Go Back   EcoModder Forum > Introductions
Register Now
 Register Now
 

Reply  Post New Thread
 
Submit Tools LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 11-05-2014, 10:13 AM   #1 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Georgia U.S.A.
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thumbs up Hello Ecomodder! '03 Ford Excursion 6.0

My brother introduced me to this forum and love it. I am more of a max horsepower forum reader but I like anything automotive.

My first mod I did was install a electric fan on the Sport Trac. More mpg, better warm up, a/c works 100% better. I did spats out of splash guard material but they have broken off. We took too much material off to make them fit.

The Excursion is our cross country SUV. Everyone says it is a 7K lb brick and can't get any mpg so don't get it. My first mod was install a free flowing muffler. I didn't want straight pipe or a 5" exhaust. The stock exhaust its fine for my needs. My brother convinced me to put a belly pan on the Excursion. We used aluminum frame work and HDPE sheets. The interior is quieter as a result. I will post pics of anyone is interested.

The Excursion is not programmed/tuned. Nothing fancy, grill block and belly pan. The grill block is helpful at keeping the coolant temp at ~200° and intake around 130°. I run 75 on the interstate and have gotten a high of 23.7mpg. Just did two 6K mile trips in Sept and Oct and mileage went from 19 with a 22mph+ head wind in SD to 23.x average. The overhead mileage meter reads 25.x mpg for reference.

Thank you Ecomodder for the information you provided. Look forward to doing more reading.

Ryan

__________________
2003 Ford Excursion 6.0l 2wd Mods: Dynomax BTM Muffler on stock exhaust, belly pan, grill block, 3.55, MPG 18 city 23.7 hwy

2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Mods: Lincoln Mk8 electric fan with Dakota Digital controller 17 city 23 hwy

2010 VW Jetta TDI stock
1996 Chevrolet Impala SS
  Reply With Quote
Alt Today
Popular topics

Other popular topics in this forum...

   
Old 11-05-2014, 10:25 AM   #2 (permalink)
Administrator
 
Daox's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Germantown, WI
Posts: 11,203

CM400E - '81 Honda CM400E
90 day: 51.49 mpg (US)

Daox's Grey Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
Team Toyota
90 day: 49.53 mpg (US)

Daox's Insight - '00 Honda Insight
90 day: 64.33 mpg (US)

Swarthy - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage DE
Mitsubishi
90 day: 56.69 mpg (US)

Daox's Volt - '13 Chevrolet Volt
Thanks: 2,501
Thanked 2,585 Times in 1,553 Posts
Welcome to the site Ryan!

That is a beast of a vehicle. Its good to see your mods have done you good.

There was another guy modding an excursion not horribly long ago. He also had some pretty good luck with bumping his mileage up. I'd do some searching to find what he did. It certainly seems like aeromods will be your friend at those speeds.
__________________
Current project: A better alternator delete
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2014, 01:02 PM   #3 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
JRMichler's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Phillips, WI
Posts: 1,013

Nameless - '06 GMC Canyon
90 day: 37.45 mpg (US)

22 Maverick - '22 Ford Maverick XL
90 day: 41.9 mpg (US)
Thanks: 188
Thanked 466 Times in 287 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlowNdoh View Post
I will post pics of anyone is interested.
This is ECOMODDER.COM. Yes, we are interested. Does your belly pan collect enough dirt to weigh it down? How does it handle heavy rain? Have you ever driven in snow country? If so, how does the belly pan handle slush?

Tell us more!
__________________
06 Canyon: The vacuum gauge plus wheel covers helped increase summer 2015 mileage to 38.5 MPG, while summer 2016 mileage was 38.6 MPG without the wheel covers. Drove 33,021 miles 2016-2018 at 35.00 MPG.

