it was very difficult and painful to put pressure on the left side of the head. I ended up building a pile of scrap wood to push off of with the back of my hand to avoid putting too much force on A/C or brake lines. I was sore for several days. Maybe the pneumatic 1/4 ratchet really is key. Ibuprofen was key for me.
There is enough space to get a drill into the rearmost left side stud, the tightest one, but only with a short drill bit like Promaxx includes. A 3.5" long jobber bit needed to go into the jig first, then be tightened into the drill chuck. Promaxx's proper air ratchet chuck would probably have plenty of clearance. I also needed to unbolt a wiring harness and guard that went down towards the transmission for that stud.
And I needed to remove the right side engine lifting eye to get the Promaxx jig on some of the studs.
As backup, I also got some non-Promaxx M42 Cobalt drill bits. They worked okay but the shorter Promaxx ones were more convenient. I drilled the first couple with 1/8, then 3/16, then H, but after I stupidly broke the tip off my 1/8 by accidentally kicking the drill sitting on the ground, I started the rest with 3/16. I honestly think it was faster that way, though I'm not sure if it put me more off center or out of round etc.
Other access notes:
The heater hoses that go to the rear heater were a slight annoyance in accessing the left side manifold. I long suspected these of a slow leak, so took them out and replaced them. It would definitely be doable with them in place, but would be one more thing to navigate around.
The A/C charge port was the most vulnerable thing over on the left side, once not protected by the fuse box. I tried to shore it up with some scrap wood but still bumped into it more times than I want to admit.
Parts:
The official Ford fordparts.com does free shipping on anything over $35, and everything came overnight even selecting the slowest shipping. Prices vary by the dealer you choose. Clicking all around the country, I found Mission Ford of Dearborn MI pretty cheap, and factoring shipping in it was about as good as any of the independent online parts dealers like Tasca etc.
Every bolt, nut, and gasket was FedEx'd individually. So a big padded envelope has only one o-ring in it. My driver must hate me. I can't see how it's a sustainable business, but I'll take advantage of it while it lasts. It was great to not order things until I was sure that I needed it and only have to wait 18 hours for a stack of 15 envelopes to show up on my doorstep.
Ford's part number display method is horrible, however, not showing the prefixes or suffixes, including the letter which differentiates all the coolant fittings from each other, for example.
Other things to replace at the same time:
Obviously every gasket you touch, and I also replaced both belts, the coolant degas bottle, the hard plastic line to the bottle, the upper and lower radiator hoses, and the assemblage of hoses that run to the rear heater because they'll never be more accessible.
Ford doesn't provide new hose clamps, and I could not figure out how to order proper new constant-tension clamps with an OEM corrosion finish. On other vehicles, I've had hose clamps corrode through and dump all the coolant (both the stainless worm-type and the constant-tension type) and I didn't want to take that chance given how hard it is to access the Transit's hoses. I ended up using Gates PowerGrip thermoplastic hose clamps, a one-time use plastic ring that you shrink on with a heat gun, to replace my most corroded clamps, the ones at the radiator. I think I will collect hose clamps from newer wrecks at the junkyard next time.
Remember that the A/C and power steering belt is different than you'll see in F-150 writeups, in that it has a tensioner. The F-150 has some sort of stretchy belt without a tensioner (because it has electric power steering) and I dumbly was trying to get the Transit belt off the same way at first.
So with this project done, I fully expect an unrelated catastrophic engine failure soon. I considered getting a newer used engine, refreshing it while I could reach everything, and then swapping it. I'm not sure it would have been that much less work, and if I had any cat or transmission issues it would have been the way to go since I assume my subframe is fused to the van. I'm pretty sure sliding the engine out from the front is doable for those of us without a lift.
How long did it take? It's hard to say since I would bounce in and out between attending to a real job, kids, and trying not to annoy the neighbors more (as if that were possible). The van was in pieces for a bit under 3 weeks. If I had to make an estimate, maybe 25 hours as a pretty ambitious yet only marginally competent DIYer in a suburban driveway, with temperatures around freezing?
This post is going to be long and not-very-entertaining recreational reading, but for someone attempting this themselves I hope some firsthand info will be useful when the time comes.
Manifolds:
So the biggest thing that I didn't realize until I was elbows-deep in rusty van bits is that the new stainless 9-bolt Ford exhaust manifold uses 3 different holes than the old 8-bolter. They both use the one most rearward, the one that always breaks. But then the next 3 are virgin holes, so it doesn't matter if the next two studs break off, which are the ones next most likely to bring despair. Before realizing this, I elected to use the BD Diesel manifolds which use all 11 holes in case I messed up a hole or two. But the odds of doing so would have been lower had I stuck with the new OEM parts. Nobody knows how either one will hold up over time, but if I had to do it again I probably would go with the OEM 9-hole manifolds.
