I'm a brand new Excursion owner. What a truck. It's my first truck. I'm new to the US (from the UK) and I decided my introduction to owning a truck should be with the Excursion. I can confidently say I made the right choice. Especially upgrading from a 2.2 diesel - which is pretty large by UK auto standards!

My Excursion is a 2003 6.8L V-10. It's stock all round, far as I can tell. Previous owner was a dentist, apparently.

Now I'll openly admit, I'm not a clued up man when it comes to what I need to make my request happen - but I do my homework, it's what led me here. First, a little debrief on me: I like power. I don't tow (not regular anyway). I do a fair bit of town driving but almost matched by highway miles. The Excursion is a beast, but what can I do to make it even better?

To my knowledge, then, I know it's probably best to start with a cold air intake, muffler/y exhaust system, EGR delete, SCT street tune (5Star?)

Here's my real question(s): where can I go in Minneapolis to make this happen under one roof? More specifically, is the above what I should be pursuing? If so, what is the estimate in your experience? If not, what is?

I thank you all in advance.

 

Unless you live above 3200 rpm exhaust upgrades are a waste of money, as is cold air intakes.

I suggest a performance valve body for transmission, 5 star tune, and a torque converter that is matched to the type of driving you do.

Injectors and fuel pump limit max hp at about 350 hp. No amount of air intake or exhaust work will exceed those numbers.

A turbo will definatelly help as would a supercharger.

4.56 gears will help too but my opinion is that ladder bars added to gears will make you feel the extra torque better.

 

Buy a diesel...

 

I'll give you my feedback as I have the same year Ex with V-10. first check your rear end gears. My Ex came with 4.30 which helps out tremendously vs 3.73. I have a custom dual exhaust and 5 Star tuning 91 performance tune. from the feedback here on this forum cold air doesn't do much if anything. Fresh tune up (spark plugs/ COP boots would also be ideal.

 

Okay, cool.

The 5 Star tuner is just plug and play, right? Just order it online and away I go?

Also, I imagine a supercharger part and labor would run me around $2k, right?

What about the cost of changing the rear end gear ratio @palacios289?

 

A good read:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ld-begins.html

 

Welcome to the EX forum!
The V-10 can be a fun to drive platform, I have done a few things with mine which have greatly improved it's performance in my heavy towing usage and made unloaded driving a lot better too.
Yes, the SCT tuner and 5Star custom tunes can be done at home by the owner, it's a plug and play setup once you supply 5Star with all of your mods and desires. There is only so much engine performance available via a tune, but a good custom tune will bring what is there to the table. The biggest improvement from the tunes will be a greatly improved trans shift strategy and the various tunes will have differing parameters on that. For my heavy towing work and my driving style I actually prefer the Performance tunes over the actual Towing tunes, so I'm almost always on the 89 Octane Perf tune. 5Star does run frequent sales, so keep an eye out for that to save a few bucks.
Aftermarket cold air intakes really aren't a significant (if any) upgrade over the nice factory cold air intake which can outflow the engine at redline. They do make more noise generally and some will allow for more hot under hood air to enter the intake, so...............
I would expect to pay a lot more than $2K for a decent super or turbo charger system, that setup that Sean linked to from Quicksnake looks great, but I'm pretty sure it looks expensive too. Speed aint cheap!
When I was looking at changing my gears I got estimates of $1800/2200 for both axles from a few local shops in the Philly area. If you do go with new gears be sure to use a shop that has experience and a good reputation for that job, it needs to be done correctly the first time. I was very fortunate to find (with the help of a member here) a set of complete axles already setup with the 4.88 gears that I wanted for $1200, they have been a great addition.
Without spending some cubic dollars the engine will only make so much HP/TQ, but the tunes should make all it has available and get you much improved shifting. Deeper gears will help transmit that available power to the ground much better thus providing a significant performance improvement. Tire size is an important factor when to consider when deciding on new gears, tires taller than stock (31.6") will numerically reduce the effective ratio which will reduce the real world performance. If contemplating both new taller rubber and gears the gears should be even deeper to counter the tire size to get you at an improved effective ratio. The standard 3.73 gears in the gasser EXs are barely adequate for a big heavy wagon like this, the optional 4.30 gear ratio delivered much better performance without much give away in economy, even a 4.56 ratio is still very drivable without much downside. My Ex had the 3.73s and I wanted to run a 4.30 effective ratio to help with the heavy towing it had to do, I also wanted to run 35" tires because I'm cool and that's what cool guys do. So I went with the 4.88 gears and 35" tires which provides an effective 4.39 ratio, that combination made the heavy towing work a lot easier and more economical, from a stock 6/7 MPG up to 9 MPG over the same route with the same load. It also makes the unloaded wagon a lot more peppy in around town driving and when it had the 4.88 and only 32" tires it was very snappy! The 6.8 makes it's best power at higher RPMs and deeper gears will get it there more quickly and efficiently.
The stock exhaust tubing at 3" is pretty well designed and matched to the engine, I changed to an Aeroturbine 3030XL muffler just get a better exhaust sound without any drone which some other muffler suffer from. The stock exhaust manifolds are somewhat restrictive as well as the (at least on later models) crazy T shaped Y pipe. I installed a set of Banks headers and full flow Y pipe which did provide a small but noticeable performance bump, most noticeable at higher engine loads like climbing highway grades towing.
From my real world experience with the various mods that I've done I would rank the deeper gears as absolutely the best single performance upgrade that I've done, the custom tunes are a strong second and the headers are third.

