Me too. Ford *did* fix it with the aluminum crossover. While I am no automotive engineer I would have thought that the nylon would have held up (mine did), and aluminum would have been bulletproof!
Hey guys, just filling ya'll in i replaced my manifold. Thanks RedDaemon for the write up. Only p.i.t.a. was the fuel regulator, everything else came as i went. Was my first major fix besides doing my suspension upgrade. Anyways, heres some pics. And i didnt get a typhoon intake, (what i really wanted) i had to get the car up and going a.s.a.p.
the new manifold.
it was kinda cool how this caught my eye. Thought id snap a pic.
and the results. Notice how i accidently put the serpentine belt over the idler pully, and not below, however, once going over everyone again, checking plugs, wires, blah blah blah, i looked at the little map for the belt, and caught this...and all i can say is THANK GOD, that would have sucked .
Glad you got it fixed. When you showed me that vid i knew what it was right away. Don't feel bad about the belt tho, nothing horrible would have happened had you started it up. I almost started my car up one time while doing an oil change before putting new oil in. lol
I may be going out on a limb, but I wonder what percent of people use a torque wrench when they install manifolds and t-stats? I suspect there is some percentage of the cracks around the t-stat housing that were caused (or set in motion) by over torque of the t-stat cover.
The other thing that will cause cracks is letting the coolant level run low. Hot air will collect in the cross over causing localized over heating. The low coolant level is especially bad for the all plastic manifold.
LOL, thanks chris, it was a long night, and that pic was snapped around 5 am, i had started around 11pm. so, i was pretty dam tired by sunrise.
wmburns, i would have to agree with what ur saying, However, i do not have a torque wrench, so i had to make sure i properly bolt it down properly in a certain pattern, than pray to god i torqued them down with the right amount of arm pressure. But if u ask me, ive never used a torque wrench ( although i would love to have one for ease of mind) and knock on wood, no problems.
Glad youre up and going again, for crying out loud, hehehehe, why dose everybody jump on me when I crack my mainfold, I get nothing but guff. Anyway, great job on the install, now youre gonna get the install bug. Stangnet