Hey Guys
I have a 2000 Excursion Ex-FBI Field Vehicle, still has the search lights on it, and a front bumper that looks intended for ramming things.

For Reference, this is a 2WD, not a 4x4.

I am looking at modernizing it a lot, planning to send it off to get a 2016 facelift to the front end, keeping the interior as is because its somehow damn near immaculate, this thing must have been used by high ranking because its more spotless than i can imagine unless its been redone fully at some point.

Anyhow, along with the facelift i have been formulating a grand plan powertrain wise and wanted some people to bounce ideas and provide input, and yes im sure there will be some negatives and hate so bring it on.

1st up, I would like to swap over to a 3V V10, YES i know they are different from the block up, im familiar with 3V engines intimately as i built the engine in my 07 Mustang GT, and i also know the 3V V10 does not have phasers.
My idea was as i saw someone else discussing, get a 3V engine longblock and modify the intake to take a cable driven throttlebody, such as one of the twin blades like the Cobras used to use. And as for the variable manifold, just set it to a fixed position and use some trial and error to dial it into a happy medium.

2nd up, A better transmission, US Shift has some neat TCMs that can control a bunch of different Ford transmissions allowing you to swap a lot of stuff over to 6R80, 10R80 and other modern transmissions, my thought was whether my engine plans happen, or even if they do not, to swap over to a 6R80, or 10R80 transmission to get a lot more gear and make either one of the V10s much more efficient and help keep them in their power bands better. The process is rather simple, you load a tune that disables the transmission functions on the ECM, and then install this little box from US Shift, and it runs the transmission itself, just tapping a few wires such as TPS, etc so it can see commanded throttle, etc.

Im not sure of the length differences between the 4 speed trans mine has, and the 6R80/10R80 transmissions, but im expecting i would likely also have to make some driveshaft modifications as well. To my knowledge those two transmissions are an exact match bolt pattern wise to the Modular V10s since all the modular's share a common pattern.

As background to save some of you from blowing too much hot air at me here are some things to consider.
I built a 4.2L Stroker v6 build for my first Mustang, a 2004 that came with a 3.9L, with headers, ported heads, lightly ported intake, etc. and had it tuned to run properly.
I rebuilt a 2V NPI V8 for my 1996 GT from the heads up when a head gasket failed.
I built a frankenstien build for a 2000 Hyundai Sonata, that ended up being a 3.5L V6, mostly parts from a santa fe SUV, and made it all fit in the sonata(MAN it had takeoff!) it prevously had the 2.5L V6 so harnesses matched up close enough~
I rebuilt the 3V 4.6L's top end in my 2007 Mustang GT after a coolant line in the manifold developed a leak, figured since i was already that deep why not do the head gaskets since it was at 150k, installed the new revised design phasers.
Growing up I also helped by dad build a Ford 390 V8 for his 67 F100 Ranger truck, a 460 for another truck, and we built the shortblock of a Ford 400 that we ended up selling when he got bored with it.
I also rebuilt a Essex 3.0 V6 for a ford taurus with a friend but that was not really noteworthy, no taurus ever was.

Also, before you call bull**** on the 6R80 and 10R80 being controlled by a third party controller, heres the link: https://www.usshift.com/silverbullet.shtml

 

Now one's gonna blow shade at you, my friend, except if you go and take all the knowledge you glean and try to sell conversion parts after this project

In my opinion, find a 2005+ F-series with the 3-valve, and go from there. The earlier the better. Rebuild the tranny, and potentially the engine if necessary, and move everything over. An even more interesting project would be to use a V10 from the later F650/750 series with the later transmission.

But you have some solid ideas, and I would love to watch the progression. if you need any help with hosting pictures or anything, let me know.

 

Wow this will be interesting. I'd like to follow progress as well. Regarding the driveline, I agree with Krewat that it would probably be better and easier to find a V10+6-speed out of an F650 or F-53 that you can bolt in without lots of conversion and adaptation needed. Lots of F-53s out there destroy the box before the driveline has 40,000 miles on it.

 

I thought about it but settled on the idea that the power i have available on the 2V V10 is sufficient(for now.) and with a proper transmission to better use that power it should be a lot more responsive. Besides, if i get the Trans swap done, then there is less i would have to swap over if i ever did a 3V swap, i could ignore all the trans stuff.

I have no interest in selling kits, but i was thinking that when/if i get this done, and have the custom drive shaft built, it might be a good idea to have the shop that ends up building it keep the specs handy so i could just post on here, if anyone else follows in to do this swap, get your drive shaft from these guys.