Welcome to the forum! You'll find a lot of very useful info here. As you've read, the V10 is not the horrible motor that it is frequently made out to be. People are running around with over 200k on theirs.

I paid $6650 for my 2000 Excursion Limited with V10 and 90,300 miles. Black with black tinted windows and gray interior. Very nice overall, and it had Warn front hubs installed (factory Ford hubs aren't that reliable). You can find them for this price, but I paid less than anybody else I know. I initially had a few teething pains with it. Some of the coil-on-plugs were bad on it, and the dealership said the alternator had a bad diode (both were disclosed at time of purchase). I ended up paying about $2000 in the first month of ownership, which brings my price up to $8850, a bit closer to what you'll normally see these trucks go for. I paid a friend of mine who has a shop $750 to do front and rear pads/rotors (they were needed) change the plugs and coil-on-plugs, flush the trans fluid, flush the coolant system, and I'm sure there was something else. I ordered the coils from one of the online Ford sites for about $500 total with shipping. I also paid $200 for a new alternator and then another $40 for a new serpentine belt (old one looked original) and changed those out myself.

Then, the truck had an issue where the thing shut off on me while I was driving down the highway. I paid the Ford dealer $500 - $200 was for a new key and remote, and $300 was to fix the problem. They got it wrong the first time, and after driving it 20 miles it died again, but the second time they got it right and they didn't charge me for that repair. The problem was the PATS module (anti-theft) had died.

Really, though, I believe that problem could have happened no matter how much I paid for the truck. The trans and coolant flushes I would've done anyway, as with the serpentine belt. Most cars seem to only come with one key these days. The coils seem to go bad starting around 90k miles, so that's not unusual, either. I figure really I paid maybe $1000 in additional repairs and some hassle, but that also means I have a truck with some more new parts on it that tend to need replacing.

3V makes more power. The later 2V motors have 8 threads for the spark plugs instead of 4 (I think it's 2002+). This supposedly makes them less prone to having the plugs spit out. My truck had two plugs spit out before I got it (this was discovered by my mechanic when he changed the plugs and coils). However, people on here will tell you so long as you keep them torqued they are fine. You want to check them probably every 20,000 miles, so it's really not that big of a deal.

Extend what, the life of the engine? Well, more power and engine life are contradictory in this case. For power you can do headers, exhaust, chip, supercharger. For extending the life of the engine leave it the hell alone and follow factory service recommendations. I am following option 2, as I want mine to last.

That is up to you. The early ones can be had cheaply. To me, that was a more important factor. I told you my experience, and I think that if you buy a truck with about 90k that is probably roughly par for the course. The hubs wear out, those need to be replaced. The front suspension need to be rebuilt, it seems usually before or by the 100k mark. Mine is beginning to feel a little loose, so I will probably do that in the next year or so. The shocks are pretty dead as well, so I'll probably replace them in the spring. But really, those aren't that big of a deal, and to me don't justify the cost of a newer truck (the newer truck will have those same items wear out, if they aren't worn out already). The trucks themselves seem to have a service life of 200k. People drive them past that, certainly, but I think that is where you get into major problems. The V10s seem to go somewhere after 200k.

I bought mine figuring that, with 90k on it, I would probably get another 100k+ of useful life out of it before it died. For the price, that's really hard to beat. My intention is to drive it until 200k and sell it at that point. I don't believe that the thing is likely to give me nagging issues during that time period, given what I see of other people out there. When it his 200k and I junk it, if I still want one then I will look for a 2005 with low miles (<50k) at that point, and drive it for a similar period of time. Given the price differential, I didn't see the extra 5 years as being worthwhile.

Don't buy the diesel unless you do a lot of highway driving or tow a lot. Diesel fuel costs more so the mileage benefit is minimal. The extra purchase cost of the diesel engine is very significant, enough so that you'll never save that much money in fuel unless you put a ton of miles on your truck, plus the maintenance costs on the diesels are higher. Buying the V10 is most likely the right choice for you, as it was for me.

Basically at this point, I've spent way less than I would spend on a similarly equipped Suburban 2500 of the same year, and I have a better truck that is more capable. What's to argue with?

Hope this helps!

 

Not sure whee that came from. There a MANY guys in the V10 forum who have 300+K on the V10's with normal maintenance. It is a hellaciaoulsy strong & under-stressed engine.
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I like the 03 Excursions. It was right in it's prime, it wasn't all "de-contented" like the 05's (eg. no hood blanket, door lights, glove box light etc.) Plug issues had been addressed. And they are inexpensive on the used market (V10). But I prefer the front end of the 05s.

farrk007, don't listen the guys who have never owned or even driven a V10 Excursion.

