Exhaust Manifold Replacement (3.7L)

[riff raff]

Well, I just replaced my left bank exhaust manifold & Cat. Holy S....what a PITA (2014, 3.7L motor). The POS aftermarket manifold I put on in 2018 had two cracks. Rock Auto covered it under the five year warranty, but the mental and physical scars from the installation will haunt me forever. If an oil change is a 2 on a 1-10 difficulty scale, this was an 8. All told, it took me about 8 hours from start to finish.

 

Getting to the fasteners was an exercise in frustration and I used all manner of sockets/extensions,u-joints and wrenches. The studs came out, so I put in six new ones (which greatly simplified installation). The car has been louder at start up for several months and my MPG dropped by about 3 mpg. I knew it must have been cracked. My neighbor, who owns the local service station put in the 1st one and said it was pretty difficult. That cost me $400 (plus $200 for the cat). Lincoln wanted $1,100 for the job.

 

Back in 2018, I assumed the Lincoln cat would be pretty pricey, so I went via Rock Auto. A Lincoln cat is only $290 via the Ford Internet parts houses, wish I had gone that route in 2018. That cat also did not solve the P0430 code, so I've been using a spark plug fouler for the past year to avoid the code. I think that first manifold might have been cracked from the get-go. Now quiet and no code or pending codes and my first tank of gas is back to over 26 mpg. I'm just realizing now that I didn't take any photos.  Pray you 3.7L people never have to do this. I sure hope my right manifold holds up. The good news is the replacement manifold from Rock Auto was visibly of a better quality, made by Davico.  The car currently has 172,000 miles on it.