Well just got my magnaflow 12259 center/offset 3 in/out muffler put on and that opened a can of worm only to find out that two of my passenger side manifold bolts broke off. All this time i though it was a hemi tick turned out to be a exhaust leak. I don't know if I should be happy or sad haha. The shop I went to wants $150 to fix it and resurface the old manifold and It would take all day. Too me that seems low but what do you all think?

 

on a 03, depending on where you live i would let him do it. But if you can look at them and tell if you can do it then you take care of it.

 

I live in SOCAL, no rust on my truck at all except for those bolts. Go figure. I am going to let them do it friday. Other than that, the muffler sounds BADASS. Doesn't magnaflow get louder when they wear in?

 

Are you talking the manifold bolts holding the Y pipe? These are the only bolts I removed when working on my trans and muffler system. Two on each side. If it is bolts that hold the manifold to the head I would look at this as my truck telling me to put headers on. Good luck....

 

Id say thats a good deal I had 2 quots done and it was 500 and 700. same problem and one side the other side is just as bad but im going to do headers.

 

No its the studs that thread into the block. I RE-looked at it and i think its something I can fix but the shop has the ability to resurface and put a new gasket and whatever else comes up. Now, should I have them replace all the studs and risk breaking more which will only cost more for me or just fix the two that are bad? I am a kid and low on budget and had to save up for the muffler itself and nearly **** a brick when I heard about broken studs.

 

yea the mufflers get louder after they break in.

 

Broken manifold studs are actually fairly common. Getting them out can be easy depending on the tools you have or can get. Ive never heard of a set of manifolds that needed resurfacing though. Stock Mopar exh manifold gaskets are $22 i think. You can use grade 5 or 8 bolts to go back in the manifolds to replace those that you will pull out.

You need (17) 8mm-1.25x25mm bolts

 

as common as this seams, i would just have the shop replace all of the manifold bolts with better hardware. Like they say it's "pay now or pay later", and I rather have the insurance that they are all good to go. besides if they already have them off to replace the gaskets and resurface it shouldn't cost too much more.

nateroach

 

did the bolts break clean off flush with the head or are they protruding? That quote sounds like they are protruding and they plan on using vise-grips to get them out. Very low quote for flush broken studs as those would need to be drilled/tapped. I'd be weary of having them do it at that price for fear they would get it all apart and try to get you for more, but if they are reputable, then have them do it.
You def need to get ALL new hardware AND have them fixed or you may break more studs.