I disagree with all who say the rods are junk or are of poor quality. They may be the weak link, but they are far from junk!

The rods Ford used in the Lightning engine hold up quite well to the stock power produced by the Lightning. That is far from junk. It's not until one starts putting modifications on their Lightning, requiring a custom tune, that the rods perceived weakness comes into play. Ford didn't engineer the rods to hold up to the type of power, abuse, and "pushing-the-envelope" tuning a lot of guys throw at their Lightnings. And because they didn't, the rods are now junk? No, like I said, they do quite well for their intended purpose. We just would prefer them to be stronger!

There are many guys running quite a bit of power through their stock block, because a very safe tune keeps their engine from detonating. When their tune is too aggressive, or they have quite a bit more HP and torque being produced than what the engine was designed to do, that's when people have problems with ventilated blocks. But that doesn't make the rods junk. Just the weak link!

josh99, who created the tune on your SuperChip? Was it a dyno tune? What was the timing set on it? How about your A/F ratio? Was it an "off-the-shelf" tune? Was it specifically tuned for your truck and modifications?

Stewart