Howdy folks. Coming here from east texas, we bought ourselves a 2000 Excursion xlt with the v10 and no four wheel drive. We love the idea of the car, especially the size. We're planning on having a large (10+ kids) and the excursion should hold us over for several years with it's space. Lovely trunk space, which was the biggest point to my wife, with us bulk buying groceries. We've noticed several issues thus far though.

When we bought it, we noticed the exhaust was rather loud, especially at passing revs (approx. 3k rpm). Thought nothing of it as it's a v10! Turns out, the muffler had detached from where it was welded to the pipe leading from the cat. So I just got that replaced. WAS gonna go with the Banks stinger from 5 star tuners, but they never shipped it out to me and when I asked them what an ETA was on it, they simply refunded me. Can't complain too much, but I was wanting that exhaust. Furthermore, I had noticed my 2 year old daughter was developing very rosy cheeks when in the car (and the exhaust leak was right beneath her), so that told me there was CO getting into the cabin from the leak. Thus, the leak was paramount to fix. Took it to a local yokel's muffler shop. He cut the cat out, put a "dummy cat" in (I guess a hollowed out one?), a spare muffler he had lying around, and welded all that in place for $180. It's much quieter now, but it does smell like a drag strip in 1965. So, wondering how to go about replacing the cat with either stock or high-flow, and also getting a performance exhaust (ideally banks, but am open for others).

Onto the brakes. Brakes needed to be replaced. Badly. Front passenger was easy. Front driver has a brake caliper pin rusted so shut, a torch and penetrating oil over a week can't get it out. Rotors on both need to be turned/replaced. Rear brakes are another story. Driver's rear has some kind of shield(?) preventing one from changing it without removing the caliper bolts attached to the rotor. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. Passenger rear seems fine, but I don't believe only changing one side brakes is fine, when other is old. So that's a shop issue when I have time.

Now the engine. When we checked it out, I noticed oil pressure light was on. Previous owner said it does that when it's cold. I took his word for it, drove it and all seemed well. Suddenly had the bright idea to check oil level once I drove it home (towing my little Mitsubishi galant the 100+ miles the whole time) and find out there's no oil on the dip stick. Add a quart, still nothing. Add two quarts, nada. Add four more quarts, finally starts to show up. Here I am realizing I drove it essentially dry that entire time. God knows what kind of damage that did, but that's all on me. I have since replaced with high mileage synthetic. Old oil came out of it was weird looking, not chocolate milk, not milkshake color, but just weird. Could be because I mixed conventional and synthetic, or at least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night. When I change the oil again, I'll check color and maybe even send it off to get looked at. Didn't see any metal shavings/sparkles, so that's a good sign. I do have a noticeable leak on the underside though, either oil pan gasket, or rear main seal. I'm leaning towards oil pan, as once again, I enjoy peaceful sleep.

Body needs some care, dents from previous owner jack-knifing a trailer, paint peeling behind door weather strips, etc. Honestly at the very bottom of list.
Windshield wiper fluid motor is out, driver's door power lock button don't work, lights don't come on when driver's door opens (but does for all other doors), and the high beam "flash" position doesn't flash the high beams, but I can turn them on for the regular high beam position.

All in all, he's got character and shows his age, but for $3200, I can't argue too much. I've seen these go for 10K+, even with more miles. I just got the hayne's manual in, so will try to do all I can.
I'm looking forward to it overall though.

 

Well it sounds Ike you have a project on your hands for sure, but if you have the time and skill it can be very rewarding.

 

Congratulations and welcome to the Ex family. You can find many answers to your questions on how to fix your new ride and if you can’t, just ask we’re all here to help. Good luck

 

Get a Magnaflow large truck cat, plenty of good free flow for the V10, but also quiets the exhaust some itself, and gets rid of the NOX smell really good.

https://www.magnaflow.com/collection...tic-converters

i did the 55400, the 55300 just has extra sensor holes if your truck has 4 Oxygen Sensors instead of 2, mine is a federal truck which means only 2 sensors, check yours and order accordingly.

