I have a lot of oil on the exhaust manifolds and I've already replaced the valve cover gaskets. How hard is it to replace the head gaskets with the engine in the car?

Replacing heads on a 4.9 is considered a lot of wasted effort. From my own experience, I had a set of heads lightly ported and polished only to find that removing them stripped the threads on the block. This is a common occurrence. The block would need to be heli-coiled and if a shop isn't set up for that block, prepare to pay up... Also, the head-bolts are discontinued.

Better off finding another replacement 4.9 in a salvage yard...and in the future convert to a 3800 for the same or more power.

PS: I have a set of lightly ported & polished 4.9 heads for sale.

[This message has been edited by lou_dias (edited 05-29-2015).]

This is the leak I've discovered, the area was clean and free of oil but after a few minutes running this is what I have.

Looks like it's leaking around the exhaust manifold bolt ?????