is it common for the 3rd gen rams to get exhaust leaks on the manifolds from broken exhaust manifold bolts? it seems like a lot of people have talked about an exhaust leak from an exhaust manifold or broken manifold bolts? this just happened to me so now im thrown on some headers. any suggestions?

 

I really haven't heard much about this problem on the Dodge's.

 

You hear about it a lot from the off-road crowd, but not near as much from the pavement guys. You can forget about Long Tubes in Ca.! But a nice set of cat-forwards would be a nice little mod...

 

I experienced that problem last year. I dont know how it happened, but i had two broken exhaust manifold bolts, & a cracked manifold. It sounded really ugly. Luckily i bought the extended warranty and it was covered, except for the extraction of the broken studs. So, theres my 2cents.

 

I just recently had this problem last week ... I had 3 broken exhaust manifold bolts on the passenger side. I am way out of warranty and didn't want to touch trying to remove the broken bolts myself. Cost me about $280 at my local mechanic to have it repaired.

 

Funny you say that. My father's Ford has 2 borken studs.(2002) my uncles Ford has 3 broken studs(2004)
I have seen at least 3 other Ford's in the past week that have had leaking headers. Most likely from broken header studs....lol

No Dodge's though. They generally break from rust/heat. Both my father's and my uncles studs were on the pass side mclosest to the firewall. Not fun to remove! Not fun at all. Good luck. Ohh, I would suggest buying goo hardware and not using the cheapo stuff they give you with the new headers. That includes buying different header gaskets. I'm sorry, but I have purchased my fair share of Headers both cheap and very expensive. Not one time did i ever use their bolts or geaskets. All inferior garbage. I didn't even use the gaskets that cam with my Kooks headers for my Cobra.($1400 headers). I use Percy's header gaskets. That's it. Quality hardware as well.

 

Ford has had this problem on the 4.6L and 5.4L since 97.
Amazingly, I put MAC headers on my Stang back in 1990. I used the supplied gaskets and they are still on there today with no leaks. Probably close to 100K miles on them. Even had the bolts back off a couple of times. These are just white, paper looking gaskets. I still can't believe it.
I have used those copper header gaskets on a 68 Camaro with a 427 and they worked great.