Greetings all. I'm the [strike]proud[/strike] cautiously optimistic owner of a "new" '04 6.0 Excursion. Finally broke down (no pun intended) and decided to buy a new truck to replace my ill-fated diesel Suburban project that's been stalled (again no pun intended) and plugging up my shop for the last oh, 6 years or so. So of course there was no competition other than the Excursion, and it's already doubled the amount of dirty looks I get from Prius drivers (ironic, since we bought it from a Toyota dealer surrounded by Priuses).

So anyways, what drew me to this particular forum is that LONG and detailed tech folder that I'm currently trying to read beginning to end, so please forgive me if I'm asking any typical newbie talked-to-death-already questions. I'm no stranger to wrench turning (my Samurai is the designated funky-looking sometimes-running "project"), and was expecting to have to put a bit of work into this rig when I decided to go with the 6.0, but I let the dealer talk me into the 3/36 warranty coverage so I basically can't touch anything for the next three years but I don't have to pay the bill if the head gaskets blow up tomorrow either . So now I've got to adjust my battle plan here.

So lesse here, planning to order a coolant filter kit in the next couple days, I figure that can only help and shouldn't give me any trouble with the warranty. The high idle mod is a big priority for me too since the rig will be doing alot of idling in the ferry line, but the tech folder link to the procedure for an '04 seems to be dead, can anyone point me in the right direction? Dealer changed the oil, so I can put that off for a little while. However, after some reading I am thinking of picking up a Ford oil filter & cap and swapping it in just to be safe, can I change just the filter without draining the oil or spilling it all over the place? Planning to flush the coolant as soon as practical too, is there a part #/size for the right Fumoto valves? How much of a pain is pulling the starter in the first place?

That, and a thorough inspection of the underside will have to wait at least a week or so till I can get a new radiator in that Samurai and move it out of the way. Overall the engine seems to be running great, fires up easily, was flirting with 21 MPG on the drive home. Not bad for a 7000lb monster

There's alot of slop in the steering and it wanders a bit so I'm thinking an alignment and new shocks are in order, but other than that just your typical 9-year-old truck squeaks & rattles to chase down. And the ground-in smell of old dog, but I'm guessing I'm probably stuck with that.

Oh yes, is disabling the ERG REALLY as simple as just pulling the plug?

AND WHAT @#$%)*&@(!!! BEAN COUNTER DECIDED TO SKIMP ON THE *#$*@#$%&!!!! VOLT GAUGE ON THIS THING???

 

I baught the fumoto 108n off of amazon. I haven't gotten it yet, but all the reviews indicate that it's the one. You can change the oil filter without draining the oil, since it's on top. How many miles are on this new beast? I'm suprised they sold you a 36/36. I totally would have baught one for my Ex, but it had 141k and they wouldn't sell me one. I'm tracking down a wander issue too, seems inherent in these monsters. There are many threads about how to take care of it, so you get to decide on that one. I assume that the warranty would cover the tie rod ends, ball joints and steering gear box, so that's cool.

 

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on the new ride. The tech folders are a good place to start, and yes you definitely want to only run OEM oil filters and cap on that rig, it will try to swallow those junk wally-world ones, and give you headaches.

 

Thanx for the info. Would one of those valves work on the water separator too to help contain the mess? My rig has 114k on it. I was a little hesitant on the warranty due to the cost but he kept saying HEAD GASKETS and that kinda convinced me. After driving it for a few days looks like it might be loosing coolant too. I would guess ball joints, etc, would probably be considered consumables & not covered, but at least I've been thru changing those before. What should I *expect* to pay at the dealer for fuel & oil filters? Just noticed the filter cap is marked purolator.

 

Not to put the fear of death in you, but if its losing coolant there is a very good chance your gaskets are already blown. Is there any white smoke when its running? Do you have the ability to monitor any engine paramiters from the obd port? (scangauge2, torque app, ae, ect.....) You will definitely want to invest in one of those options to monitor your oil and coolant temp among other things. Welcome to fte!!!

 

Here in Buffalo, NY, I pay $70 for fuel filters and ~$25 for an oil filter depending on where I go. You will have to buy a new motorcraft oil cap, as they're not supplied with the filter.

 

Sorry for the multiple posts, this thought just occurred to me. If you're losing coolant due to blown gaskets, you will lose it when the degas bottle (coolant resivoir) "pukes" it out of the cap. This would leave the smell of coolant under the hood, and a white residue in and around the degas bottle. Now that you've driven it a bit, do you notice any of this residue?

