Hi All. This will be my first post. I have a 2001 Lightning. I lent it to a buddy so he could get to and from work for a week. I guess he felt he had to blow up the motor, so he did . The mechanic said it threw a rod and the rest is history...I can't blame my buddy; who knows what was wrong when I handed him the keys, right? (Besides, he has no money).

So, as I plan to keep the truck forever, I had a "brilliant" thought. Why not debadge the lightning and put in a large crate motor? Something different on the road. We'll call it the "Thunder" or something.

I'm not worried about resale, since it won't be sold. My question then, is it possible to do this? What are the issues with the computer, tranny mounting, engine mounts? Any advice will be appreciated!

 

GT500 crate motor.
Why de-badge?
Stay with the Modular engine family.
Visit NLOC.net and post your question in the Gen2 section.

 

Welcome aboard, Dogwater. There is a wealth of information here on FTE. You might do some searching in the 1997 - 2003 forum which is just above this one in the forums listing.

Also, you may consider going over to the National Harley Truck Owners Club forum, and posting over there. In this case, it is pretty active on the F150 side...which should work in your favor.

Good luck!!

 

The automatic transmission needs a signal from the computer to work. Although there are aftermarket controllers around. Have you ever considered dropping a 5.4 crate in, maybe a nice Supercharged 32V DOHC 5.4?

 

If I were you I would check the local junk yards and get an engine out of a Lincoln Mark Vlll, use everything on your existing engine that will fit.

The Lincoln Mark Vlll engine should be easy to find due to the fact of the air ride going bad and they get trashed.

You will still have quite a bit of power.
I would not debadge the truck if I were you.

 

It would be cheaper to just get a built 5.4 block,,put an bigger aftermarket blower on it,ported heads and performance cams.
You can make all the power you want!

 

I can understand you suggesting NLOC like you did, but why would he want to check out the N/A F150 forum here? He has a Lightning, not a N/A F150, and upgrading to a built engine in a Lightning is a lot more common than N/A F150's.

Not trying to be a jerk, just trying to understand.

Again, dropping a built engine into a Gen 2 Lightning is very common. He won't need an aftermarket controller of any kind, unless he changes from the 4R100 in his truck.

To the OP, where do you live?

JJ at Woodbine Motorsports has built engines taylored to your needs, as does JDM who is very reknowned for the engines he produces, from the "regular" built long blocks to the 32V monsters that come from his shop.

A lotta guys swear by JLP, and there's a place in Houston, PSI, that's cranking out some pretty baddass Lightnings...coughcoughchadcoughcough...

The guys from NLOC know who I'm talking about!

Stewart

 

No offense taken....not everyone has the same thought process!

It is no secret that the standard/generic F150 forums get much more traffic than the "specialty" forums...especially here on FTE. Proof of that can be seen here within the F150-related forums. The 2009-10 F150 forum (opened in 2007?) has almost as many posts as this Lightning forum which was opened back in 1999(?).

Reading between the lines, he is going to get rid of the original Lightning motor configuration in order to go with a "large crate motor". And, even though the Lightning came with a supercharged motor, it still shared some drivetrain components & electronics with the rest of the F150 line-up. That places his query about "issues with the computer, tranny mounting, engine mounts" more into the general F150 conversation arena.

Just my thought process....(your mileage may vary )