So I bought a 2001 V10 4x4 XLT Excursion for $1000.
201,000 miles.

Motor locked up, no power to OBD2 diagnostic port and check engine light is on, rear glass broken, transmission unknown. It's been sitting since 2009.

Should I just keep it for parts or try to get it running?

Very good body and interior. Minor scratch on rear fender.

 

Check the fuses. I had no power to my OBD port and fuse #3 was blown.

V8 or V10? I'd just drop a new motor in it, get a junkyard rear glass, and see how it runs. If it was 2wd I don't know that it would be worth it, but there should be enough in it to make it worthwhile, if the interior is nice.

 

Parts or fix it up?
Probably depends on a few things.
Body and underside rust issues?
Gas or diesel engine?
Are you able to do the work?!!!
Where do you live? Neighbors/city might object? Emissions testing/inspections if you get it running would require more thorough rebuild.
Winter cold? Snow? Have a heated garage? Lots of tools and auto repair knowledge?

To begin, determine what, if anything, is missing. Visual inspection and basic troubleshooting remotely by forum members based on your questions/descriptions isn't going to be successful, and will get frustrating.

Check fuses, look for missing components where connectors are left dangling, look for burned wires, or signs of disturbance in harnesses and cables. Avoid spending on things until you can determine where you are, buying $200 battery to find out starter is missing is a bummer. Jumper cables to another vehicle is cheaper, provided you don't have short between power and ground.

Not running, no odb2 power could be missing PCM to burned harness, to blown fusible links from alternator, to blown motor.
Why would you buy it, without first having a plan? You could spend tons of money and still end up unable to drive it?

GOOD NEWS!!!
You found THE best place on the internet to get help for your FORD!

WELCOME TO FTE!!

 

Lots of good info and advise. I have 120 acres and a 2500 sq ft heated garage. Nobody lives within a 1\2 mile and no city issues.

This is a spare vehicle as I have 2 other excursions that we drive.

Not new here, as I joined several years ago when I bought my first Ex.

I can turn wrenches with ease am not afraid of pulling a motor, if needed. It wouldn't take long as I would pull front of Ex off and use my front end loader to extract motor.

Right now I have 1 gallon of atf/acetone mixture in all 10 cylinders, and 100 or so ft/lbs of tension on motor. I think cylinder 5 had valves open while it was sitting.....it's plug was nasty.

I will replace every fuse and relay in both fuse boxes and test obd port again.

My labor is free, and fuses are cheap.....Plus if I decide to use this vehicle for parts I know fuses are good.

I think it was parked because of a fuel supply issue....pump or relay.

No rust issues, it was a Colorado vehicle and it's a somewhat dry area and the don't use salt like east coast and midwest.

PCM is in its proper location and no signs of any burnt wires. All electronics work....radio, windows, seats, dash lights, visors, door locks....Even chirps when the FOB lock button is double clicked.

Lights even go off after a couple minutes once doors are shut.

Someone took good care of this Excursion. Both OEM hubs turn easy, has greaseable ball joints in it, good steering componetS and even non power brakes work good. It was well maintained.....I think when gas got expensive in 09 someone decided not to put $$$ into it to fix and just let it sit.

 

I have fixed vehicles in much worse shape than that one. 3 Excursions... I like your style!

 

I think for that price you got a hell of a deal.

The parts alone are worth more than that from what I see.

120 acres and only 3 Excursions??? I think you could do better than that

 

Went out to put some diesel fuel in cylinders and found a puddle of atf on floor. After 10 min I found a hole in block just above starter. Block is toast.

On a good note rechecked #3 fuse and it was blown. Put a new fuse in and obd2 scanner hooks up and reads PCM, but does not see any codes. Even though check engine light is on.

What to do???

Use for parts.....Easy
Put a new motor in.....hard

Figure it's worth $5000 running with 200k on motor.
My cost to date is $1100 including my trailer rental to pick it up. Add 3800 for a reman oem ford Motor and $1000 for incidentals and I will have a minimum of $5900 in it.

Unknown is transmission. That could add 3K to build.

 

It doesn't seem like you're in any kind of a rush to get this EX going, so why not wait and see if you can't find a deal on a motor?

If the body is in good shape, I would put it back together. The solid EXes are getting harder to find and people are already paying above "market value" to have a rust free vehicle.

Parting it out would be last on my list. my .02

 

Salvage yard motor. I would do a Ford Reman on something I was keepin but not on a flipper unless the money was right. I would venture to say the transmission was probably working if the engine ventilated itself. Most likely it was using some oil as these V10s sometimes do and the owner neglected to check it and boom...

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but, wouldn't the check engine light be lit on any vehicle that is not running but has the key turned to run? It's part of the state safety/emissions testing done here to verify that the CEL bulb is in place and the circuit works, a lit CEL when running will fail the test.


That EX seems pretty clean, I might be temped to drop a used or rebuilt V-10 in it and hope for the best out of the trans.

 

I was going to suggest junkyard motor too. No reason to buy a new Ford reman on a flip.

 

This also would be a perfect time to swap a Cummins in there

 

Well there goes the budget!

 

I was hoping if motor was bad I cold rebuild it. At my elevation 11:1 compression forged pistons and high quality parts would have made a nice motor.

That's out the door now.....but the diesel sounds intresting. There is a place about 80 miles from me in Colorado that specializes in cummins conversions.
http://www.destroked.com/index.php

May go Ford reman too....I got some thinking to do.

 

Nice score I'm wishing I could find this deal. Not that I need one I just want one that way I can call it mine and not the wife's lol oh wait everything I own is hers anyhow or the kids!

I would say keep it the market is going up and if you fix it you may find yourself selling it for a good price later on or part it out to the other two you have.

Yep Cummins would be perfect and since you have two already letting this one sit to finish the job is no big hurry.