 

Ah, thanks for reminding me. I do have an Actron scanner. Just checked and no codes thrown or pending. Can't seem to find an option for oil temp on it tho, unless its called something not obvious. After reading the horror stories I'm seriously thinking of throwing a set of oil & coolant temp gauges, plus maybe fuel pressure, on the dash ASAP even tho I'm about out of extra cash after buying this thing. On the one hand, I have no fear of death since death is covered under warranty, but on the other I'd hate for this thing to end up in the shop for major work before I've even made a payment.

No, no white smoke at all that I've seen, and I've been trying to watch closely.

Just double checked, no white residue, just plain ol dirt. What I'm thinking is loss of coolant *may* just be that the dealer didn't top it off like they said they would. I put a full gallon of distilled water in this morning and right now it's about a quarter inch below the min line. I'm going to try to track down some Zerex premix (that's the correct stuff right?) this afternoon and fill it to full. It was dark when I added the water this morning so it could all be my imagination too.

 

If this is your first superduty, be aware that the ball joint change is not necessarily a simple ball joint change. There is a good write up on if in the superduty forum, definitely go over it before buying ball joints and jumping into the project (like I did). The project quickly morphs into hub seals, u-joints, and re-alignment.

I'd suggest scangauge ii or some other type of programmable scan tool. By programmable you want to be able to get more than the typical out-of-the box readings. The ability to post specific info here when you're looking for help is invaluable.

Hang out in the Excursion forum also - lots of good info and a newly very well organized tech folder there as well.

 

Don't fill it to the top, there is a sticker with a fill line on the bottle. Use that line and ignore the marks molded into the bottle.

 

Have a look at what color your coolant is now. Hopefully its gold/yellow, which would be fords gold coolant. straight ethylene glycol (green) or dexcool (orange) are big no no's in these engines. Some folks have had good luck switching to cat elc-1 which is red. Bottom line is you don't want to mix coolants together.

As for your gauge dilemma, if you have a smart phone, I highly recommend purchasing a Bluetooth obd2 reader from ebay and purchasing the torque app for android. if you have an iphone, a Wi-Fi obd2 reader can be used with the dash boss app. both will read live data from the pcm, including injector oil pressure, fuel injector control module voltages, oil temp, coolant temp, and many, many more. Best part is a reader on ebay is $20 and the app is $5, so you wont break the bank. The only key items you can't monitor with torque that are worth looking at are egt's, fuel pressure, and low side oil pressure.

Another way to see if you are losing coolant to the intake through the egr is by parking the truck on a slanted surface, with the nose lower than the back. Pull the egr valve. If any coolant is present in your intake, it will be visible when you pull the valve.

 

You would be smart to go pick up a scan gauge II or one of the smartphone apps like dashboss for IOS devices or torque pro for android, they connect to the OBDII port ( the smartphone apps do this wirelessly ) and are used for continuous monitoring.


I would also make sure all the filters are OEM/Racor for fuel and oil and OEM for the air filter. Since you do not know the service history I would also find a dealer with a heated flush machine and have the transmission hot flushed and make sure they change the external transmission filter that is located near the bottom of the radiator on the passenger side.

 

Well after driving it around yesterday it looks like it didn't lose any significant coolant - I still need to get some of the good stuff to top it off. Apparently I don't have a sticker? So just fill to the min line?

I'm still leaning more towards gauges at the moment, I like having such important info right there in front of me where it's harder to ignore or forget about. Is there an *easy* place to tap into for the oil temp sender? All my mobile devices are iOS, seems to not have the same support as android for a "good" reader/app combo. The prices have come down so much on the cheap ones its definitely worth a shot.

 

I'm using the dashboss, basically if the truck has a sensor for it, the dashboss will read it. I really like it, but it more expensive than the android set up. I like having the handle on the driver's side a pillar, so i didn't want a bunch of guages there. You would need dozens of guages to read everything the dashboss/torque/scanguageII can read.

Are steering and front end parts really a consumable? Like I said I don't have a warrantee, so I don't know what it would cover, but it's worth an ask.

 

If you absolutely want pillar gauges, I would recommend a 4 gauge pack consisting of oil temp, coolant temp, pyrometer, and fuel pressure. Not sure where those respective sensors are to tap into them, hopefully someone with more experience will chime in soon. I still think you would find the dash boss or scangauge 2 to be the better option.