 

I agree with u on that one ken, u have to drive and tow with a v-10 inorder to be able to tell someone not to by it.

 

I said "After 200k" I didn't say how much after. From what I've been reading on here, it looks like they almost never blow up before 200k (there are a few exceptions), but total miles seem to vary in the 225-350k range. Obviously how far it goes depends on your care and use of the vehicle in part, but then again there are also people who take great care of their motors, and the things still die yount.

The service life of the rest of the truck is another issue, though, which was part of my point. Obviously that varies with use and care as well. One of the ways that I look at service life is not when the entire vehicle falls apart, but when you get diminishing returns on keeping it. In other words, it's in the shop for little stuff all the time. One of the ways I rate this is by looking on eBay and seeing where the high-mileage examples of a particular vehicle are. If a bunch of people are selling them at that mileage, it probably means that the vehicle has worn out enough that there are issues that they don't feel are worth dealing with, and so the vehicle is nearing the end of its service life. Doesn't mean you can't buy one of those vehicles and drive it another 100k, but it's probably less likely. So, one of the tests I use when I buy a vehicle is I see what those highest mileage examples are, and make sure I get one with half the miles are fewer. You can say that I don't give the vehicles enough credit, but I also don't want to tell someone "Oh, the things will last to 400k no problem!" when I certainly personally have not experienced that, nor have I seen conclusive evidence that makes me believe that is the norm.

 

I recall long ago and far away, back in 2000, when I was looking at buying my 2000 EX. We test drove a diesel, don't know what version, it drove like a garbage truck (don't mean to insult anyone.) At the time I didn't know about this forum or the potential upgrades that were possible. If I had to buy another EX today, I'd get a diesel. At the time, the up charge was about $6000 and gas was low $1.00 something a gallon. I couldn't make the math work to justify it. Of course, 7 years, 117,000 miles and ~9,750 gallons of gas later, it might of been worth it.... Still can't figure out the math.

 

I got a 05 v10 and it had 42K on it. I love it until, it come to the weekly fill up. But I would be paying about the same if I had my '99 f150 so 4-5 MPG difference is not so bad.
I would love to have a Diesel but I could not swing the payment difference.
Find a good truck and enjoy. The FTE is a great community so keep in touch.

 

Just curious, why would you want to go 800 miles on one tank? I can go 600 miles and have to stop way before that. Sometimes between the wife and I we have to stop every 100-150 miles. If you know what I mean!

 

That depends on the person. I once did a trip where I went 700 miles before stopping. Even then, it was only because my tank was running low.

 

I get 650 out of a tank on road trips. Thats not bad for a 10 cyl 4 ton beast.

 

Going 800 miles on a tank of diesel vs. going 600 miles on a tank of gas mean that you save money!!!! Cha Ching!! To have to fill up 200 miles sooner means it costs more to drive the same miles in a gas motor vs. a diesel. To me it has nothing to do with frequency of stops just about saving $$....

 

But right here you are assuming that all other costs are equal, as is commonplace these days. Fixed costs + recurring costs = total costs. If I spend an extra $6,000 on the diesel, then I need to save $6,000 in fuel costs over the life of the vehicle to make that worth while, assuming maintenance costs are the same (which they aren't).

If Matt is getting 650 miles to a tank on his Ex on trips vs. someone with a diesel getting 800 miles to a tank on similar trips, I would say Matt is the one saving money. First off diesel is costing more than gas these days (as it has for a few years now, especially during the winter), and second off he saved a lot of money by buying a gas vs. a diesel.

In the airplane world we've had this debate. There is a new company out offering diesel engine replacements for the gas engines in Cessna 172s. Their argument is that the diesels burn about 25% less fuel and since they use Jet A instead of 100LL (Jet A is significantly cheaper) you save yet more money. Of course, nevermind the fact that you're spending $50,000 on the diesel motor instead of $25,000 on the gas motor, and that diesel motor is not rebuildable so you need to buy a new one when it runs out (which is earlier than the gas motor). Also nevermind the fact that an oil filter for the diesel costs $250 instead of $17 for the gas, and you have to change it just as frequently.

When it comes down to it, you don't save money, you just have the perception of saving money because you're burning less fuel and the fuel costs less. For many people, buying a diesel truck is the same way.