Access:
I removed the headlights, front bumper, radiator support, fuse box support, airbox, coolant bottle, and numerous other things that were in the way. This was very much worth the access. The time spent disassembling and reassembling is tiny compared to the time spent in awkward positions and any little bit helped my middle-aged body survive the ordeal.
Most of the work except for a few turbo bolts, the exhaust, and some of the coolant lines was done from above. I drove the front tires onto a couple of 2x10's and never jacked the van. Intercooler, subframe, cross-braces underneath etc. all stayed in place.
Exhaust:
After disconnecting the cats from the turbos, I was able to ratchet-strap the whole exhaust system to the back axle and get it rearward enough to clear the studs in the turbo easily. I was ready to disconnect exhaust hangers but it was unnecessary.
Turbo coolant lines:
Many internet sources say that getting the turbo coolant lines out of the Jiffy Tite fittings is easier with a pick. I didn't find it so. The first one took me about an hour with various picks, the second about 20 minutes. After getting a Lisle 3/8 low profile disconnect, the rest took about 30 seconds each (except for the left side fitting to the head, see below). Well worth the $15, but everyone else on the internet must be more skilled with pointy sticks than I am. I can live with that.
I planned to replace most of the Jiffy Tite fittings and steel coolant lines, on Internet wisdom. The left side fitting to the head on the back of the engine is difficult to reach, impossible to see, and too wide for the quick disconnect tool. I gambled that it wouldn't leak, and left it. I totally lost that gamble, and had to go back in and replace the fitting and the line after everything else was buttoned up. I won't go into details of how I managed to actually do it, since my method was not a good one. I will say that I had to unscrew the fitting from the head with the line still in place, and if the neighbors had looked out of the window the judge would probably put my name on some registry somewhere.
To give access to the oil/coolant line bolts to the block, I unbolted the A/C compressor and alternator, but left them hooked up. Likewise, the starter needed to come loose for some other bolt access.
I am actually not convinced that the lower coolant line on the turbo (the one inaccessible from above) actually needs to be disconnected before taking the turbos out. I installed the line into the turbo before installing it, and together they fit into the space fine. Next time, I would try leaving the line on, disconnceting it at the block and only removing the line from the turbo once both were out of the van, where I could see and not have rust falling into my face. Various F-150 folks seemed to have trouble installing this line back in the fitting, but I just clicked it in before installing the turbo and it was easy.
Turbos:
The service manual says one of the turbo to manifold bolts needs a socket-to-hex adapter for clearance, hilariously referencing a Harbor Freight part. I had a 3/8" T50 and didn't have any clearance issues.
Most of my turbo-to-manifold bolts broke off. I wasn't exactly wanting to reuse either these manifolds or bolts, so maybe it's a strategy to try and break them off right away. It might be faster, or at least more cathartic, than struggling for a while and then breaking them off.
Getting the studs out:
Now onto the main event. Two of my exhaust manifold studs were already broken off, as usual the rearmost ones. Four more heads broke off, and one nut came off of the stud, with the stud remaining in the head like I'm told is supposed to happen but I've never seen in my rust-belt life. After breaking the first head, I got an electric induction heater. I'm not sure if this actually helped remove any of the studs that successfully came out. I probably would skip it and save $200. But hey, cool new tool.
Five of the studs broke off with a good bit of thread sticking out of the head, but I was unable to turn them by any combination of a propane torch, induction heater, old cheap locking pliers, brand-new proper Vice Grips, welding a nut/washer/scrap metal on, penetrating oil for days, hitting with a hammer, scratching away at the interface with a pick, turning clockwise, quenching, putting a nut on and destroying the threads behind it, various incantations and blood sacrifices, and anything else that the internet said might work. My 120V wire-feed MIG wouldn't get enough penetration on the studs, trying both gas and flux-core wire for mild steel. I don't think this steel is so mild.
Ultimately the studs had to be drilled out with the Promaxx Elizabeth II jig, like $400 but I got a deal on eBay. It has holes in the right place and bushings to hold the drill bits perpendicular. The standard kit comes with extractors. My studs laughed at those, so I had to get the Extractorless Upgrade, which is bigger drill bits and bushings and a tap with bushings.
There is no way I would have been able to drill out all the studs on-center without a jig. Possibly the right side, but I couldn't see the left side straight on. If I were using the Ford manifolds and only had to drill out one stud per side, I might have attempted it without the Promaxx jig, hacking the old manifold into a jig or something since the way the head is it looks like there isn't a water jacket running by the rearmost stud. But if you're reading this far, you can probably tell that I'm willing to attempt things that smarter people would not.
