2002 Mustang Gasket Hell... Advice Please!

Two questions. Are you prepared to do the work yourself? Have you taken it anywhere else for a 2nd quote?

FWIIW, $2800 seems a lot to me as well.

well, the header work is a pain in the ass for sure. I just had to rebuild my sixxer because warped/cracked headers killed my valves, I feel your pain with those but it's better that you get them fixed now definately.

as far as the gaskets, it couldn't hurt. But as far as it being necessary, that's questionable, as long as there's no leaks then they should be fine. I wouldn't do anything to them unless I needed to if I were you, if money is on your mind.

if you think you can do the work, order the gasket set/headers and go to town, and good luck.

it just depends on what tools you have available and how well you can use them. I didn't have to change the driver's side header because we put a new one on that side and the old one on the passenger side when we threw the motor back into the car, but when we realized the other one was bad too I did have to change that one out, and it took a little over an hour. It's frustrating work but if you're patient enough it's not the worst. The most difficult part is probably going to be getting the EGR fitment off with the header and angling it out of the engine bay. As far as the bolts and such go, the nuts usually come off first, but that's not enough to get the headers out. The studs will stay in the block, but you can take them out.

It works pretty well to take out the longest ones first and then the front ones that will be easier to reach later. Just be absolutely sure you don't cross thread them when putting the new manifold on, then you'll have a whole world of difficult on your hands with tapping and such.

Good luck, hope it works out.

cool, glad to know things worked out.

Yeah the passenger side is kind of a bitch with the EGR setup but with a little patience it shouldn't be a big problem

Nice information that you have posted here. Keep it up.

lulz well good luck with the new one, nice video though. Your camera is pretty good, mine would look like crap haha