Congrats on your Ex!

There are a treasure trove of ideas and mods you can find in this forum, and I'd suggest asking some of the guys who've already done the mods what their experiences have been, whether it's the lifts or performance mods.

The V10 is a nice engine, but it won't run the hemi down unless you cut the Ex behind the drivers seat and loose the back half.. On the other hand you'll pull his hemi 'til the cows come home. The easiest first performance mod is the exhaust. Going with a dual exhaust w/crossover even with stock manifolds will help. Once you crawl under the Ex and see the stock setup you'll understand. If you've got the time, installing good headers (see the forum posts on differences out there) will help even more. Remember you're dealing with a 10cyl engine so it has two extra rods and pistons to move up and down in the engine so you're not going to get a fast revving engine, but you'll have one that wants to pull midrange very nicely and a flowing exhaust will help you more.

Don't opt for so-called performance coils if you find you have misfires on the V10... just put in the Motorcraft replacements. Again this isn't a fast revving engine or high HP output engine, it's a workhorse.

Anyway, have fun with your Ex!

BTW, my first vehicle was a 73 El Camino! Ah to have it back!

 

Mwa-hahahahahahahahahahah!



Stewart

 

STEWART!!! MAKE THIS A STICKY!!!!!

 

Oh, and since we're all being sentimental here...

My first vehicle was an 87 Nissan hardbody. 4cyl. 5 speed single cab POS. I wore that thing OUT! Best $700 I ever spent! Drove it for awhile, tuned it a bit and swapped some bumpers out for chrome at a JY and sold it for $1200

 

One more quick question. If I were to go with a SD lift, what years could I put on the ex.

 

'99 through '04 SD trucks are virtually identical to EXs, remember to add 2" to the truck lift when it goes on an EX.

 

Thank you!

 

F250/350 lift kits are not bolt-in compatible with Excursions.

You have to find a lift kit manufactured specifically for the Excursion. At least that's what I was told by several different lift manufacturers when I was looking at doing a lift for my rig back in '04.

Stewart

 

Why is/was that? They should be interchangeable, differences between the trucks and wagons aren't so much as to change the ability to cross pollinate between the two. I mean if we are fine swapping in their stock springs why would aftermarket replacements (lift kits) be any different?

 

If I had to venture a guess about interchange it would be that many lift kits come with shocks and super duty shocks and excursion shocks for the rear are different, it may also have to do with the overload spring (?) on the super duties that is not compatible with the rear AC lines on the ex. Those would be my initial thoughts. I guess we could check part numbers of basic lifts (those that do not include shocks) and see if they actually are different.

 

Congrats on your new-to-you Ex! I got my first at age 17 and kept it up until two years ago. It was also V10, but the only engine mods were a drop in K&N and 5 star tuning. Parts for these trucks are really quite easy to find because so much is common with the pickups.

If you are really a Dodge guy and want to smoke a hemi, do a 5.9 Cummins swap! Not cheap though...

 

Oh, how I would love to do that.

On another note, since the front end sits lower than the back. These shocks should level it out, right?

 

NOPE. The shocks don't GIVE 2" of lift, the are 2" LONGER to fit your already lifted vehicle (so the shocks aren't already stretched out all the time)

 

Tom, I really can't remember.

Stewart