First of all: Big thanks to the creators of this site, I love it.
When I was sixteen, my sophmore year, i bought a 1994 Lightning. I've had it now for two years, and recently, like three weeks ago, I took out a loan and bought a 2003 Lightning.
My issues are as follows: The 03 Lightning has alot of beels and whistles. It has a pulley kit that I think provides a max boost of 14 psi complete with Motoblue idler pulleys (I don't know the brand of the underdrive pulley, and i think the upper is stock but i could be wrong). I don't know for sure how much boost it's getting, because it seems as if someone re-zeroed the boost gauage in the dash. For example, when the truck is idleing, its all the way down, reading vacumm, and at like 25% throttle, it goes up to zero, so I'm not sure.
The truck also has Bassini equal length shorty headers, Bassini exhaust, and a K&N intake. It has a kenne bell boost a pump, electric fan, and obviously a tune. These are the only upgrades that I am aware of because all i have done is look. I am preparing to take the truck to Force Fed Porformance in Sac, because I was told that they have done work on it before as far as tuning.
The truck is on its third motor the way that it is set up right now. According to the local Ford dealership that did both engine swaps, the motor blew out the bottom end.
My question is what should I do? The truck is great, I have been driving it to school for about two weeks now (I'm a senior now). The current motor has about 5k on it, and it runs very consistantly and reliably. Overall, the truck has 19k miles. I am very nervous to really get on it: I have never gone past like 3500 rpms. The way i see it, the easier I i drive on it, the longer it will last, right?
From the information I have gotten, the main studs and main caps are getting a beating when i get to high rpms, but is it stressing at low rpms too because of the boost increase?
What would you do? I see alot of Lightnings on these forums that have like 500-600 hp, and assume that mine has a little over 400... it just doesn't seem right for the bottom end to blow out, but I don't want to test it unless I am sure it wont blow, you know?
Let me know what you guys think, anything helps.
If you have any questions, ask because I'll check this thread at least twice a day.
Thanks
When I was sixteen, my sophmore year, i bought a 1994 Lightning. I've had it now for two years, and recently, like three weeks ago, I took out a loan and bought a 2003 Lightning.
My issues are as follows: The 03 Lightning has alot of beels and whistles. It has a pulley kit that I think provides a max boost of 14 psi complete with Motoblue idler pulleys (I don't know the brand of the underdrive pulley, and i think the upper is stock but i could be wrong). I don't know for sure how much boost it's getting, because it seems as if someone re-zeroed the boost gauage in the dash. For example, when the truck is idleing, its all the way down, reading vacumm, and at like 25% throttle, it goes up to zero, so I'm not sure.
The truck also has Bassini equal length shorty headers, Bassini exhaust, and a K&N intake. It has a kenne bell boost a pump, electric fan, and obviously a tune. These are the only upgrades that I am aware of because all i have done is look. I am preparing to take the truck to Force Fed Porformance in Sac, because I was told that they have done work on it before as far as tuning.
The truck is on its third motor the way that it is set up right now. According to the local Ford dealership that did both engine swaps, the motor blew out the bottom end.
My question is what should I do? The truck is great, I have been driving it to school for about two weeks now (I'm a senior now). The current motor has about 5k on it, and it runs very consistantly and reliably. Overall, the truck has 19k miles. I am very nervous to really get on it: I have never gone past like 3500 rpms. The way i see it, the easier I i drive on it, the longer it will last, right?
From the information I have gotten, the main studs and main caps are getting a beating when i get to high rpms, but is it stressing at low rpms too because of the boost increase?
What would you do? I see alot of Lightnings on these forums that have like 500-600 hp, and assume that mine has a little over 400... it just doesn't seem right for the bottom end to blow out, but I don't want to test it unless I am sure it wont blow, you know?
Let me know what you guys think, anything helps.
If you have any questions, ask because I'll check this thread at least twice a day.
Thanks
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