traumamed

Hi all, I'm usually more of a forum lurker than poster since the search function gives me access to those of you far more knowledgeable than I... but I can't seem to find an answer to this question. The wife just brought home a new 2014 Mustang V6, and when I was taking a peek under the hood I noticed a couple of welded-on threaded nuts on the exhaust manifold that were lacking any bolts/studs. On closer inspection, I noticed several more threaded holes missing bolts. Does anyone know if this is normal, maybe for mounting an option not selected on our car? Or some other function? Or did the bolt-guy at the factory completely fall asleep on the assembly line? I have attached a couple of pictures to illustrate. Thanks for any help!

traumamed

Oops, just realized I posted this in the 4.0L thread. I meant to post in the 3.7L thread. Mods, can you move please?

steel pony

The first pic you can tell the headers were manufactured that way. My guess is that they may be used to attach something else in the engine bay on a different application, or if they use the engine in a FWD platform.

The second picture looks too much like an assembly line support location. Possibly used when the engine is assembled or during final assembly of the car itself

2005Redfire6

I agree with Steel pony, the 3.7 is used in other cars/trucks Ford makes and I am sure all the parts for the motors are used across them with no differences to accommodate different needs of the model.

traumamed

Thanks for the responses, I suspected that but wanted to be sure.

157dB

Could the dealer you bought it from shed any
light on your 'new mustang still under warranty'
that is missing bolts, why?

traumamed

I posted on the weekend in hopes of getting an answer without having to wait until the following week, and I was happy with the answers I got here. But on your advice (and for anyone else with the same question who may be reading this), I did ultimately call the dealer's service department as well to verify. The service dept rep who talked to me was pretty confident it had to do with "universal" parts that are designed for use in multiple vehicles, in line with what the other posters here were thinking.

jz78817

Those bosses are cast in, not welded on. They're there so heat shields can be bolted on if needed. The empty holes in the head are probably there for the FWD exhaust manifolds.