I have a 2000 F350 SBCC 4x4 that I picked up cheap with a miss in the engine. Had blown the plug on #9 and had one of those parts store sleeve/ long plug fixes in it. I a steel insert, not Timesert , but a simular product I bought from Snap On. Fixed the hole but have almost no compression, it misses bad at low rpm, but completely fine if I run it out of OD, and have been driving it for 18 months like that. It also has an unknown brand of headers that came on it, they have several cracks in the tubes but don't appear to be very old. This fall i came across a lightly wrecked 2000 Excursion for $900 with 165,000 on it. I have the engine out of it and wanted to adress the exhaust studs while its on the stand. I am thinking about ditching the headers because of the cracks and just using the manifolds of the donor. I could also weld the cracks on the headers, but I really don't want something that cracks again and leaks. Squeezing every HP out of it isn't a concern, long term dependability is. What exhaust stud/bolts should I buy? Better brands? Manifold gasket brand??

 

Should throw them all away and just run em wide open.



That was for your comment on my last post.

​​Actually trying to help answer, there's a 10 piece stud set on Amazon that is half decent. 8 of my stock studs broke pulling manifolds off. Amazon set was pretty nice.

 

I don't have a specific brand or part number but try to get good quality stainless studs and nuts and always use anti-seize when threading stainless into aluminum to prevent galling and for whatever value it might have in future removals.
I would not bother with welding the cracked headers, they WILL crack again, cheap ebay headers used the wrong metallurgy.
If you do use the stock manifolds you will get some benefit from skipping the factory "T" pipe where the down pipes join, get a good flowing real "Y" pipe to improve throttle response and gain a tiny bit of performance.
If you do get the whole Excursion, there is a market for the EX specific parts in it to help recoup your costs. List the carcass in the Marketplace (For Sale section) here and leave a post in the EX forum here to let folks know what you have available.

 

Yeah the headers will just crack somewhere else in short order, the steel is probably some foreign junk. I have Throleys on my truck for years now and they are still going strong, bolts too.

If you are needed a set of OE (stainless) V10 exhaust manifolds I have a set off my truck with around 25k miles on them I'd part with cheap. Lots of options on bolts/studs. If it were me I'd just use some grade 10.9 bolts as long as will fit and done. Stock type exhaust studs will break again. My dad got his replaced and had some break again before he traded the truck. You'll have to tighten the bolts a few times until the gaskets settle though. Stage 8, Percy, Mr Gasket and some other have M8x1.25 bolt kits listed for the 4.6l and 5.4l that will work on the V10, you just need to buy two kits. The Mr Gasket set is just grade 10.9 socket head cap screws with a black oxide coating. Most of the bolts in the kits are 25mm long but you may be able to use 30mm bolts with exhaust manifolds because of the thick flanges. Best to use a bolt that is as long as possible IMO. Check out summit racing, just search for header bolts for the 5.4l instead of 6.8l.

 

If you decide using the X exhaust manifolds make sure you get them machined because they do get warped and youll end up with broken studs again.

 

Great info, thank you. I have a repair shop but mostly do mobile out of the service truck. Unfortunately the engine swap is on hold due to a tractor being in a thousand prices waiting on nearly extinct parts. I pulled the excursion apart a few weeks ago, hopefully I can get back to it soon. We bought a 30ft 5th wheel toyhauler and have some trips planned for spring, really don't want to pull it with the v9 !

 

I have a 2000 Excursion with a V10 and want to do a CAT Back, What will give me the best mileage, 3 inch or 4 inch.

 

Also, I would like to get more in the motor, I was going to cut a hole in the Grill and fab a 4 inch pipe into my OEM Air cleaner. Any suggestions?

 

The consensus I've seen in 4 years on this forum is that nothing improves V10 fuel economy. Except driving habits of course. And no, I'm not joking or exaggerating.

Also, regarding additional power, the only bang for the buck improvements are
-5Star tuner
-rear gears
-headers/y-pipe (mixed bag of results here)
-forced induction.

Everyone ive seen on this forum has disliked air intake stuff and there is great debate on finding exhaust systems that don't sound terrible. Apparently the V10 never sounds tough.

 

^^^^What he says^^^^!

 

That will give you a big hole in the grille, a cobbled together look under the hood and more noise, but unfortunately no additional power.
Seriously, the factory cold air intake on the EX is a very good unit that can deliver all the air the V-10 can inhale.
If you are looking to improve your EX's performance I would recommend the same mods I have done to mine, the results are very noticeable and the costs were well worth it to me. Our Ex serves as our dedicated tow rig for our 11K travel trailer and the Enhanced performance from the mods makes it feel like a completely different truck!.
Deeper gears, most EXs came with the standard 3.73 gears but there was a factory option for 4.30 gears, which make the available power much more usable. Moving your effective ratio (accounting for tire size differences) into the 4.30 to 4.56 range will allow for better acceleration and pulling performance. I went from the stock 3.73s to 4.88s with 35" tires which gives me an effective ratio of 4.39, this was the single biggest performance enhancer I've done.
Long tube headers, I went with the Banks set that also includes the new Y pipe to replace the horrible factory T shaped pipe. These headers are pricey but very high quality and I feel that they helped performance a bit across the entire RPM range but make the biggest improvement when towing heavy climbing grades at high throttle openings. Solid performance gains from these.
Custom tunes, I went with 5 custom tunes from site sponsor 5Star Tuning, they have invest a lot of time and effort into getting the best output from the V-10 and their upgraded trans strategy is outstanding! I tow with both the 87 Octane and 89 Octane Performance tunes and the improvements in performance is very noticeable.
I went with the Aeroturbine 3030XL muffler on my EX with the rest of the piping still the factory 3" tubing, it sounds pretty good. Good luck and stop over in the EXcursion forum here and introduce yourself (and your EX), it's the best place on the web for EX specific info and help.

 

 

Finally got started on this, broke 8 exhaust studs but not too bad considering the engine is hanging on the forklift. Ditched the headers and going with the manifolds. Put new spark plugs in it, new water pump, new idler and tensioner, and new radiator hoses. So far everything as planned. Hopefully finish tomarrow.

 

make sure you torque your spark plugs to the update specs so you don't launch one later on down the road.


the original specs were around 12ft lbs and later ford updated them with a tsb. I don't remember exactly what it is. it was a big deal that should of called for a recall but ford exploited a manufacturing number to get away from it. even ford dealer maintained vehicles were launching plugs due to the low torque specs

 

I put them at 20 ft-lbs.

I found a ford reman engine tag on the block when removed the damaged engine. Dated 2006, it's a shame that apparently this is the 3rd engine going in this thing. This time due to a blown plug