I started by removing the batteries, entire air cleaner assembly, radiator, I/C and piping, fan and shroud. This gave me the room to stand in front of the motor to do the job. I also removed the alternator, wire harnesses, intake manifold, oil cooler/filter/fuel filter assembly, turbo and EGR cooler. I wanted to back flush the oil cooler to make sure it was not clogged (it was not), replace the internal oil cooler seals and replace the filter screen that is under the oil cooler. Also, since I have the early build (pre 9/22/03) I sent the EGR cooler off and had Neil Technologies upgrade it.

Man, when you get all of that crap off the motor there is not a whole lot left. So to get the motor positioned to remove the passenger side lower head bolts, I removed the 4 power steering pump assembly bolts and set it aside. Next, I removed the 4 bolts that hold the driver side engine and frame motor mounts together. I then jacked the motor using a floor jack and a piece of 2x4 on the driver side front oil pan lip. I then removed the engine motor mount bracket and then the frame motor mount bracket. Then I let the jack down until the exhaust manifold just touched the frame. I tried to remove the middle lower head bolt and it would only come out about 3/4 of the way. So I went under the X and removed the passenger side motor mount frame bolts (leave mount attached to motor). Then I got a second floor jack and piece of 2x4 and jacked the motor up using the lip right behind the starter where the motor and tranny attach. This rotated the motor enough to get all all of the lower last 3 head bolts out and the studs in. Reversed the process and now the motor is back in it's mounts and the studs are in. To get the motor positioned took me about 2.5 hours but would be a lot less if there is a next time. I did this in my driveway by myself and I'm 61 years old. Now I am awaiting gaskets and my upgraded EGR to complete assembly.

It took a little patience and thinking but the studs are in. I forgot how hard it was to pull 245 Lbs-Ft.

I know you are asking, why did I not change the HGs. Well, they were not bad and if they go bad I will now know how to replace them.

I installed the studs using the following procedure. I removed the OEM head bolts one at a time in the OEM torque sequence starting with #1. I installed the ARP stud and torqued to 150 Lbs-ft. After all studs were installed and torqued to 150 Lbs-Ft, I re-torqued bolts #1 to #10 using the OEM sequence to 200 Lbs-Ft. Then I repeated the sequence again to final torque of 245 Lbs-Ft. I then removed the 5 small head bolts, applied ARP lubricant and torqued to 18 Lbs-Ft then to final torque of 23 Lbs-Ft.

I will do a follow up post to let all who would like to know if this head bolt removal and ARP stud install works.

DSMMH

 

I'm interested to see how this works out.

If you wanted to pull the passengers side head off to replace the gasket and check for flatness, is there enough room using this method? Do you have pictures?

What is the Neil Technologies EGR cooler upgrade?

 

Below is a caution from the International VT365 FSM;

 

I'm interested, also! I have been thinking about this for a while and I just need the time to do it. I have asked the question before on this site about replacing OEM head bolts one at a time with ARP studs without removing the heads. Got a lot of "don't do it" replies with no facts to back up the "don't do it" replies. Some have done it but have not posted the results. It may or may not work. It is just one of those things I had to do to see if it does work. Plus if I have to eventually change the HGs, I have gained a lot of knowledge from this experience.

Yes, getting the head out would be no problem. Probably would need two people to lift them out.

I did not take any pics as I was doing this job by myself and handling my camera with greasy hands was not doable.

I found Neil Technologies on Ebay. His company takes the the thin walled tubing out of the OEM EGR coolers that causes EGR coolers to fail and replaces it with thick wall tubing. It cost me $350 but I know I have an EGR cooler that will not fail.

DSMMH

 

Were you not interested in just deleting the EGR system?

 

Thanks for the notes, i plan on installing head studs in the near future.. Im suprised you can replace them like that. I was under the impression you had to pull the heads off the block to do the studs..

 

Man, not changing the gaskets, nor checking the heads for flatness just does not sound good. But I know you considered the risk of having to do it all again and are okay with the experiment. We need guys like you to test the theories. I am hoping hard that it works out for you, and subscribing to stay in the loop.

 

Yeah, I hear you. And I agree with their statement. I would not just replace one broken head bolt. Let me do a little Slick Willie word parsing here. I did not replace just ONE head bolt. I replaced them all. When I replaced the head bolts I removed them with a 24" breaker bar and a 18MM impact grade socket. I did not detect any difference in the force required to remove any of the 20 head bolts which tells me that they were probably OK.

DSMMH

 

Yeah, I was interested but living so close to those 535 morons in DC and and being a resident of the Peoples Republic of MD, it is hard to say what new emission requirements they will think up before I get rid of the X. The county I reside in is one of the few MD counties that are emissions testing exempt, but I'm sure that will change. And replacing the EGR cooler is a major job. So while I'm there, I just thought I would make it better like installing the ARP studs. The plug is going to fall off the EGR anyway.

DSMMH

 

This is awesome to know that you can do this on an Excursion!!!!!!!!!!

 

I too am a MD resident, but the diesel is exempt from emission testing... my county is NOT exempt from emissions testing for gas powered vehicles. Even if new requirements are added, our vehicles will be grandfathered into the law. They can not send them back to Ford for manufacturing.

 

That's the kind of moxy we need around here!! Well done for undertaking such a task and going down a different road. Please keep us up to date....REP POINTS WELL EARNED!!!!

 

That's a pretty good write-up. If you had some pictures, it would make a good tech folder item. Actually, it is currently a good tech folder item; pictures would make it a little better for us non-mechanical sorts.

 

Awesome brother. I REALLY REALLY hope not changing the headgaskets and re-installing the ticking time-bomb EGR cooler does not backfire on you.

Call me stupid or crazy......but it just makes NO sense to me why (even if they were good/new/just installed) you would retain the same headgaskets. Once headgaskets are torqued in place they lose the sealing properties of a new headasket, even if you loosen only one at a time....kinda like a crush sleeve on a pinion setup....you could reuse it...but why?


GOOD LUCK BUDDY

 

Well if you compare it with a crush sleeve, a crush sleeve can be reused if you tighten it slightly further when reinstalling to achieve a higher pinion preload. Don't the ARPs get torqued quite a bit higher than the stock headbolts? Wouldn't this crush the gasket a little more?