2003 Ford Excursion
6.8L V10 4WD 3.73
272k miles



I’ve been looking for a couple months, and finally found this one 4 hours away. This is the setup I wanted, and it has been hard to find. It has some issues, but I’m used to that. I have a 2003 Expedition and 1983 CJ7. And rarely have enough money to pay someone else to fix things.

We bought a 2004 Jayco JayFlight 31BHS TT last year, & needed to upgrade to a heavy duty TV. After researching, much of which came from info on this site, I decided to get the king of the SUVs! I wanted the biggest SUV with the best towing capacity & weight ratings. We are a family of 6, plus a golden doodle (all girls, save me) [read “save” as except or as rescue ], and all the things.

Repairs/Maintenance/Upgrades

Planning to do now:
Oil & Oil Filter Change (Undecided Brand & Weight & Type)
Power Stop Rotors
Power Stop or Centric Performance Pads
K&N Performance Cold Air Intake
Hellwig Front & Rear Sway Bars
Backup Camera (Undecided Brand & Type)
Touchscreen Stereo with Apple Car Play (Undecided Brand & Model)
Brake Controller (Undecided unit)
Deal with some rust issues



Was planning to do now, but not sure:
Bilstein Shocks (the shocks on it now ride pretty well, but I don’t know what they are or if the Bilsteins would be that much better)
Bosch Iridium Spark Plugs
Ignition Coils (Undecided Brand & Model, engine running well now & coils look fairly new so I thought about waiting on doing those and the plugs)

I’m not sure what kind of shocks these are






Want to do, but may have to wait:
5 Star Tuner (Undecided which unit)
Service the Differentials


Tires are Michelin Defender LTS M/X E rated. In great condition. Front 2 look new and rear have lots of tread. Good there. Also, 4WD low and high work great.





Not sure if I should have the transmission serviced or not. I don’t have any detailed service records on the vehicle, so I’m not sure what or if anything has been done to service the transmission.

I drove my Expedition 4 hours from Alabama to South Carolina towing a car hauler to go look at the Excursion yesterday. Got it for $7,000 from a Ford dealership. Immediately put it to work. Took the car hauler off the Expedition, put the hauler on the Excursion and hauled the Expedition home.

Engine ran great. Gauges stayed in normal ranges, transmission shifted smoothly. I’m really enjoying it so far. I’m a big guy (6’5” 295), and it is nice to have a vehicle this size. I’m bracing myself for things to go wrong since it is at 272k miles. It seems to have been serviced really well though. Carfax showed it was a rental for a chunk of its life. Once I finalize the upgrades/repairs/maintenance that I’m going to do now, I may also have it aligned. Then I plan to readjust my WD hitch for this vehicle, and I should be good to go. Looking forward to the adventure of owning an Excursion, and the adventures it will take our family on. Thanks, everyone, for the resource of this site.






I’m open to suggestions for the items I’ve mentioned above for which I’m undecided on brand/type/model/etc., so feel free to let me know your recommendation and why. Thanks.

 

Welcome to the EX forum and family Matt!
It looks like you found a very nice wagon, good luck with it!

My V-10 EX is our dedicated tow rig for our 12K Jayco 338RETS TT, properly setup these big wagons do make nice comfy tow rigs.

I'm just going to go down my list I made while reading your post and ask a few questions and make a few suggestions in no particular order.

What is the weight, loaded for a camping trip of that 31BHS? And the tongue weight? Which WD hitch setup do you use?

You are going to want to add a set of towing mirrors to your list, you have lots of options there. I started out with the same little paddle mirrors that you have, then upgraded to period correct tow mirrors from Cool View, then later upgraded again to the '08 style with the lights from 1AAuto.com. For me, the '08 offer better rearward vision and have a much larger convex mirror and the lights are cool. The quality of the 1AAuto mirrors has been excellent for me over several years now.

You are in the hot South and will be towing, so I would run a 5W-30/10W-30 motor oil, I use the cheap jugs of Mobil 1 from Walmart in mine. For the filter you will want to use the Motorcraft FL-820S also sold at Walmart, it has the correct silicone anti flowback internal valve to protect on cold starts that not all filters offer.

I use the very popular and great performing Prodigy P3 brake controller. Buy one and also get the Ford pigtail, its plug and play to a connector up under the dash. Never had a single issue with it in over 10 years and almost 50K towing miles.

Skip the K&N CAI, your V-10 came from the factory with a good CAI installed that can outflow the motor at redline. An aftermarket setup will provide more intake noise but no real noticeable performance gains. The typical K&N oiled gauze filters can flow better by filtering less, not a tradeoff I'm willing to make for a road vehicle, for a race car, yes.

