I've found a couple of exhaust leaks, and the truck is running worse then ever.. so I took it back to a shop....

I knew the right head gasket was leaking, but wasnt worried about that..

and I had found the two leaks in the exhaust.. but got a quote for a exhaust manifold gasket... yikes...

$405, for new gasket, and bolts,, and welding leaks... on the right side... I know from others, that the bolts will probably break, and then you are stuck. so decided to get it done... I never realized how much of a restriction that so called y pipe is under there... I just hope this helps it out... also they said another coil is bad.. ( probably the last one I didn't replace yet)

and I need to replace the rear u joint, and possibly the right front... which didn't look bad when I did the ball joints myself last year...

so did I do right? $405 which included diagnostic ( even though I told them where the leak was ) to replace the right side exhaust manifold gasket?

Sounds like the going rate for that job around here.

5-6 hours worth of work at $60-80/hr...sounds about right.

well, got it back,,,
$430 was the bill,, had to replace a coil, same one the dealership replaced when the spark plug blew out in December... go figure. I had a spare one that worked, so they only charged me $30 to replace it...

it runs like it should now,, and very quiet. I never realized how restrictive the "y" pipe is underneath.. thinking about changing it with one from spdperformance.com ( maybe someday)

now I've got to replace the rear u-joint ( they say it looks bad) and the front coupler joint? I said I'll have to do it myself, as I already used this months truck budget...

at least its running now... wife is happy... ( for now)

Glad you got it running. The u-joints aren't too bad to change and doing it yourself will definitely save you some money. I was getting lazy and even though I have all the tools I asked my friend to do it where he works and it was about $120. I did it myself for $20 LOL.

still need to do the U Joings, but now blew a spark plug,, last time #3, this time #4, I cannot afford the $600 ford charged last time to heli-coil it,, so I'm researching how to do it myself...

hope I dont screw it up...

I think one of the companies that sell the kit is Timesert or something like that. There is a bunch of info on how to do it and it is not that hard. I have a kit in my toolbox for it when I had to repair a customer's truck one time. It is not really that hard to do. Just take your time after reading the instructions and you should be fine. If you lived in NJ I would be more than happy to help you out, but I see you are quite a distance from me. Vince, "Blacksnapon", is in Mo. Maybe you can bring it to his dealership and maybe he can do the work for you. I don't know what the cost would be though. But I would trust him with the work.