A little history first
I bought my 2004 limited 4x4 diesel excursion in 2012 with 80,000 miles on it for $17,000. It had a plugged oil cooler and was able to get a decent deal on the truck. As not to get to lengthy I ended up replacing the oil cooler, installing an egr delete, coolant filtration, upgraded turbo oil lines, blue spring kit, and purchased a scan gauge to watch my temps. Fast forward to the present, I now have 146,000 miles on it and am using it as my daily driver and when summer comes around it's my tow vehicle for my boat. The only issue I had was the ac compressor clutch shredded last summer and my alternator started dying last year so I dropped in a dc power 185 amp alternator.
At this point I have decided to try and beef up the ex to get another worry free 150,000 miles out of it. I had a hair brained idea to do an axle swap, I have bought a set of 2007 f350 axles/suspension, 2011 f350 17" wheels. My brother spent $4600 completely rebuilding the entire front end of his ex so I am going to try this route. I am continuing to gather parts for my swap.
I have also recently installed mishimoto hot side turbo boots. I bought a mishimoto radiator (mine has started to weep) and just ordered mishimoto radiator hoses. I need to replace my leaking hydro booster and find an aluminum degas tank. I am on my 3rd Ford factory one, I bounce up and down 4 miles of dirt roads everyday and they keep cracking at the bottom hose.
If I can squeeze it in the budget I want to put an 05 grille and lights in it to freshen it up. I am pumped on the new wheels I picked up today, I am trying to make it simple and clean looking. I don't want a crazy lift with huge tires, just a clean rig that I can rely on. I will post some pics I took today with my current look, and with the new tires setting next to it to give everyone an idea of what I am going. I appreciate any comments and suggestions.



My 04 ex





New wheels for my new axles

 

Very nice EX, I like a simple clean look also...

 

^ x2
I like the new wheels and I look forward to seeing how your axle swap goes.

 

You have a great looking Ex! Good luck on all the upgrades, and remember to take pics, lots of pics, we like pics!

 

Thanks for the comments, the axles I bought have 56,000 miles on them and they were from Hawaii. There is a lot of mud that is very hard to get off. I pressure washed them and removed the rear brake rotors. Tomorrow I'm going to service the esof and change the diff oil and hopefully have time to paint them. I decided to use high temp flat black. I found out the rear axle is limited slip, I thought they were open diff. Big plus in my book. I will also inventory everything, I know I am missing some brake hardware.













Set them up on some scrap wood, thses things are very heavy, this allows me to roll them around a bit

 

LS is a big bonus. Nice find

 

Here is a cost list so far.
Both axles, 3 sets of front springs, 3 sets of leaf springs, coil buckets, radius arms, all steering linkage, steering box - $1600 craigslist
17" tire/wheels to clear bigger rotors
$640 craigslist.
New brake rotors and pads -$300 -400, haven't ordered yet.
I bought the factory wheels but I need factory style lug nuts, hoping to pick these up for cheap.
More to come.....

 

First time for me hearing about this swap. Looks sick. So is it almost all bolt in or is it going to be alot of drilling cutting and welding

 

Subscribing

 

From what I have read it's 85% bolt on, the coil buckets/radius arms should line up with existing holes in the frame for placement, so only have to drill a few that aren't there, I am using the newer style gear box which should just need the mounting holes drilled out a little bigger. The pitman arms have different size holes, so by using the 07 style I don't have to worry about reaming it out. I need to get a newer style power steering hose and brake lines. I have read about a few builds like this, it sounds very straight forward. After the swap It will end up lifting it a little, allow me to turn sharper, fix the undersized brake rotors, give me a real Dana 60 up front instead of the 50 so I will have a lot more options for rebuild parts if I need them and fix the wandering. What I am not sure about is which springs to go with. I'll get more info on which ones I have, I'm hoping someone on hear might steer me in the right direction.

 

Call Junior at ATS or Cary at CT performance both sponsoring vendors of FTE.

 

Looks cool! A coil sprung 4x4 X! Can't wait to see it!

 

It took a lot more time messing with the axles today than I thought it would, making a make shift area to work in was time consuming. Progress for this weekend, I changed fluid in both axles, and pulled out the 4x hubs to inspect them. A little rust but everything looked great, here are pics of the progress.




Rear axle before





Oil was a little murky but no rust,cracks,chips in any of the teeth.





easiest diff oil change ever, I let it drain and started on the 4x4 hubs





I was able to tap them lightly and they both slid out with minimal effort





driverside





surface rust along the mating surface





going to clean up with some emry cloth





Rear diff cover painted and ready to go, I went with flat black,





Rear diff tags, 3L73!!





Front Diff, more surface rust between the cover and the housing. It came right off without a problem





new oil added, ready to put it back together

It got dark before I was completely done, I will finish painting everything and post more pics after work.

 

wanna see it finished, hurry uppppp

 

Looks cool. Will be following. Have you thought about a 08 rear diff cover? Pretty cheap from tousley ford or horizonpartsguy.com just requires longer bolts from the hardware store.