For the Muffler, make sure its not too restrictive on your exhaust, you could get a magnaflow for that too, i got their 24 inch long 5x8 muffler, tame but strong sounding, and that was that, people also swear by the aero turbine 3030s here too, either is fine.

As for the engine, if it is seriously messed up, i know a guy, you would have to ship or tow the truck to Glendale, Arizona, but for 5 grand he will remove the existing engine, rebuild it to new specs, with new parts other then crank, block, head castings, etc, bored, honed, sleeved, the works, and reinstall the new engine as well. So you drive it away done without having to turn any wrenches yourself.

He did mine, check the link in my signature.

 

Update, got all the brakes and tires changed, waiting on money for rotors. Those can be expensive! Interesting wear on passenger rear, inside brake pad was wore down to the shoe(?) and there was no pad left. Outside brake pad had about 2-ish mm of pad left. Wondering if this is due to brake fluid being old or the brake calipers needing to be replaced as well. Took the excursion, his name is Appa now (wife is a fan of the show Avatar, V10 roar is nice she says), out for a tow of our farm trailer to get a ton of feed for our animals. Towed very smoothly, wife says it handles the load better than our farm truck, a V6 Ram 1500. I did noticed it struggled to get up to speed, transmission seems like it's a bit sluggish under load, sometimes floundering about as well (quickly shifting up and down gears like it or the computer can't figure out what gear to be in). It could be the fluid needing changed, or it could just be old at 296000 miles. We've decided it'll probably cost 10k-ish to get everything done with it, but over several years, that's doable.

Any help on the weird brake wear would be appreciated though. Also, fairly certain it's the oil pan gasket that's leaking, not too terrible of a repair job. I have been told the lower ball joint needs replacing on passenger front tire. Should I just replace the entire control arm as well?
Thanks in advance,
Rippy

 

Update, got all the brakes and tires changed, waiting on money for rotors. Those can be expensive! Interesting wear on passenger rear, inside brake pad was wore down to the shoe(?) and there was no pad left. Outside brake pad had about 2-ish mm of pad left. Wondering if this is due to brake fluid being old or the brake calipers needing to be replaced as well. Took the excursion, his name is Appa now (wife is a fan of the show Avatar, V10 roar is nice she says), out for a tow of our farm trailer to get a ton of feed for our animals. Towed very smoothly, wife says it handles the load better than our farm truck, a V6 Ram 1500. I did noticed it struggled to get up to speed, transmission seems like it's a bit sluggish under load, sometimes floundering about as well (quickly shifting up and down gears like it or the computer can't figure out what gear to be in). It could be the fluid needing changed, or it could just be old at 296000 miles. We've decided it'll probably cost 10k-ish to get everything done with it, but over several years, that's doable.

Any help on the weird brake wear would be appreciated though. Also, fairly certain it's the oil pan gasket that's leaking, not too terrible of a repair job. I have been told the lower ball joint needs replacing on passenger front tire. Should I just replace the entire control arm as well? ONE MORE THING, it is now burning oil, blue smoke is present when idling for a while and then accelerating away (e.g. waiting at drive through, waiting for wife to get groceries, etc.). Think it could be valve covers or piston rings?
Thanks in advance,
Rippy

 

The brake wear could be dry or sticking caliper slides. I would lubricate them well and see how they do. For the oil consumption, not sure what a valve cover would have to do with it. Start with the easy stuff, like a new motorcraft pcv valve. Those can and will suck a lot of oil out of the crankcase if bad.. However at that many miles it could just be getting wore out. A leakdown test may be in order

 

I agree it could be the caliper slides need lubricant but I just had a similar problem with my driver side rear brake, only the outer shoe was completely gone as well as the anti squeal was sheared off and stuck in the caliper slot. In my case one of the pistons was bad in the caliper and caused the wear . Approximately 3/4 or the outer router was also gone however the inner pad and rotor were in great shape. I replaced both calipers with Napa semi loaded ones that are also powder coated for 65 bucks each. I also replaced the rear brakes with power stop Z-36 drilled and slotted rotors and pads for 190 for the set from Amazon. Many fellow members use power stop brand and have good results with them. I don’t know what price you were quoted for your rotor but as I said it was only 190 for both sides with pads. Good luck with your Ex.