22 Maverick: Summer 2022 burned 62.74 gallons in 3145.1 miles for 50.1 MPG. Winter 2023-2024 - 2416.7 miles, 58.66 gallons for 41 MPG.
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2014, 02:01 PM   #4 (permalink)
Master Novice
 
elhigh's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SE USA - East Tennessee
Posts: 2,314

Josie - '87 Toyota Pickup
90 day: 40.02 mpg (US)

Felicia - '09 Toyota Prius Base
90 day: 49.01 mpg (US)
Thanks: 427
Thanked 616 Times in 450 Posts
An Excursion breaking into the 20s is damned good. Seriously, seriously good. If you have the mission profile to legitimize a vehicle that size, I won't gainsay it. It's very nice to know you can pare some of the cost of ownership off with just a few commonsense mods.
__________________




Lead or follow. Either is fine.
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2014, 06:21 PM   #5 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: PA
Posts: 4
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
That's pretty impressive, I've only ever been able to get 12 mpg out of an excursion
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2014, 07:59 PM   #6 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Georgia U.S.A.
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Here is the framework we built. It is aluminum and we did not drill any holes into the metal. We only drilled into the plastic fender well for the side pieces. For the side pieces we used the running board bolts. Some of the materials we used are 1/4" threaded rod, nylon nuts, washers and body bolts.











Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	Framework 1.jpg
Views:	600
Size:	117.1 KB
ID:	16291   Click image for larger version

Name:	side panel 3.jpg
Views:	574
Size:	72.3 KB
ID:	16292   Click image for larger version

Name:	Side panel 4.jpg
Views:	592
Size:	60.5 KB
ID:	16293   Click image for larger version

Name:	Cat area 5.jpg
Views:	580
Size:	60.1 KB
ID:	16294   Click image for larger version

Name:	Side 6.jpg
Views:	572
Size:	83.5 KB
ID:	16295  

Click image for larger version

Name:	cat area cutout 7.jpg
Views:	569
Size:	74.1 KB
ID:	16296  
__________________
2003 Ford Excursion 6.0l 2wd Mods: Dynomax BTM Muffler on stock exhaust, belly pan, grill block, 3.55, MPG 18 city 23.7 hwy

2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Mods: Lincoln Mk8 electric fan with Dakota Digital controller 17 city 23 hwy

2010 VW Jetta TDI stock
1996 Chevrolet Impala SS
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2014, 08:43 PM   #7 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Georgia U.S.A.
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I can't find the picture of the final belly pan. I will put the Excursion on ramps to take a picture to show everyone. The area around the converter is exposed right now but would like to put a louvered panel over it.

The Excursion has been driven through some rather deep water with no ill effect. The only dirt and mud I have driven through was in Wyoming/Yellowstone. The belly pan is dirty but no collection of mud occurred. Unfortunately we did not see any snow when we traveled out west. We tried to make sure the plastic did not catch air and minimize openings for road debris.

For our first trip out west in September was to Colorado, then South Dakota and back here to Georgia. The Overhead reported 25.0mpg but had calculating is 2mpg less. I know the overhead is off but it is a good gauge that the belly pan is working. Normal mpg for the Excursion used to be 20-21 but at no more than 65mph. For the grill block we used carpet protection plastic. It is clear sticky plastic that doesn't leave a residue behind. It also allowed me to use my off-road lights that are mounted behind the grill. Since it was just plastic sheeting, we just cut out sections to regulate coolant temps. I made a plastic grill block when I returned from this trip. I have a full block and another that has cutouts for the offroad lights.

This recent trip was to South Dakota again and then to Jackson Wyoming and back to Georgia. I had a low of 19mpg on this trip due to a very crappy head wind (~22mph) in South Dakota. This is also my highest mileage trip also at 23.7 mpg. We drove from Jackson Wyoming to Lincoln Nebraska on one tank. The tank wasn't empty but the fuel was lasting longer than I was.

I love the Excursion. It is diesel with higher maintenance costs but I do my own work. The V10 Excursions only get 11mpg where I can get 20+ in the diesel. I know a few on the Ford Powerstroke sites will not believe the mileage increase but a belly pan and grill block have to add something.

I added some pics of the overhead and the Speedometer. The 25.7mpg reading and the Speedometer pics were in Wyoming or Nebraska. The overhead MPG meter is off and my MPG are hand calculated.





Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	2014-09-14 16.48.19.jpg
Views:	561
Size:	56.3 KB
ID:	16297   Click image for larger version

Name:	2014-10-19 17.17.00.jpg
Views:	560
Size:	58.5 KB
ID:	16298   Click image for larger version

Name:	2014-10-19 17.17.14.jpg
Views:	578
Size:	77.8 KB
ID:	16299  
__________________
2003 Ford Excursion 6.0l 2wd Mods: Dynomax BTM Muffler on stock exhaust, belly pan, grill block, 3.55, MPG 18 city 23.7 hwy

2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Mods: Lincoln Mk8 electric fan with Dakota Digital controller 17 city 23 hwy