The correct spark plugs that that you want are Motorcraft SP-479. Coils (or as discussed around here as COPs) if you need them can be the cheaper (than Motorcraft) Denso 673-6000, they are identical as Denso is the OEM manufacturer. If keeping the current COPs (I only replace them if proven to be bad) and changing plugs be sure to also install new rubber boots and springs, the Denso 671-0001 is the set you want there. New COPs come with boots and springs, so make your shopping list with that in mind.

Your '03 should have the higher spark plug thread count than the previous years, so risk of a plug blowout is greatly reduced. But it's still a good idea to use a higher than spec torque value to keep them in place, I torqued mine to 30 ft/lbs with a dab of Never-Sieze on the threads.

From you pictures the front rubber bumpstops are completely gone, you will want to replace them with the factory style bumps as they are an active part of the EXs short travel suspension. You should also check the 4 bumpstops on the rear, two on the frame and two on the end of the factory traction bars (forward facing half leaf).

Do a full flush on the trans, there is a good how-to thread on it up in the Tech Folder stickies at the top of the EX forum page. That's also a good time to upgrade to the larger 6.0 trans cooler, heat is a killer for these 4R100s and the 6.0 cooler is about twice the size of our stock cooler. It's not a must do but it is good insurance and peace of mind, I ran my stock cooler for almost 40K towing miles and only saw it get up over 200 a handful of times but now with the 6.0 cooler it runs at least 20 degrees cooler in all situations. The dash gauges on these trucks are really just multi position idiot lights, I think the trans temp gauge only has 3 positions, cold, normal and already too hot, so get some other device to monitor trans temps while towing. I use a stand alone gauge but there are plenty of OBDII connected devices available also.

5Star Tuning is a great supporter of the forum and has very good customer service if ever needed. I always run their tunes towing or running unloaded. Most towing miles are logged on the 89 Octane Performance tune. I consider the custom tunes from them as my second best performance improvement that I've done to my EX, deeper gears being the best change (like a completely different truck!) and the Banks headers and Y pipe as the third best mod.

 

Nice looking Excursion. I just bought a 2001 V10 4wd XLT this past fall for the exact reason you did. Needed it to tow my 30ft bunkhouse I purchased and need room for the kids and dogs too.
I got one trip in before winter hit. About 6hrs tow each way.

I 2nd adding the tow mirrors. I did that prior to the first trip. It would highly recommend it. Mine already had sway bars front and back. Over the winter I purchased a Prodigy P3, 5StarTune, airbags and new COPs. Mine towed decently with the 3.73s, but OD was pretty much useless. I ended up locking it out. Next year I am looking at doing a re-gear since the plan is to be towing quite a bit.

 

My TT GWR is 8,500

Dry TT weight 5,800

I haven’t weighed at the CAT scale since we started carrying some more weight, but I’m going to say we are somewhere between 7,000-7,500 depending on what’s in the tanks.



For some reason, I cannot figure out the process to get my tongue weight. I’ve read about it, and it just isn’t making sense in my head how to use the CAT scales to get the tongue weight. It seems that a tongue weight of somewhere in the 10-13% range of the gross weight of the TT is ideal. I figured if my TT GWR is 8,500, 13% would be 1,100. I know we aren’t maxed out, so I figured we were somewhere between 900-1,000. Can you help me understand how to accurately determine my tongue weight, please?



I’m using an EAZ Lift 48058 1,000 lb WD. It has the chains, which I know is not preferred.



I’ll look into the mirrors. Thanks for the suggestion on the oil and oil filter. I’ll look at the Prodigy P3 Brake Controller. I’ve seen others recommend it.



Since the plugs and COPs seem to be in good shape, I’m probably going to leave that for now. Unless you think I should go ahead and replace them. Thanks for the recommendations n what to get if needed.



Thanks for noticing the bump stops. I didn’t even think to look for that.



I’ll look into the bigger trans cooler. Sounds expensive haha. I will also look at a better trans temp gauge.



Which 5 star tuner device do you recommend? Looks like they have a few to choose from. I’m hoping if I do the tuner it will help with fuel mileage for daily driving. I’ll look at the headers and y pipe, but probably won’t be able to afford those just yet.

 

Thanks! What lead you to do the new COPs? Did you have a misfire problem or did they look old, or did you just preemptively replace? What airbags did you get? Do you plan to upgrade to the F-250 leaf springs in the rear as well or did you do the air bags instead?

