Hey all,

Ive been snooping around the forum reading up on Excursions. I rode in my cousins Excursion over New Years and fell in love. Im looking for a 4x4 V10, since I have no use for a diesel, dont tow, and have nowhere to plug it into in the winter (yay brutal cold)

I found a couple in my area, in the $8k range, with about 170k miles. I did find one that is in great shape, however it is lifted. I don't want a lifted truck as of right now. This leads me to a few questions

How much of a pain is it to remove a lift?
For the V10's I know of the spark plug issue, but is stuff like putting better heads/engine mods, doable or is it cost prohibitive.

We will be using it for camping mostly, so having something reliable that we can not have to worry about breaking down is the ultimate goal. (Coming from owning a 96 Chevy Lumina APV minivan)

Thanks for any input and looking forward to being around here.

 

You didn't mention if you're looking for 4X4.

$8K for a 2WD with 170K miles sounds too $$. It would have to be an '05.

The guys here are great and walked me through buying my first Excursion recently. Good luck, you won't regret it!

 

Whoops, yes a 4x4.

 

Okay, that price makes more sense now. What year? I just paid $5K more than that for a 2001 V10 4X4 with 100k miles. Clean 4X4's are apparently harder to come by and the ones you do find sell at a premium. KBB and the like all valued them less but the supply and demand where I am at least they were all selling for more. Wish that was true with my Expedition that it looks like I'll have to practically give away because there are so many on the market.

Sorry, I can't help you with the lift part. The guys steered me away from buying anything with mods like that because unless you have some knowledge already hard to know if the owner did a good job.

 

Thats what I was thinking re the lift.

 

How much of a lift is it, do you know? If it's not massive and still uses the stock track bar bracket it'd be pretty simple - just source stock leaf springs and throw them on. You could also do a V/B swap and get a slightly nicer (in most of our opinions) ride and only go up about 1.5" over stock height. Springs are relatively cheap and the swap can be done by a novice with hand tools.

 

^^ What Matt just said^^^

If road salt is a popular condiment in your part of the frozen north it may actually pay you to do your EX searching in the sunny South/West, rust really sucks. We have a few members around here that may be able to do some in person looking and test driving for you, this forum is unlike anything else you have seen on the interweb, because of the people here!

The V-10 can be ultra reliable, I bought ours 5.5 years and 43k miles ago, we currently pull a 41' 11,000 lb travel trailer with ours (you had mentioned not needing a deezle because you don't tow, the 6.8 does just fine with a heavy load if setup well! ), about 75% of it's miles are towing miles. The ONLY failure we have experienced was a fuel pump that died suddenly, other than that its just been normal routine maintenance and one burnt out light bulb. And the various mods I've made to make it a better tow rig.

 

Oh, and I forgot, Welcome to the EX forum!
Good luck with your search, let us know how we can help. As always, the newest, lowest mileage and best condition vehicle is worth a little extra over the run of the mill ones.

 

Road salt is an issue. I am in Iowa. Here is the one I was looking at. Looks to be about a 6 inch lift,

https://quadcities.craigslist.org/cto/5362995300.html

 

That description says 8 cylinder gas, so that would be the 5.4 which I would personally avoid, even more so with oversized tires.

 

Nope, nope, and more nope. Not for $7500.

Driver seat is torn, that frame is covered in rust. While it appears to just be surface rust, it still needs to be addressed. That also calls into question what the rest of the rig looks like underneath, there's several body holes that will rust long before the frame starts to. Not to mention everything else that needs to be addressed or verified like ball joints, TRE's, brake soft lines (which deteriorate internally and can appear fine on the outside), etc... That stereo looks like crap and was installed without an install kit - there should be a black frame around it with a storage pocket underneath the headunit and those headlight housings SUCK at light placement.

My opinion, find something stock and well maintained. Like Tom suggested, expand your search range and don't be afraid to look down towards us. A few months ago we helped another member (@Apocalypse) move up from a 2wd 5.4 to a 4x4 V10. Razzi and I found one down here in Texas, verified it's condition and overall mechanical soundness, and then Apoc wired the money for purchase. Razzi picked it up, we looked it over, and Apoc had it shipped to his place in VA. Just to backup what Tom was saying about the members here being unlike anywhere else

It took me over a year to find my Excursion, and I was close to giving up or settling several times. I finally found mine, 7.3 4x4 Limited with 183,000 miles. Single owner with all the maintenance records, and I was comfortable with the mileage. The only issues I've had with it are due to my absolute abuse, and higher mileage wear items that I was expecting to come up.

 

Is there a location that has a listing of the available engine and interior options? I didn't know a V8 was even an option.

 

I will sell you mine for $8000. 2000 Limited 4x4. Never towed anything over a single axle trailer(never had brake controller installed). 153k miles. New plugs, coils, fuel filter, Dura Grapplers. I'll drive it to you for gas and hotel as a bonus. Check it out in the for sale section. PM me if you have more questions. I want to try my hand at a new business venture so need to free up some capital.

 

No formal listing that I can think of right now, but I'll supply some info.
Engines: 5.4 gas V-8 (all years), 6.8 gas V-10 (all years), 7.3 diesel ('00 through mid year '03), 6.0 diesel (mid year '03 through '05).
All gas motors offered were the 2 valve versions of the modular motors, no EX came with the later model 3 valve motors that showed up in the pickups in '05.
Transmissions: All gas V-8 and V-10 as well as all 7.3 diesels came with the 4R100 4 speed OD trans. All 6.0 diesel EXs came with the 5R110 5 speed OD trans. All 4X4 EXs came Ford's ESOF (electronic shift on the fly), which includes a dash selector switch and vacuum operated automatic locking hubs.
All of the diesel EXs came with 3.73 axle gear ratios. V-8 and V-10 EXs could be ordered with 3.73, 4.10 (V-8s only I think) or 4.30 gear ratios. Since these modular motors are designed to rev fairly high and are actually more efficient at slightly higher revs the deeper (numerically higher) gears will provide better performance and tow much better. Increasing tire size over the stock 265/70R16 (31.5") will effectively reduce the gear ratio (lower numerically) and decrease performance.
All motors and trim levels were available in both 4X4 and 2WD.
EXs came from the factory sitting about 2" lower than similarly equipped Super Duty pickups, Ford thought that this would appeal more to the Soccer Mom demographic they were targeting.
Trim levels: XL/XLT was the base model, but it was able to be optioned up pretty well including leather and entertainment systems. Limited models all had leather and body side cladding that went up and over the wheel wells, both in contrasting colors and monochromatic paint. Eddie Bauer Exs came with the same exterior body side cladding as the Limiteds but was in a contrasting color, the EB interior was a two tone leather. Both Limited and EB could be ordered with second row captains chairs (buckets) or the more common bench like the XLTs all had. Some very low optioned municipal service models only had the front two rows of seat and no rear heat or AC, some of these basic rigs had vinyl floor coverings instead of carpets too.
All Exs came with rear receiver tow hitches and trailer electrical plugs.

 

Just based on the pic of the frame corrosion I wouldn't touch that thing for more then $4000 but would prefer to not touch it at all.