 

Turbo and supercharger systems will be closer to $5000 than $2000.

Cold air intakes are crap but a cold air induction system like water meth are probably the best actual power adder you can buy, we'll except for maybe a supercharger like mine . But bang for buck or $1 per hp the water meth kit is the best.

Our large 3 piece intake is made for torque and it heatsoaks so intake air temps can get upwards of 150 degrees just driving down the interstate. It's my opinion this is one of the reasons why ford switched from a aluminum lower intake to a polycarbonate one. HEATSOAK and IAT.

This is the air temp just prior to intake valves. Water meth will reduce that temp to ambiant within seconds.

Our MAFs read ambiant and pcm corrects for heat rise. It probably adds 50 degrees or so. To properly add water meth a ford lightning maf will be needed, along with a lightning intake air sensor added to intake manifold just before intake valves, than a new custom tune to operate maf and let pcm know real intake temp.

the cooler air and added high octane methanol will allow much better timing and will probably add 10 to 20% to hp an torque curves. The added methanol also adds to fuel so your fuel pump and injectors are not limiting power at 350 or so.

I got an aquamist water meth system for my V10 for about $850. It taps into injectors and sprays water meth based on injector pulse width. It's a good system, but other cheaper systems are good too, just not as programmable.

 

 

Thanks guys. @@WE3ZS your reply is above and beyond. Thank you Sir - it's good to be here too!

Here's what my initial, first up plan, is:
My question then is: what is the process to go from full stock to 4.88 gears? Is it going to be this:

1. 4.88's installed front and rear (new axles or fit into stock?)
2. Lift (what size?)
3. New tires (35's or 37's?)
4. New rims or stock rims suffice?

My other less important question is: if I am having Y-pipe and muffler installed, should I consider headers at the same time?

 

If you decide to go with taller tires on a gasser you really need to look at deeper gears to offset the effect the big tires will have on the effective ratio and these V-10s will run better and more efficiently and deliver improved performance both towing and unloaded with a ratio in the 4.30/4.56 range without too much economic penalty.

 

You edited and added more while I was pecking away at my initial response, that cheating!

1. As mentioned above, those gears and other will fit into your stock axles. But be sure to properly match the new gears to whatever size tire and level of performance you desire.
2. Lift should be determined by what tires and type of use you want and how you plan to use the rig. Read this thread for tons of suspension info from other users. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...easurents.html
3. Your choice on tires, everyone has an opinion on this but its your EX! Just be sure to match the tires and gears to get the level of performance you want.
4. Stock wheels will fit a variety of tire sizes but they do have their limits. Depending on what tires and look you are after you may need to look at new wheels. I wanted to go with 35"s but limit the amount of sidewall so I went with the '04 OEM 18" Lariat wheels that fit our EXs properly without spacers. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post16064812

Some headers, like the Banks setup come with their own matching Y pipe, so plan out the parts first to avoid duplicating parts. I did my headers and muffler a few years apart and the two jobs didn't conflict with each other at all.

 

Thanks again Tom. This is some sage advice indeed. (sorry for cheating haha!)

I'll look into the 5.13 gears with the 37's for sure.

If I were to do this all in one go: lift, 5.13's, 37's, rims, banks headers, muffler, 5star... I'm looking somewhere around $4k right? Parts and labor?

 

Lift.....Prices will vary widely depending on the parts and labor but I would think at least a grand, a good deal more depending on shop rates, maybe $2K total...?
5.13s done at a shop......Expect $2000/2200 for the gears and installation based on my local estimates a few years ago.
37" and new wheels......Expect about $2000 or so I would think. My 35" Nitto were $1140 and my used 18"s were $600.
Banks headers........Maybe $950 or so on a good deal and would expect a shop to charge $800-ish for the installation.
3030XL....About a hundred for the muffler and that much again for a shop to install.
SCT and tunes from 5Star.......$400-ish is what I paid I think.

Using my spitball numbers above the total is about $8500-ish, but could be a good bit higher still depending on the exact lift and shop rates. But that can be whittled down over time to soften the blow or you can DIY a lot of the stuff to save a ton of cash, even if it means having to buy a few new tools to get it done. There is a lot of info and helpful folks here to coach you through these mods if you are unfamiliar with these jobs.

 

My quote wasn't that far out then... haha!

I assume the 4.88 gears are significantly cheaper? I'm drawn to a 4.88 and 35 combo for some reason. Maybe it's your sig haha.

This is good to know though. Maybe I can do it in stages. Gears first. Tune second. Muffler just for kicks third. Headers/lift/tires&wheels last.

I love getting my hands dirty but I'm too green to ever tackle jobs like this... especially as I don't have a driveway.

Tom, I can't thank you enough Sir.