New Member With a Question

[Mattstang04]

Hi everybody. Like your forum. My father has recently bought a 02 Lightning and it appears to be mostly stock except for a 2" drop (front and back) and the borla catback (with Flowmaster tips). It has about 93xxx miles on it. I drive it about as much as he does and love the thing the way it is. He wants to do a little modding though, so I told him I would help him out as much as I can.

We have both studied the FAQ section and have already installed an oil separator. We are getting together the parts for a Dirty Dog Performance shift kit with a Ford 4x4 pan. Hopefully we will put that together by the end of the month.

My question is, what kind of power can be gained by doing bolt ons without changing the pulleys? Is there any benefit to doing a throttle body, plenum, and maybe a mid pipe? What about giving the blower the full Stege treatment without changing the pulleys? What can be done without dyno tuning? Dyno will eventually happen but I would like to wait to do until it is really necessary.

In talking it over, his goal for the truck would be mid to low 12s in the quarter with really nice street manners. I want to keep the Lightning on the safe side but get it to where he wants performance wise. Don't want to make the mistake of going 1 mod too far, then having to worry about the lifespan of the engine.

Let me know what you think. Thanks :beer:

 

[4a7191a]

Punisher valve body , shift kit not needed. . Best 200 bucks you'll ever spend . Obx longtube with mid pipes. Accufab oval bore tb and c&l plenum are great bolt ons as well. In my SIG is my mod list. It did 420 HP and 530 tq. Granted I have a 4lb lower though .

 

[Mattstang04]

Sorry, I meant to write in valve body. It is not a shift kit that he ordered.

If I did the sbtb and the c&l plenum, would that require a tune? I guess it would be better to ask how much and what stuff can I do before buying a handheld and running to the dyno?

 

[Dusten]

You can add long tubes, and midpipes as long as they have cats, without a tune. Upper plenum and SBTB too. Really most anything can be done to the truck without a tune if you aren't adding boost. A tune is going to optimize it all though.
I would personally find another vendor to do your porting if you decided to go that route, steig is a douchebag.

 

[alidsm]

As what Dusten said Steig isn't that great with his customer service, plus he's very expensive. I went with Johnny Porting and not only was the turn around time great, the customer service was awesome...But before you start modding make sure everything on the truck is running good

 

[WhiTriCobra]

Yeah Steig is a no go. If you have the tools you can port your own. Easy to do and there are some how to's on LR.
With just a cai, off road mid pipe, 6lb lower and dyno tune made 391/494. If you just did bolt on's like cai, sbtb, full exhaust with long tubes, you will def makes less than that. Honestly, your stock TB will flow enough and probably won't benefit anything. But once you get those mods, port your eaton, 4/6 lower and tune, it will be a whole new beast. Just whoever tunes, make sure they know how to tune a L the right way.

 

[Mattstang04]

Forgot that it also has a conical k/n filter clamped to the MAF, with the filter box removed. Would an actual cai do better than this?

Good to know about Steige. I thought he was supposed to be the top dog on Eaton porting.

I'm not about wasting time or money. I'm get the feeling that all the other mods are secondary to a lower pulley. Maybe I should chill on the other stuff and just start with a 6# lower and a tuner.

There's a tuner shop not far from me here in St. Louis, Mustang Muscle. He put a safety tune on my Mustang and its been pretty good with no problems. I figured I would talk to him about tuning the L. Is tuning these things any different that tuning my 04 GT?

 

[MattACK]

Unless you're really spinning the blower hard, intake, plenum and throttle body won't add any power. I was making 394rwhp, swapped the TB and plenum and only gained 4rwhp which was a waste of $400.

 

[Mattstang04]

@MattACK- If you don't mind me asking, what mods landed you at that 394 rwhp?

 

[MattACK]

3# lower, full exhuast, and chickenears intake kit.

Had I done it over again, I would have done just a 6# pulley, filter, and tune. Would have had the same if not better results.

 

[Dusten]

My favorite list of mods always go
Exhaust
Long Bars
Valve body
Tuner/Pulley

With decent tires a truck like that will dip into the 12's

 

[powerman]

I haven't been on here that long myself and I have studied this forum a lot before I pulled the trigger on my mods. These guys wont steer you wrong.

I have an 00 and put the 6lb lower, Dynatek LT and exhaust, JDM CIA with the 90mm MAF, Accufab SBTB, C&L Plenum, JDM Tune, Punisher VB and just this past weekend put Stifflers LB on it, I think that about the perfect Combo for bolt ons.. Porting the SC is about the only thing left im going to do.

One thing to warn you about from my experience, LT headers make the Lightnings LOUD. I even put a different muffler put on to try and quiet it down some so my neighbors didn't hate me at 5 am when I left for work.

You definitely need to put some Stifflers LB or Metco's or some other name brand bars when you put the Punisher VB on it. The VB is one of the best mods but it shifts pretty hard. The LB make ALOT of difference in the feel of it shifting and truly believe it is going to save my drive line because the VB shifts pretty hard.

 

[Mattstang04]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. We will get the vb installed and then I'm thinking a 6# lower and a good tune may be the best next option.

 

[MattACK]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. We will get the vb installed and then I'm thinking a 6# lower and a good tune may be the best next option.

Good call. Let us know how it turns out!