2010 VW Jetta TDI stock
1996 Chevrolet Impala SS
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2014, 09:30 PM   #8 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: SE PA
Posts: 33
Thanks: 0
Thanked 8 Times in 8 Posts
Very nice work on the belly pan and that is some pretty good mileage for an EX! Looking forward to seeing pics of the completed full pan.
That 6.0 has sooo much torque on tap there is still a lot of potential for you to get out of it. Going up to a taller tire will effectively reduce you final drive ratio (numerically lower ratio) and if you aren't towing anything even swapping out the rear gears (or the axle housing itself) from the factory 3.73 gears to a 3.55 would increase your MPGs, doing both would be even better! And that PSD shouldn't have any problem at all pulling the load at the lower RPMs. Then there are tuning options if you want to go down that road, most 6.0 issues that are blamed on tuners are typically from tunes to bump up the power. I don't think you would be inviting trouble working with a good shop to write a max MPG tune for your rig and I think some decent gains could be made. Does your usage allow for any amount of suspension lowering? If so a couple of inches drop would help, is your belly pan even with your bumper's lower factory air dam? Maybe lowering the air dam would help a little but unsure how that will play with the full belly pan.
I tow an 11k lbs travel trailer with an '05 EX V-10 so I am very familiar with how hard it can be to squeeze MPGs out of these wagons. My EX has a 4" lift from a modded X/B spring swap, 35"s, 4.88 gears, Banks headers and custom tunes from 5Star, What little solo running I do with it nets about 12.5 MPG and my towing average has been 8.5 to 9 MPG with a best yet of 9.26 MPG this past Summer in New England, prior to the mods I was seeing 6.5 to 7 MPGs towing.
You are doing great so far keep up the good work!
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-06-2014, 10:22 PM   #9 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Georgia U.S.A.
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Here are some night shots of the belly pan I took tonight. I also included a couple pics of the removable grill block. It isn't the prettiest with the well nuts but it has worked out fine. I have a full block one and the one that has the cutouts for my Hella 4000 compacts. I would like to make a clear block so the Hella's can shine through it.

WE3ZS, Thanks! I would love the ability to lower the Excursion with air bags. I remember the Lincoln Mark VIII's air suspension lowering at speed. The belly pan is even with air dam. I would like a more solid air dam to close the front off some more.

I did get 3.55's installed because the dealership re-installed the stock 3.73's incorrectly when they fixed the pinion leak. I got the 3.55's off of a forum for CHEAP. I sounded like I had super swamper's in the rear for tires when the rear took a crap. The 3.55's dropped rpm's by 200. For tuning, I have looked into ficmrepair.com for an ecotune. They are the "go to" for the 6.0. It costs $150 and everyone claims a 1-2mpg increase.

WE3ZS, my friend has a stock '05 F150 5.4l that gets 13-14mpg. Your lifted EX is getting pretty much his mileage in a way bigger vehicle. I am going to go make fun of him now.







Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	Belly full.jpg
Views:	549
Size:	68.4 KB
ID:	16312   Click image for larger version

Name:	Driver Side.jpg
Views:	531
Size:	89.0 KB
ID:	16313   Click image for larger version

Name:	Full Block.jpg
Views:	546
Size:	74.3 KB
ID:	16314   Click image for larger version

Name:	Block with cutouts.jpg
Views:	546
Size:	81.2 KB
ID:	16315  
__________________
2003 Ford Excursion 6.0l 2wd Mods: Dynomax BTM Muffler on stock exhaust, belly pan, grill block, 3.55, MPG 18 city 23.7 hwy

2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Mods: Lincoln Mk8 electric fan with Dakota Digital controller 17 city 23 hwy

2010 VW Jetta TDI stock
1996 Chevrolet Impala SS

Last edited by BlowNdoh; 11-06-2014 at 10:45 PM..
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 10:28 AM   #10 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
Sven7's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Warren, MI
Posts: 2,456

Boo Radley - '65 Ford F100
90 day: 13.28 mpg (US)
Thanks: 782
Thanked 667 Times in 409 Posts
That's awesome mileage for that big of a vehicle. Do you have any shots of the whole vehicle in the daytime?

__________________
He gave me a dollar. A blood-soaked dollar.
I cannot get the spot out but it's okay; It still works in the store
  Reply With Quote
Reply  Post New Thread


Thread Tools




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.2
All content copyright EcoModder.com