Yeh, I can't believe it either....
As Billy Mayes would scream: "BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!!!"
Started looking at manifold even closer... It's a miracle this thing ran at all!
The rear two runners (5&6) got so hot inside that they damn near collapsed and with all the molten plastic that made all sorts of psychedelic plastice sculptures in side (from the air being sucked throughthe pinholes and molten plastic) what little was left of the runners, there might be at most a 3/8" x 1" opening through the length of those runners!
AND! I cleaned the engine because it looked like there was a concentrated amount of powdery tan dirt in the area of the throttle body and RH valve cover.. It's fire extinguisher powder! Didn't recognize it because it was tan, not white (and I CAN recognize that stuff because I discharged one onto a company loaner Durango once when my F350 was getting PM'd.. whadda mess!) So they apparently had the MAF and air cleaner hose removed from the throttle body when they saw flames coming out of the throttle body. The weird thing is that the engine had to be running for the vacuum to suck the pinholes and suck the runners down in size.... whadda num nutz!
pulled the injectors since I have the access and I'm going to find a reputable outfit to clean and test them... wish I still had that ultrasonic cleaner.. I cracked one of those little plastic ring shrouds on the end of one injector... Bummer.. now I have to replace ONE lousy injector because I was a klutz and dropped it... I also hate to replace just one without ccING THEM ALL TOGETHER TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE BALANCED...
So... hopefully by next wednesday night I should have the XLS running..... purrfectly... I hope.
Still all in all.. I have $3500 plus Indiana sales tax and a new manifold, fuel filter, plug wires and plugs, air filter and I still bought a clean 2002 xls for about $4300. I think the retail is closer to $9000... It just has to RUN when I get it back together....
Will post a final (hopefully) blog on this problem...