ford v10

RufusTheRam

New Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Raleigh
i'm looking at an excursion to replace my suburban. i was very disappointed in the performance though. i could feel plenty of torque, but it could hardly get out of its own way in horsepower. anyone else experience similar? i really don't want to spend the money on a diesel, but honestly my 230k mile 454 felt stronger. did i drive a lemon? i know the excursion weighs a lot more than my suburban. also could have had 3.73's, i don't know.
 
despite 2 extra cylinders, the 454 still out displaces the 6.8v10

they are fairly torquey but lack hp
 
If you need to tow with a gasser SUV, I'd keep the 454 or upgrade to a newer one. I don't think the V10 is any better. If any, its prob. worse than the 454. Plus I think the Excursion is heavier than the surburban. I think you'd be taking a step back with the V10 Excursion
 
The turbo disel excursion is super nice, pulls well gets decent mileage and seats 8. We drove one from Wilmington to to Bronx moving one of my friends back home doing 90 mph + the whole way with 2 Boxers in back cargo hold and towing a 20 ft enclosed trailor SLAMMED to the gills. Very nice truck, I would never buy a gas powered one though.
 
dieselfuelonly said:
90 MPH towing a fully loaded 20 foot trailer? :confused: Why?
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Because he could? well maybe he was going 83 or 84, would that make you feel better?

Anyway, with the price of the diesel's nowadays, that would be my only choice. Know a few guys with the V10 and I would not waiste money on one. We sold our gasser Excur. Miss the room and comfort. Had it been a diesel, would still have it.
 
diesel is out of the question for a number of reasons i don't feel like getting into. the only way i'd get a diesel is if i found a SCREAMING deal on a 6.0, and that's unlikely. like $10k or less. i've already got a rattlebox 7.3 in my work truck that nickels and dimes me to death, not interested in adding another one to the fleet. i don't care about mileage either. the gasser could get 6mpg for all i care, and probably will with what i tow.

the excursion is attractive because of the price i can get this one for. i would love to have a newer 2500 suburban with the 8.1 or maybe even 6.0, but they're just too expensive still.

this is strictly a tow rig and occasional back up DD for me, so i just can't justify spending too much. in my internet reading, people seem to be getting substantial gains from the v10 with sct based tunes, intakes, and exhaust. can anyone here confirm first hand?

keep in mind also i pull a 32ft. trailer with 2 rigs almost everywhere i go and a truck full of people/gear/tools. the added weight/bulkiness of the excursion over a suburban isn't a bad thing at all as far as that's concerned.

anyway, sounds like there's nothing wrong with the one i'm looking at and it's just par for the course in the power department.
 
'Burban with the 8.1!
 
If you are towing a 32 foot trailer with 2 rigs and have the truck loaded down, you NEED 4.30's.

Or lower.

Let that little bastard spin, and it will tow your junk just fine. Just look for lots of gas stations.

The newer three valves have a hair bit more power and fixed the whole "shooting out spark plugs" thing, but I dont remember when they were introduced.

I have friends that tow with both the 8.1 and the 6.8, both of them were happy.

Both bought a diesel shortly thereafter.

One replaced the v10 EX with a 7.3 and loved it, then with a 6.oh no and cant get it out of the shop.

Sucks you have a bad taste for the 7.3, the 15-20 I have had direct contact with have had very minimal maintenance. 300,000+ miles with no real problems.

My personal 7.3 is on 190,000 miles with a glow plug relay and glow plugs, and a CPS that was replaced under warranty. Nothing else besides oil and fuel filters.

The 20 or so 6.0's we are running now at work have an amazing failure rate. We usually have 2-3 motors sitting ON THE GROUND waiting for Ford to come out and tell us why they dont work... and give us a new one. I could not recommend the 6.0 to anyone.

Final thought:

We buy trucks new, run them for three years, till 90,000ish miles, put them in "reserve" for one year to run them to 100,000ish miles, then surplus them (with 8,000 running hours.... or approx. 400,000 miles in conversion)


We had our last 3 7.3 trucks in "reserve" this year, and they have 140,000 miles on them because the 6.0's are down so much. They have turned the hour meters, to around 12,000 hours, or 600,000 "actual motor wear" miles. (lots of idling)


We are keeping these three 7.3's and surplusing as many 6.0's as we can.


Moral of the story:

6.0's suck. Buy a 7.3 or a 6.8.
 
