[junk yard doggie]

I have a secrete recipe for a mean barbecue sauce. Not for little girls or wimps, lol.

I'm fairly sure I am dealing with an after market manifold on this car. It says made in USA but no Ford part numbers. According to maintenance records on the car from the previous owner, the manifold was replaced in 2004 Due to being cracked. Check out their prices on this repair. 573.00 for the manifold and gaskets, 101.67 for the belt and coolant. 390.00 in labor.That's a total of 1064.67 And it gets worse, O by the way your trans is shot. The total bill is for $3100.00. Somebody got hosed on that one.

Got it all back together and no leaks so far. That's interesting that Steve's plastic manifold is flat on the gasket surface. When I was at advance auto I had them checking a bunch of model years for the right type of gasket I needed. I had them check from 96 to 2005 4.6L and still they couldn't pull anything up. What do you guys think, is the individual gasket an after market thing? Steve is your manifold the Ford Up graded one?

I haven't messed with the 98 TC I have in a while. It has the plastic intake as well. It has some of the same problems as this 96 developed. So I have feeling that I will need to do some of the same repairs to it. I'll take a closer look at the gaskets on that one. I should be able to tell, since that plastic gasket frame can be seen beyond the intake manifold edges.

I must say the relocation of the egr valve to the center of the manifold in 96 makes this job much more enjoyable. The old style just sucks, to work on.