I've got about 65,000 miles on my 2001 X and my lower hose still looks ok.

How many miles did you have on your X when the lower hose needed replaced?

 

I think mine is still the original upper and lower hoses. 2000 X with 124k... (I carry new ones with me).

 

I have140,000 on my '03 excursion and still the orginal.

 

Good call, be sure to carry some extra coolant too. My upper was slowly having a hole cut into it by the fan belt and finally gave when I was about 10 mins from advance auto. I was at about 220K when that happened, but it could've lasted longer.

 

I replaced mine upper one with the duel alternator one that goes around the belt last year when i installed new water pump, nothing really wrong with it. The lower one is original @ 175'000 on the 2000 X PSD. Sorry just noticed you have a V-10!

 

120,000 miles........7.3 PSD. Just started to "seep".....time for a new one.

 

Finally, something I have expertise on.

It's all about your driving habits basically! First time you find youself 50 miles out from the nearest city, at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, haven't so much as seen a barn in the last 35 miles, no cell phone reception, not properly dressed for the cool dampness that moved in unexpectantly and suddenly after midnight, and you can sense some wild beast or zombie watching, that's the life expectancy of the lower radiator hose. You can bank on it!

 

Thats the TRUTH!!!!

139K on my hoses. Out lasted the water pump.

 

I don't know what they did to the new ones but they used to blow out all the time years ago.

 

Can't we drive V10s with no coolant in it for some time?
Apparently we have that cylinder-air cooling feature in it ,don't we?

 

????????????

 

fail-safe cooling mode ,page 232 owner's manual 2002 Excursion.
"If the engine reaches a preset over-temperature condition, the engine
will automatically switch to alternating cylinder operation. Each disabled
cylinder acts as an air pump and cools the engine.
When this occurs the vehicle will still operate. However:
• The engine power will be limited.
• The air conditioning system will be disabled.
Continued operation will increase the engine temperature and the engine
will completely shut down, causing steering and braking effort to
increase.""

 

I do remember something about that........very interesting.

 

Motor mounts may need some attention! lol

 

Pretty much a "limp home mode" when something does go wrong it will turn off half the cylinders to slow heat production and hopefully get you somewhere close by thats safe. Not recommended to run like this for any real amount of time, its just an extra safety measure to hopefully keep you from warping a head or block or blowing head gaskets. We can not run "air cooled" per se.