I like the v10 in my excursion pulls my junk just fine. I did blow a plug out and that's about a $500 fix. Loved my 7.3 even more it was idi with a banks turbo and feared no load. truck just looked like shit excursions with the v10 are pretty cheap these days
 
Also I got a diablo sport predator tuner and with the v10 and it only has three settings one for each octane 87 91 93 u can't change shift patterns or anything u can get a custom tune at a diablo dealer cost u a dyno run but everytime u change something like exhaust or inake u need another dyno run to acquire the proper tune for max performance of all add ons
 
I have a 99 2500 4x4 surburban in the FS section with 454 in it for $6000
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haha, the whole reason for this thread in case you missed it is that i'm replacing a 1996 suburban 454 c2500.:flipoff2: i love the truck and it does a great job, but i'm really overloading it badly (almost to the point of being irresponsible sometimes) on trips with two rigs and a truck full of people/stuff. an excursion cures that mostly, plus it's something newer, few more creature comforts, less miles, and 4wd.

'Burban with the 8.1!
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that would definitely be my ideal choice, love that drivetrain. trouble is, they're all well over my price range. that's assuming you can even find one, they're not exactly common. i thought about settling for a 6.0, but they're also usually several thousand more than comparable v10 excursions. power would probably be marginal for what i pull as well. i guess i could always toss the 6.0 based lsx from my c5 in one though.:lol:

excursions with the v10 are pretty cheap these days
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that's an understatement. most of them are well under HALF the price of their diesel counterparts in my searching. in fact, they're so cheap that since making this thread i've come to the conclusion that i can buy a v10 excursion and if it blows up or i just hate the engine i can repower it with a cummins and still be in the same ballpark of what most 7.3's go for.

can someone explain more about the shooting spark plugs? first i've heard of such a problem. i'm assuming a result of poor casting/machining? is there a reasonably priced preventative fix? that's the kind of thing this thread is supposed to be about anyway, not diesels or other brands/models.

anyway, all that rambling aside it's looking extremely likely one will be following me home on monday (a different one than the one i drove that prompted this thread). it's just a matter of me making the drive to see it and it being in as dscribed condition.
 
from what I understand, the spark plugs are only held on with about 2-3 threads. I'm guessing that some people in the past have had those threads break loose and "shoot" spark plugs.
 
Yea if they arnt torqued rite they will blow out. Big issue, mine blew on the interstate cost 500 bucks it takes the coilpack out with it. They usually helicoil them or take the head off and have it machined. The oe plugs are good for 100 or 120000 if yors ahs that many u are buying be sure to torque the plugs when u change them its a real pain in the ass
 
well, i got a 2000 v10 limited 4wd this past week. i love it so far. i'd say it's definitely slower than my suburban, but the damn thing weighs ~7500lbs.! what it might be lacking in hp it makes up for in torque, you can really feel it's a monster in that department.

doing all the fluids and replacing/torquing the plugs this weekend. if it still blows one out or otherwise has a major failure, it'll definitely be getting a 6bt 12v. who knows, it might get one anyway if i don't like the way it pulls.

anyway, i'll report back after i've put some good loads behind it.
 
I've had two of the F-250's with v-10's. The first one was a 99 with 2wd which I traded in for a new 04 with 4wd. I've only had one thing go wrong with either truck and that was on the 99. It had a transmission sensor go bad on it and that was it. It's a reliable motor with plenty of power. I tow a 39ft camper that weighs 14,000lb with no problems. It's has the 4.30 gears so that helps in the pulling power as apposed to the 3.73 gears you said that were probably in the excursion. However it usually only get 11 mpg when driving it daily. Towing about the camper it gets about 9. Probably going to upgrade to a diesel on the next truck though.
 
i've got what sounds like an abnormal amount of accessory noise. anyone else noticed anything similar with their v10? it's not the fan, not power steering whining, and not an accessory bearing i don't think but at idle it's just got this loud whirring that i can't quite pinpoint as anything. maybe just normal for this engine, i dunno.

anyway, took it to charlotte and back over new years and was pleasantly surprised at highway mileage. driving like an asshole (80-90mph) on i40/i85 the way there it still managed a little better than 10mpg. on the way home i took 49/64 and followed the speed limit and was rewarded with nearly 14. this was hand calculated, not the the dreamometer (which was actually fairly close though).
 
Glad you like it. I'm fond of mine as well. A 2" lift really helps the stance and overall look of one too!
 
My 02 v10 excursion has 167,000 on mine with probably 80k towing my race truck. still has the original plugs I'm scared to change them but still runs like the day it was new.
 
finally got a chance to tow with mine this past week, about 8k lbs. maybe. it doesn't have quite the power my 454 suburban did in terms of acceleration, but once you get up to speed it's just fine. it also feels much more stable than the suburban. both of those things i'm sure is just the big difference in weight.
 
ai190.photobucket.com_albums_z214_OldFarmMotorsports_CANADA_CIMG0094.jpg
 
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