2008 Bounder 35H V10, tick on cold start, broken manifold studs?

that is the studs. 30 years at a Ford dealer in Eau Claire and i could hear that tick through the phone. the exhaust manifold studs on the 6.8 rust through at the head and snap, the manifold pulls away from the head a hair while it is cold, that gap leaks exhaust, and the leak is your tick. then the manifold heats up and expands and seals itself and the tick goes away. passenger side rear studs go first because that corner runs hottest and catches the most road salt.

get a mirror and a flashlight and look at the manifold flange. you will see stud heads missing or nuts hanging on a stub. the fix is drill and extract the broken stubs and put new studs in. the good shops use the Stage 8 locking studs or the equivalent so they do not back out again. on a 35 foot class A the doghouse comes off inside and the passenger side is reachable from the wheel well with the tire off. figure 4 to 6 hours a side at a truck shop, 900 to 1,400 total if it is only a few, more if a stub breaks off flush and they have to pull the head. do it in Iowa. it does not get better on its own, and a full leak will cook the plug wire and the o2 sensor on that side.

mobile tech in Pharr. i will second doing it up north for a reason that has nothing to do with the engine. from the second week of november until about the middle of january every shop in the Valley that will touch a class A is booked solid with Winter Texans who waited. i turn away two of these a week in december. if it lets go on 77 south of Kingsville you will sit for a while.

had this done on our 2011 Tiffin Allegro 32BA two years ago at a truck shop in Superior. three broken on the passenger side, one on the driver. 1,250 out the door and they kept it four days because one stub had to be drilled. quiet ever since. the shop told me the studs were original and rusted through, which is no surprise for a coach that lived in Minnesota its whole life.

on a 2008 the plugs are the two piece 3 valve plugs that break off in the head when you pull them if they have been in there a while. if it is not misfiring, leave them alone. ford has a procedure with a soak and a special extractor and a shop that does a lot of trucks will have it, but it is another 4 hours and a bag of broken plugs. change them when you have a misfire, not before. the 2009 and up heads got the one piece plug and that whole problem went away.

maintenance schedule and the recall lookup by VIN are on ford.com under owner support if you want to see what is open on yours before you go in.