Picked up a super clean 2001 Excursion for $1700 with 195,000 miles. It had spark plug issues with the pass. side head and had been repaired multiple times but I can't fix it again and will just need to replace the head. I can buy the updated 2003-2004 heads and have them rebuilt for about $1,700. Throw in other misc parts and what not and I'm probably $2,000 for updated reliable heads and a few days labor.

Or, use this as an opportunity to do a cummins 12 valve swap. I figured the cost will be in the neighborhood of $10,000 and a weeks work of labor.

I'm making an assumption that I could get on avg 10-12 mpg with the V10 and 16-18 mpg with a cummins. Gas here is $2.40 and diesel is $2.70. With those numbers I'd expect a v10 to cost me about. .$0.24 a mile and a cummins to cost me $0.17 a mile. With the Diesel swap costing me about $8,000 more to perform than repairing the V10, it should take a little over 100,000 miles to break even. But at that point to Excursion will have 300,000 miles and will probably be at the end of its life assuming the bottom end of the engine doesn't fail before then. But if it was a cummins perhaps it would command more value? Thoughts?

 

Well, I started with a 6.0 in mine, and ran it to 293K before swapping. My reasons were that I wanted to do the swap and I placed little monetary value/rules on it long term.

So, in my view, unless you have unlimited time in that weeks worth of labor, you won't do the complete swap in that timeframe. You'd have to exclusively work on the truck AND have all parts there in hand prior to starting. And invariably there are things you'll miss. And in order to do that, you'll have to purchase all the swap parts from folks who do that or a living. And in that case, $10K is a little shy of what you'll spend. Heck, if you want to keep the 4R, you're looking at a minimum of $600 just for an adapter plate. Any other transmission goes up from there. And that's IF wild horse manufacturing has one. All other adapter plates are well over that price. I just don't think you can get there in the timeframe and budget because even if you went to destroked and bought the full kit, you're in it probably $4K in parts. Then you'll have to sort though all the little nuances of their kit (which isn't plug and play). If you go the cheaper route and build all the parts you need (motor mounts, wiring, fan shroud, etc, etc), the timeline doesn't match up even if you work on it exclusively for a whole week. You'll at least spend all of that $10K getting it done.

That said, I'm not trying to deter you or be a debbie downer. I absolutely LOVE mine and wouldn't change a thing about the cost or process to get there! Just know that even though this project has been done a thousand times, a thousand different ways, that it's not really cost effective and short of one person I've seen on the interwebs, the end result won't get you your money back including your time cost. These swaps are more a labor of love and not a money maker (or money saver). Good luck and post up the build no matter which route you go!! Looking forward to it!

 

EXSwap, thanks for the insight! Life is pretty busy for me at the moment with 4th baby coming....hence the Excursion purchase . We do have a Honda Odyssey for the quick running around town and what not. I definitely would prefer to do the cummins but I'm also looking for an excuse of practicality, which may not exist. Ive pretty much determined that doing it for the MPG is not practical considering I could buy a lot of gas for the cost. But out of curiosity what mpg do you get with your swap?

 

I have no input about the Cummins swap, but back when my V-10 3.73 EX was still all stock and I daily drove it I was getting 14 MPG in my 50/50 mix of city/highway. I drove it totally normally, no hyper-miling or racing, currently with it's 35"s, 4.88 gear, 4" lift, headers, 3030XL muffler and 5Star's 89 Performance tune it gets 14.5 MPG with the cruise Control set at 65 MPH on an all highway trip. Of course, everyone's driving routes and right foot has a significant impact on mileage but I thought that I'd throw my experiences into the mix to see how that might affect the ROI on a Cummins swap.
My wagon is our dedicated tow rig for our large TT, I like that I can find any needed part for it pretty much anywhere on the road if ever needed, having some custom or semi custom parts in play with a swap like that would just give me something to worry about (in a dusty back corner of my worn out brain) on trips. I've seen 9.5 MPG twice now on towing trips over 400 miles dragging the 12K TT behind the EX, most highway tow trips get 8 to 9 MPG.
Have the multiple spark plug hole repairs pushed it even beyond the TimeSert oversized (the one designed to fix other insert repairs that have failed) repair insert point?

 

As Tom said, MPG largely depends on my right foot. On normal driving, rush hour traffic, I average 17-19. My commute is about 25 miles, probably 20 of that highway but not always able to cruise. I just did a trip to GA and back (~1000 miles total driving) and burned approximately 50 gallons of fuel, so I got right around 20MPG for the whole trip.

If I'm in the throttle, I can spend more money than I care to admit out the tail pipe. I don't generally do that unless I'm being tailgated.

 

When you get tired of the spark plug issue, just throw a 2003+ v10 in it and be done. If you don't plan on towing a monster trailer all over the U.S. the v10 is perfectly capable. Regear it if so and the mileage will be the only issue.

A Cummins swap done right will peg you tons of time even if you're handy, can weld, can wait long enough to source the right parts. It can be done on the cheap, but you'll pay for it one way or the other.

Just like Keith I knew I was going to Cummins swap mine eventually. Life happens and I'm just back to work after a loooooooooong time out. The Ex has served perfectly well throughout that time while I accumulated parts and did my homework.

 

IMO, it's just not worth the effort, unless you're gonna keep this truck for just about forever, or if you're wanting the bragging rights.

I'm getting a reman when the time comes. $3500 gets a Fraser V10, and while it's out, some new headers will go in. All that for at least half the cost and headache of the Cummins swap. I don't know what maintenance is like on the 12 valve, but I know my V10 is pretty easy to take care of. The power isn't amazing, but it will scoot just fine.

 

So far we have only towed the monster trailer all over about half the U.S. and the V-10 has been perfectly capable. 45K towing miles so far. Regearing it (to get to an effective 4.30-ish ratio) was the best mod I've done for it and it really didn't hurt the mileage too badly. Last year our friends with a new'19 F-350 CCLB dually with the 6.7 towing a Jayco 36PKTS (40'-ish long, 14' tall and 14K lbs) traveled with us from PA/NJ-VA-GA-FL-GA-AL-TN-WV-PA-PA/NJ, our TT is 2' lower and 2K lighter and they averaged 10.3 MPG vs our 8.8 MPG for the towing portions of that trip. Not much difference in the numbers but the oil burner did do 17% better on fuel with a little more weight and wind drag and 2 more tires.

 

Great information, thank you! I'm thinking at this point I will probably just fix it and get it going. If I happen to run across a smoking deal on a cummins then I suppose I could slowly buy parts until I'm "ready". I attempted to repair the plug hole then quickly realized that it had already been repaired with an insert after I was having trouble drilling. The insert is still in there but is messed up. I tried using an easy out to remove the insert but didn't have any luck. Stainless steel is a nightmare to work on. I think at this point I won't be able to repair it without pulling the head. Maybe I'll get lucky and I can just remove the old insert vs a new head.

 

If you're planning a Fummins just get a clean one that someone has done right. It'll still be cheaper than doing it yourself with all the labor hours into it, unless you don't value your time. @TOM I know sir, and that's a fantastic TT you have to go with the Ex. I guess I should have said 'even if you're towing a monster trailer all over the US, just regear it and let it eat.