Back on April 19th a guy side swiped my 01 7.3 Excursion while I was towing a 28 enclosed trailer (his fault). I was forced off the road and into trees head on and then essentially got rear ended by the trailer. The insurance company totaled the truck and after nearly a month and a half of them low balling me I finally got to a some what fair number but I also decided to buy the truck back as well to salvage what I can. Now the question is what to do with it?

The truck has 140k on it and was super clean and well maintained. I had put a ton of work and money in it recently keeping it as close to showroom condition as I could. Within the last 4,000 miles alone it had a 2005 front end with all new OEM parts installed, new Jasper transmission still under warranty, new ball joints, drivers side hub bearing, all new bilstein shocks and steering stabilizer, new tires, all new brakes including calipers, Hellwig rear sway bar, 6.0 trans cooler, new batteries, rebuilt alternator etc.

Truck also has a few aftermarket parts including AFE intake, banks wastegate, 4" MBRP exhaust and a SCT TS tuner with IDP tunes.

The damage seems to be mostly body related except for the very front of the frame is bent. It still starts and runs fine but can't leaving running because it popped the belt off of it and leaks power steering fluid everywhere.

Now I wonder if it would be best to part out, sell it as is to somebody that wants to do a body swap, possibly do a body swap myself? I just don't know what to do but this has been a rough situation with as much time and money I have put in to it and of course I am not getting it all back out of the guys insurance company. Just looking for some input/advice. What would you do?


















Can see at least the pass. side front frame is bent.

 

First: Glad you are alright and sorry about your mishap.

Second: How does that work? They paid you and you bought it back?

Third: Probably part it out, net a little more currency. A nice 7.3 should get you $3000.00 +. Lots of interior parts are still good, guys with the dog ear mirrors will pay for the tow mirrors.

Fourth: Find one with a 5.4 and do the conversion...meh.

 

[QUOTE="mecdac; They paid you and you bought it back?

This can be done when I got rear ended in my blazer they gave me like 4 grand for it I bought it back with a salvaged title for 500 bucks they gave me 3500 check

 

Yep, like Dave said, they just take their salvage value out of the check. In my case I don't even have a Salvage title because the title never left my hand.

I had thought about the swap too, it should be pretty straight forward since I have everything but what concerns me is emissions stuff. Since they do emissions here in MD, the vin would still show the swapped vehicle as a gas vehicle so I'll get emissions notices and then I'll show up with a diesel truck and I don't know how that would go? It is very tempting though considering I have found a clean V10 Excursion Limited with high miles for $4500 obo local to me.

You're right though, a part out would bring in the most money for the least amount of work. I thought about parting it but holding on to the engine and trans in hopes of finding a 7.3 SuperDuty that needed an engine for some reason. Chances of finding a clean one needing an engine are probably very slim though.

Thanks for your input!

 

It was a beautiful color too! Poor X.

 

you can usually swap motors as long as the motor is emissions compliant to meet, or exceed those of the motor removed. Typically the "new" motor must also be the same age as or newer than the outgoing motor. So you'd be limited to a 2000 or 2001 model.

check with your DMV about this. Since the 7.3 didn't have emission standards, you might able to legally swap this out and be exempt.

 

Too bad you weren't in L.A. I've seen three X's selling for less than 2k because of bad gas motors.

 

Just a PSA and a word of caution for those that respond in this thread: Please keep it to giving advice and not offering cash for parts, asking if part XYZ is available, or how much the OP wants for part XYZ, otherwise the thread will have to be removed.

Thanks guys.

Stewart

 

Good points. I guess it's worth a few phone calls to find out about doing a V10 to 7.3 swap. Other downside is that a Carfax would show a mileage discrepancy since the gauge cluster would need to be swapped but at least the mileage would show the engine mileage. I suppose all that would need to be swapped is the engine/trans, ECM, wiring harness and gauge cluster? Sounds like it would be straight forward, especially since this other one is also a 2001 Limited.

I'm still sick about the whole situation as I just finally got it EXACTLY how I wanted it too. Even just spent almost $3000 having any little rock chip or slight imperfection fixed and re-cleared so it was about as close to showroom condition that you could find a used truck, especially of its age.

 

If you swap the powertrain and dash over to the gas Ex, it's like your 7.3 Ex never got wrecked. You basically "fixed" the damage. No emission to deal with. How motivated are you to do the swap?

If you sell the the Ex for $3000 (or more) plus the insurance money, will you be able to buy another 7.3 with 140k miles?

 

That looks like it was one hairy ride! Glad you are ok. As far as the x.....it depends on your wrenching skills and availability of a clean donor for the engine/trans swap. May be easier and more cost effective to part it and find a new to you x with the engine/trans you want. Although the 7.3s are getting scarce! Good luck bro!

 

Thanks for the input. I think I'll put together a spreadsheet to figure out what I could get parting it, vs. the cost of buying a gas EX and doing the swap and see if the numbers warrant the extra work of doing a swap. It is much easier to find a V10 Excursion and if I could do the swap and end up back into a clean 7.3 Ex for under 10k by doing the swap, it might be worth doing.

 

Ouch look at that frame! Glad you are ok!!

 

I wonder if you have decided what to do with it?

 

Wife and I were just talking about this if it happened to ours. I am no longer into big projects and would have taken the check and left the mess for someone else. Too many possibles on the sales and everyone would try to bargain down over and over again. Leave the wrecking to those that do it best. Offer it to a good yard and find something clean again. There are many out there both gas and diesel. I see one every other month out here in sunny SoCal.