08 Driver Side Exhaust Manifold ..

Aloha
Have not been on in ages. Hope all is well !
08 5.7 131k on her
Driver Side Exhaust Manifold Gasket shot , its not really bad yet. at the dealer rn in Florida. In route to CO.
East Coast truck, LI NY. So she a wee bit rusty
Got a price @ 2K rn if all goes well. Spoke with head shop manager he deff thinking there will be some studs not coming out. Then was told would have to get machined and sent out. 3k +
Though they said motor still seems solid.

I need this truck for easily another 130k Miles n more. i live out out of the truck. Will post pics. lol

Would I be doing major damage to potentially Warping the head , burning out the Valves . etc ...if i did not immediately get this taken care of ? Is she safe too drive ?
Appreciate any feedback
Thanks again

 

Is your CEL on? That has been my judge and it ruled today. So mine is coming out soon. Mine is leaking from the sais tube though, not the main manifold.

 

whats CEL ?

 

Check engine light

 

no its not.

 

It likely won’t hurt anything until the CEL comes on. That’s what finally happened on mine and I have two oxygen sensor codes (stuck lean which is not a normal code for bad sensor in my experience). I just ordered Dorman manifolds and motor mounts (suggested but why not)… for $536 from rock auto. Hopefully they will work well and solve all my problems.

 

Well at least you'll get the experience necessary to pull the Dorman crap out when it fails on you shortly.

 

Thanks for the positive reply. I doubt Dorman will be any worse than stock in this case.

 

Don't be surprised if you end up with holes that aren't supposed to be there.

Or if the manifold warps quickly.

The last Dorman parts I used were:

1. Transmission cooler for Dodge Ram 1500. The new cooler started leaking after five months!

2. Front wheel bearings for my Tundra. I bought these in a Napa box and didn't pay attention to the logo. With just under 3,000 miles on them, they are noisy and need to go in the trash can.

For all the effort it will take for you to do the job you're going to do, cutting corners with Dorman trash is a bad plan.

 

These pictures do not seem to represent a 5.7L manifold. It took me 3.5 hours to take mine off last Sunday. If there is a next time it will be much faster. What I bought is sub $200 plus shipping compared to oem which is $600 plus shipping. The Dorman has a lifetime warranty, oem has a six month warranty, maybe. I did the math and it pencils out great for me. I don’t think it’s fair to trash on the brand unless it’s the same part for the same engine as being discussed.

 

@SnowSurfer With only 131k like mine (141k)… if your truck isn’t all rusty I doubt it will be a big issue removing the manifold. The nuts on the studs are not on very tight and so I doubt the studs will come out. I would think a private shop could do the job in six hours tops. I could have replaced the gasket in mine in five hours in my driveway if that had been my problem (having never done the job before with mediocre tools).

 

The brand has a horrendous reputation, maybe the worst in the industry. Yes, they will give you as many manifolds as you want when they break. After about the second one, I suspect you'll opt for a used pull or the real deal.

 

Unfortunately shes a East Coast rust machine. We are not even going to go there as my local dealer severely F&*^% me out of the Class Action Lawsuit on these frames. but so far out of 8 dealerships in FL no one will touch this job. IM scared to take it to a random shop not knowing their work. Soo disappointing . Shes a great truck / HOME as i live out of the back of my conversion .

 

Dorman is a bad brand for the most part. Some parts that are too expensive to replicate, they just use OEM parts and mark them up. Very rarely do they do that though. I would put those parts on a car that I was flipping/selling/trading in. But hey there’s always the chance it will last just as long as oem. As far as the exhaust leak, it also could be the air injection ports on the manifold. It’s a shitty design, they are a flange that’s “sandwiched” together and leak after a while, only way to fix it is to replace the manifold itself. That’s where mine was leaking from, the gasket was fine.