Uneventful ride.

Good thing too as this is the state of my truck right now. When Ford turned the V6 Cyclone into the twin turbo Ecoboost they hung the turbos right on the exhaust manifolds, which is good, but in spite of added weight, heat, and vibration incurred, they deleted one of the nine bolts, and three more go unused. The trucks therefore warp the cast iron manifold and it snaps the overloaded aft stud. This the the 2nd time I have done this job. My replacement manifold this time is a no-name. The latest Ford version replaces the cast iron with cast stainless, and there is an aftermarket hot-rod one that uses a different better cast iron alloy and eleven holes.

I was hoping this repair would also find a long-suffered phantom oil leak where oil is seeping onto the hot engine and turning to smoke and then it seals up once it's hot. Oil lost is very small and no drips on the driveway so I've just been tolerating it. But it looks like it's on the right valve cover and not the turbo oil line like I thought







Chose not to afford this - truck has >190,000 miles and I don't think I'll still own it by the next time it breaks down this way specifically