Exhaust manifold 1997 F150

:disappoin I have a 1997 F150 small V8. The heads on the bolts holding the exhaust manifold are rusted off and the manifold is leaking. What am I looking at for a price to fix this problem. Also what is involved in fixing said problem.

They must use alot of salt on the roads in your part of pennsylvania. lol Normally this would be a 1-2 hour job, depending on how rusty/dirty things are. But if the heads of the bolts are rusted that bad, its likely that the threads are rusted/corroded too, and they could be a real booger to get out. Sometimes you can drive a smaller socket onto the head of the bolt, use vise grips, weld a nut to them, grind a slot in them and use a screwdriver adapter. But i have seen some bad enuff i had to take a torch and burn the heads off, remove the manifold, and then wrestle the bolts out. If youre paying someone else to do it, you could be looking at several hundred$ per side, it depends on how long it takes to get the bolts out. If the threads are bad rusted/corroded too, the bolt holes will have to be tapped and cleaned up, it all takes time. Make sure they know the heads are rusted away, and dont try to pin em down on a price, or youll both be unhappy in the end.

I just had this done people shops were telling me 600 to a grand cause of the unknown like unclebubbles said. I got really lucky went to a little machine shop where this old man spends his life he said about a hundred and a half. He called me two hours later with good news 125.00 but this was just one side.. What im getting at is look around its worth it...