2003 Ford Excursion Diesel
The golden era of large SUV’s had become upon us. Ford had the largest rolling at the time with its Excursion. I had looked at Chevy Suburbans and rejected it because of a gas engine, and saw the Excursion was available with the Power Stroke. I had been eyeing the trucks since the release of the 6.9L PSD and once I realized you could get it in a SUV it was a done deal. Found a new one at the end of the 2003 model year and got a great deal with 0.0% financing. Seemed like the right thing to do. I had looked at the new 6.0L version and everything I read was to avoid. Seemed like the right move. The 7.3L PSD is not without it’s issues, but it’s a lot easier to work on and really a simpler engine. My truck has about 198k (As of 1/2022) and had it’s share if issues, but still would not get rid of the truck.
Some fails on my Ex (many projects outlined here on GTSparkplugs)
- Injector cups cracked leaking Diesel into coolant (at about 125k miles)
- Power steering pump week causing hard to steer while braking
- Door locks became week so some doors would not lock
- Main power control (behind dash) would not power up on a hot day without hitting dash
- DVD player wore out (kids and all)
- Shorted wire in Gear Selector caused throttle to not work
- Vacuum operated hubs stopped working
- Front wheel bearing (hub) died (190k)
Really given the mileage the amount of money on the repairs were pretty minimal except for the Injector Cup repair which caused a cascade of issues as I decided to buy a junk yard motor and have it rebuilt and swapped out. That could have went better but had a lot of nice stuff done to the rebuild including –
- Gearhead/LSM Custom Ground Camshaft
- Gearhead/Hydra Tuner
- Full Force 238/80 single shot injectors
- Terminator T500 HPOP
- Banks intercooler
- AFE Intake
- Riffraff billet intakes (I recommend Riffraff for all their help and great parts)
- Garrett GTP38 Ball Bearing Turbo
- ARP Head and Main Studs
- Forged Rods
And much much more as they say, including a rebuilt transmission after the engine shop blew it up.
Image Gallery Below
Click images for larger size (If available)
Excursion’s New Home
Oddly don’t have a lot of pics of the Excursion. These are early on before a lot of ware and tear on it. Dealer plates were on for a few years just because. Look how nice an clean the ‘Jolly Green Giant’ was. It’s had some miles but in general still pretty good for near 200k
Exterior Excursion
These exterior Excursion are all pics from Ford Marketing. Just nice to have as they are much better at taking pictures then I am. I do like the one towing the Mustang, if only it were red.
Interior Excursion
These interior shots of Excursion are also pics from Ford Marketing. The first dash shown is a 2000 without the fancy electronic climate controls. Second is what my Excursion looked like, deluxe trim and all. Interior is the same color as my Ex. Love the massive DVD Screen too, kids all complained about it being too small at some point, but what can you say for 2003 technology. They were lucky to have that.