Last Saturday, about 300 miles from home, my cheesy plastic intake manifold decided it wanted to crack along the forward coolant crossover. Crack was about five inches long directly behind the alternator mount. Pretty much ruined my whole day.


Called the father in law and got a ride from St. Louis back to Little Rock. Hooked my flatbed trailer to my F-250 and drove back to St. Louis to recover the car and then back home again.....made for a long friggin weekend. That's the bad news.


The good news is not only did Autozone have an intake manifold in stock ($271 and change with tax), but it has a cast aluminum water passage in place of the plastic, and comes with all the necessary seals and a new thermostat.


Took about 3.5 hours to replace....well, actually a little less since I also did the plugs and wires while I had it apart.


No moral to the story here. This is just the first time the old girl has let me down and I wanted to vent a little.

 

that is why Ford had the recall on that intake for a while. another reason i dont really like the 4.6L as much as the 5.0L

 

Generally speaking I prefer the 5.0 over the 4.6 as well, but I run what I got.