Hello all,

I am looking at possibly purchasing a 2000 Excursion with a blown 6.8 motor. I have a lead on a scrapped 2001 Econoline E350 with a low mileage 6.8. in searching for motors, it would appear there is a different part number for van engines vs Excursion engines. are they compatible, would it drop in or swap parts to work, or is the long block different in some way?

Thanks,
Michael

 

You will need to swap some of the external parts. The basic long block is identical.

 

Thanks! I'll come back here if I can work the deal out and have a v10 Excursion.

 

The oil pan & sump is different, in the van the deep sump part of the pan is shallower and longer front to back so the oil pick up tube has to be shorter. The oil dipstick tube is much longer on the van. If the truck engine is cratered, make sure to clean out the pan and tube REALLY good if you plan to reuse them. Same with the oil filter adapter, the truck and van parts fit different and are not interchangeable.


^ Truck V10
Notice the oil pan and oil filler adapter.



^ Van V10
Notice the Oil pan is longer fore and aft and not as deep as the truck pan which also requires a different pick up tube to match the pan.

 

If I end up doing the swap, are there any maintenance Items I should consider changing while it is out of the truck? This van I am looking at has 50-60k and was a fleet van, so should have been taken care of I would assume.

 

two things- you'd be a fool to skip these:

1.spark plugs (including boots and springs)
2. Exhaust manifolds. Remove them and have them machined and replace all the studs. Read up here on FTE for the vast options regarding new studs.

 

Man when I see a picture of a clean new engine it's just the coolest thing. Especially something powerful like a Ford V10. Or once in a while you see a cutaway picture of a Lamborghini or something.

 

Sam is correct. Those are the only things, I think, that are different.

 

I have been seeing factory exhaust studs, which I worry will break again, Dorman And other OE style studs- same issue. ARP makes a stainless stud kit, and I have read on here about Summit studs and Fastenal 10.9 flange head bolts instead of studs all together.

Are any of them a silver billet that should help to not have the problem again?

 

The only thing that will keep studs from breaking eventually is to keep the nut from seizing to the manifold. If that means a stainless nut, or a stainless washer, or anti-seize, or whatever, that's what it takes.

The old FE engines suffered a similar fate. The manifolds would corrode to the head. Once they expanded from the heat (more-so than the head would expand), and then cooled down, they would crack because the surface between the manifold and the head would be stuck together. Ford eventually revised the service manuals to say to use anti-seize between the head and manifold. Something I instinctively did when replacing a cracked manifold on my highboy's 360.

With the V10, it's the nut corroding and locking to the manifold. Manifold expands and contracts dragging the entire stud with it - eventually fatiguing the stud and it breaks.

 

I have a long term project doing the same thing you are considering, putting a van V10 into a truck except the truck is an F150. This is the reason I have investigated the difference in truck and van engines.

I bought a new oil pan and sump because I did not have an existing donor for the V10 truck parts. My van V10 only has 67,000 miles on it but I am also planning to replace the exhaust studs. Other than intake & exhaust gaskets + studs and the oil pan I do not plan to replace anything besides routine maintenance such as spark plugs & boots.