Back to what I actually did. After thoroughly molesting the exposed part of the studs with the various combinations of destructive elements described above, grinding the studs close-to-flush with the head was a little nerve-wracking. I separated the old manifold gasket into layers and bolted a third of it back on in case my grinder slipped. They don't need to be totally flush, but with a mm or so to get the bushing to fit flush on the jig.
Promaxx says to use a 1/4 air ratchet with a drill chuck for drilling. I didn't have a 1/4", so did most of my drilling with a cordless angle drill, figuring replacing a few burned bits would be cheaper than investing in more air tools when I've mostly switched to lithium. They were right, it was hard to keep the speed down and I overheated a few bits. I also tried an electric ratchet, but found the angle drill more effective. I'm not sure how those YouTube videos drill through those studs in 30 seconds. It took me more like 30 minutes per stud, maybe more, as it was very difficult and painful to put pressure on the left side of the head. I ended up building a pile of scrap wood to push off of with the back of my hand to avoid putting too much force on A/C or brake lines. I was sore for several days. Maybe the pneumatic 1/4 ratchet really is key. Ibuprofen was key for me.
There is enough space to get a drill into the rearmost left side stud, the tightest one, but only with a short drill bit like Promaxx includes. A 3.5" long jobber bit needed to go into the jig first, then be tightened into the drill chuck. Promaxx's proper air ratchet chuck would probably have plenty of clearance. I also needed to unbolt a wiring harness and guard that went down towards the transmission for that stud.
And I needed to remove the right side engine lifting eye to get the Promaxx jig on some of the studs.
As backup, I also got some non-Promaxx M42 Cobalt drill bits. They worked okay but the shorter Promaxx ones were more convenient. I drilled the first couple with 1/8, then 3/16, then H, but after I stupidly broke the tip off my 1/8 by accidentally kicking the drill sitting on the ground, I started the rest with 3/16. I honestly think it was faster that way, though I'm not sure if it put me more off center or out of round etc.
Other access notes:
The heater hoses that go to the rear heater were a slight annoyance in accessing the left side manifold. I long suspected these of a slow leak, so took them out and replaced them. It would definitely be doable with them in place, but would be one more thing to navigate around.
The A/C charge port was the most vulnerable thing over on the left side, once not protected by the fuse box. I tried to shore it up with some scrap wood but still bumped into it more times than I want to admit.
Parts:
The official Ford fordparts.com does free shipping on anything over $35, and everything came overnight even selecting the slowest shipping. Prices vary by the dealer you choose. Clicking all around the country, I found Mission Ford of Dearborn MI pretty cheap, and factoring shipping in it was about as good as any of the independent online parts dealers like Tasca etc.
Every bolt, nut, and gasket was FedEx'd individually. So a big padded envelope has only one o-ring in it. My driver must hate me. I can't see how it's a sustainable business, but I'll take advantage of it while it lasts. It was great to not order things until I was sure that I needed it and only have to wait 18 hours for a stack of 15 envelopes to show up on my doorstep.
Ford's part number display method is horrible, however, not showing the prefixes or suffixes, including the letter which differentiates all the coolant fittings from each other, for example.
Other things to replace at the same time:
Obviously every gasket you touch, and I also replaced both belts, the coolant degas bottle, the hard plastic line to the bottle, the upper and lower radiator hoses, and the assemblage of hoses that run to the rear heater because they'll never be more accessible.
Ford doesn't provide new hose clamps, and I could not figure out how to order proper new constant-tension clamps with an OEM corrosion finish. On other vehicles, I've had hose clamps corrode through and dump all the coolant (both the stainless worm-type and the constant-tension type) and I didn't want to take that chance given how hard it is to access the Transit's hoses. I ended up using Gates PowerGrip thermoplastic hose clamps, a one-time use plastic ring that you shrink on with a heat gun, to replace my most corroded clamps, the ones at the radiator. I think I will collect hose clamps from newer wrecks at the junkyard next time.
Remember that the A/C and power steering belt is different than you'll see in F-150 writeups, in that it has a tensioner. The F-150 has some sort of stretchy belt without a tensioner (because it has electric power steering) and I dumbly was trying to get the Transit belt off the same way at first.
So with this project done, I fully expect an unrelated catastrophic engine failure soon. I considered getting a newer used engine, refreshing it while I could reach everything, and then swapping it. I'm not sure it would have been that much less work, and if I had any cat or transmission issues it would have been the way to go since I assume my subframe is fused to the van. I'm pretty sure sliding the engine out from the front is doable for those of us without a lift.
How long did it take? It's hard to say since I would bounce in and out between attending to a real job, kids, and trying not to annoy the neighbors more (as if that were possible). The van was in pieces for a bit under 3 weeks. If I had to make an estimate, maybe 25 hours as a pretty ambitious yet only marginally competent DIYer in a suburban driveway, with temperatures around freezing?
And it obviously took a while to write up.