 

I was getting a misfire under load. Although the clips for the electrical connectors to my COPs were broken. I cleaned the connectors and added di-electric grease. Since then I have not noticed a misfire, but I also had already purchased the COPs.

I am not changing the springs in the back currently. If it becomes an issue I will, but for the time being I am using the airbags. I got these https://www.etrailer.com/Vehicle-Sus...ID=20011111791

I still have to install them. Weather is just now breaking and I am able to get out and work on the Excursion.

As far as a tune for mpg increase, what are you getting for MPG. I don't think the tune will do much for us. Biggest benefit would be routine maintenance and controlling our right foot.

I just received my tune from 5 Star. I purchased the y-pipe and tuner combo. Currently I am halfway through a job replacing my exhaust manifold gasket. After that is done I will do the y-pipe. I am hoping the transmission tuning will help the towing experience.

 

I don’t know what my MPG is yet. Just got the Excursion Monday. I know it isn’t good though haha. None of them are, but I was hoping that the tuner could help my MPG rate while daily driving. Maybe it won’t make enough difference to matter though. I’ve definitely been easier on the gas since I started driving this thing. My Expedition had a monitor that told me my MPG on my dash, but I don’t see one on the Excursion. Unless it’s on the screen that’s just above the rear view mirror on the ceiling. That screen isn’t working in mine.

 

They screen had the average MPG, but I don’t know how accurate it is. I got 7-8 mpg towing the camper.

 

Good luck with your new Ex, I have the exact same one as you only I am the original owner and only have 67k on mine. Yes the gauge above the mirrors does measure the MPG’s however around here it’s called the lie-o-meter because it’s not very accurate. There is an easy fix in the sticky thread. You should also consider the 08 mirror up grade, I also used the 1A auto mirror, on our 03’s it’s plug and play, except for the running light which requires you to run a wire to each mirror but the signal lights work fine. As Tom mentioned make sure you replace your bump stops and use the OEM style. I have blistien shock on mine and find that they preform fine.and I also have the power stop brake kit as well as stainless steel lines and flex hoses. Be prepared to spend some money💰

 

Thanks! 67k miles in 18 years?? Wow! Nice. It must be a dedicated towing rig for you. I’ll check out the stickie and be looking into the mirrors.

 

A good rule of thumb is to plan for 15% of the trailer GVWR as tongue weight when planning a WD hitch setup. My TT is actually a hair over that as the TT scales just a tick below 12,000lbs and the tongue weight is 1860lbs. Using your 8,500 GVWR I wouldn't be surprised if your tongue weight was a high as 1250, but most likely a bit under that. But I would figure on using 1200lb spring bars on the WD hitch for sure. A WD with built-in sway control (or sway elimination) is a huge plus with the somewhat short wheelbase EX.

I will fully explain the method to determine the exact tongue weight using a CAT scale in a separate post, dinner is getting close right now. It's pretty easy and cheap.

The COPs last a looong time and only need replacing when failed. If you don't have info on the age of the plugs and boots I would change them out just to establish a known interval. And ensure the best performance, my best towing MPG (9.5) came immediately after a plug change. And just the plugs and boots are fairly cheap.

Crumbled rubber bumpstops are pretty common as these big wagons age.

The OEM 6.0 cooler is cheaper now than it was a few years ago, I am using a Dorman unit that was only about $165 or so and then you only need a couple of barbed fittings, clamps and a few feet of ATF rated hose, the cooler bolts right in place. Keeping an eye on trans temps while towing is a good idea, if it ever does get up over 225 degrees pull over and let it Idle to cool back down, NEVER shut it off when hot.

I don't think the tuner model matters much, it's the actual tunes that will help the EX perform better. Don't expect to see any real improvements in mileage even with the Economy tunes, if you get better MPGs it won't be by much. For me, the biggest factor about the tunes is the vastly improved shift strategy while towing. You have the 3.73 gears so towing performance is going to be "adequate-ish" but expect to downshift on every grade, it will get you to the destination but a little slower than a more deeply geared rig.
My EX back when all stock delivered 14.5 MPG in my mixed daily driving and a best ever of 15.5 on a trip, towing the 9,500lb TH it got 6/7 MPG. Currently with 4.88 gears, 35" tires (for an effective 4.39 ratio), Banks headers, 4" lift and on the 89 Perf tune it gets 14.5 MPG unloaded at 65 MPH and towing the 12K TT it typically gets 8/9 MPG on mostly highway trips.