Hey everyone,

Creating this to track my journey with my new excursion. I picked up this 2004 EB Excursion 6.0 back in April to replace my 2003 Lexus LX470 that I've had for the past decade and loved dearly. I needed some more family space and wanted something that could tow my track car and old Land Cruiser better. I always wanted a diesel pickup but can't justify a pickup so this was the obvious choice! I've really been enjoying it so far.

I found it in VA and it had 160k miles, ZERO rust, BPD semi-bulletproof kit and the PO put on the current wheels/tires. Otherwise, it's stock, never tuned, never abused. It was a good find. It's the cleanest one I've seen in person bar none. It's had a solid maintenance history as well with recent HPOP, IPR, FPR, EGR replacement and good care back since the PO bought it at 100k miles.

I've honestly just been driving it the past few months. Put ~3500 miles on it and it hasn't skipped a beat. However, after a lot of reading and researching, I'm ready to get going on it. The plan is to put studs and new heads on it, and a FICM tune (thinking Atlas 40) to help response and drivability. That and I chatted with Junior at ATS About some V/C springs and Bilstein 5100 shocks. I've also ordered some new headlights and some Morimoto MLED 2.0 Bi-LED projectors that I'm going to retrofit into the new housings to finally get some decent lighting in this truck as the stock lights are miserable. These will have a nice crisp ECE beam pattern and cutoff.

I put a MBRP 4" exhaust on it and just drove down to KDD today to pick up some o-ringed heads and their up-pipes. Now, to get the rest of the stuff on my list to start the head job.

 

Current parts list for the heads/studs

 

Nice rig! Looks pretty darn clean!

 

Skip the 6.4 Banjo bolts, it's not the upgrade everyone thinks it is. I did the 6.4 banjo bolts and I'm actually going back to the stock 6.0 banjo bolts.

 

Do you have a head gasket leak now or are the new KDD heads just out of precaution? With proper monitoring, no crazy tunes, and maintenance you can go far with the original gaskets/heads.

Are your lifters bad? If you raise the cab/body (vice pulling the engine) I've read that you'll need to separate the trans to remove the rear cover to change out the lifters.

 

Can you elaborate as to why?

Original HG/heads right now, never touched. The KDD heads are out of precaution and the lifters/pushrods are a "while you're in there" thing. The plan is to lift the body to do the work so it shouldn't be too bad.

 

I think the lifters will require additional labor since you need to pull the trans to get the rear cover off. Also, just as a heads up, most people install new body mounts at this time since the body is lifted. The S&B silicone mounts are expensive ($700) and never go on sale. I have not heard any reports on the Chinese knockoff versions that are out there.

 

New heads just because? I would not touch what isn't broke and already been BPD'd....esp on a 6.oh....but I see you already have. Hope it goes well. Pics or it didn't happen!

 

I've heard good things about the S&B mounts. I'll grab a set if I end up pulling the body.

New heads because the truck wasn't studded so I wanted to do that. 'm more of a "one and done" type of maintaner of vehicles so new heads and all new parts and hopefully it'll be solid for a while. Will definitely take some pics when I dig into it.

 

This last week was a thrash but the Ex is now fully bulletproofed!

I packed up the family and went to my parent's house to use my dad's shop to do this job as it was the only place that was big enough to park the Ex inside and use the lift. It was also heated and insulated which doesn't suck. I decided to do this body-off instead of doing it body-on and I'm glad I did. Having the body out of the way made access 100x better and saved my back from being even more sore. It was a hell of a learning experience working on my first diesel but was fun.

This was the parts list more or less..
KDD Heads
Fumoto Coolant Block Drains - 2x
Fumoto Oil Drain Fumoto
KDD Up-pipes KDD
ARP Head Studs
Chromoly 6.4 Pushrods
Dieselsite Stand Pipes/Dummy Plugs
Ford 6.4 Banjo Bolts and washers
HPOP Screen IPR
IPR screen
Mahle Gasket Kit
Glow Plugs
Glow Plug Harnesses
Degas bottle
Degas bottle cap
Thermostat
Waterpump
Serp belt Gates Green belt
Idler Pullies
Tensioner
Turbo mount gaskets and o-rings
Injector Orings and Seals
S&B Body Mounts
Rotella ELC NF Coolant Shell

The job went relatively smoothly and only ran into 1 issue. One of the brake lines for the FL corner twisted off at the distribution block which I was able to source locally from the dealer so not too much of a headache.

After I got it back together, I pulled the FICM relay and did some cranking until I saw oil pressure register on the gauge and some ICP pressure and it fired off shortly after with no excessive cranking or issues. I had some hard starts after letting it idle in the driveway for a few minutes and turning it on and off so I went and drove it hard for ~5 mins and then it started right up after that so I think there was just some air left in the HPO system. I took it for a ~45 min drive running it hard up the mountain highway and had no issues so I was confident in taking the family back home in it. Overall, it was a resounding success! No lights, no codes, no issues on the 3.5hr drive home. I call that a huge win!

I also bought an Airlift vacuum coolant tool which is my new favorite tool. Works so well! I didn't have to add any coolant after the initial fill even after my drive home.

Between balancing my day job and some child duty, I got it done in ~4 days.

Some pics!

 

Beautiful truck and excellent work! Soo good! Congrats friend!

 

Nice work!