WEll, we asked for it, being that our 4.2 performance thread is now 3 pages long...thanks alot to me, True4.2, Tom, and Talley(who has mistiorusly(sp??) disappeared.) BTW..If ihe is gone for much longer than I claim his truck!

So, to start off..

I just had my truck detailed...how bout tha for a start?....I think it makes my truck faster!! haha

 

I waxed my bumper! That should shave at leat 3 clicks off the 1/4!

No really, from Jimmy Dean's advice (so as to not steal it!), I've found that searching mustang parts for the 3.8 is even more efficient than searching parts for our 4.2L. It's good to know smart people.

 

Very true true4.2 hee it rhymes...

Unfortunately I cannot act on my own advice, as I am to broke to purchase anything at this time.

BTW I am eating a caramel apple here at work...in the office...in the military...hmm...weird..

 

mis post...

 

Aaaaahhhh,

A fresh page. Feels good to have all this room. I don't know what to do with it now.

Hey, I know. Check out my user gallery. I finished the nitrous install on Saturday, then went to Moroso for Midnight Madness Saturday night til 2am.

The tiny little 35 shot of nitrous that I used (the smallest shot possible) shaved a staggering 1.2 seconds off my quarter mile.

And that's WITHOUT my chip, which Ken still has doing those custom tunes to it. I can't wait til I get that back. That should take off another .5 seconds. Once I work my way up to the 75 shot (the maximum for a basically stock V6), I'll be running in the 15's. Which is awsome for me because I have an automatic super cab wich is as heavy as an elephant.

For 500 bucks, the base NX kit is the best, most fun, way to go. And did I mention how much freakin fun nitrous is????

sitting at the track, waiting to run, you have all this neat stuff to tinker with. Tank pressure, temperature and stuff.

And I'll tell you people LOVE to look at stuff with nitrous. Before I had NX, I used to sit at the track with my hood open and nobody would ever stop to look at my motor...made me sad.

Now, i get people stopping by every 5 minutes asking all kinds of questions, sometimes there are so many people standing in front of my truck that I can't keep up with talking to all of them at once.

You guys gotta try it, you'll just love it.

Tom

 

(sigh)

I gotta admit I'll never run NOS on any of my vehicles. I'm sure it would be pretty cool to try, but I just never would. I'm not even sure why I wouldn't. I just....wouldn't.

 

did you get the NX EFI kit for our trucks? damn im jealous. you said before that you ran 18.8, didnt you? so that means that you now run 17.6 or so. or am i wrong? well just to mention it, talley ran nos at the track a few days nack and ran an impressive 14.5!!!! and i think that was on a 75 shot. he mentioned moving up to 100 shot. awesome stuff that kid. how much did the NX kit cost you? how much for install? let me know soon.

 

Quick4.2L

I ran the measly 35 shot, the smallest setting, just to get used to everything before I went bigger. The 35 shot got me a full 1.2 seconds faster. I sent my chip back to Ken to have the nitrous program installed. Last Saturday night i ran a 17.2. I'll be getting my chip back on Friday, which will get me a full half a second for sure. This will drop me to 16.7, on a 35 shot. Now remember I have a supercab, fully loaded automatic, so tally, being the light vehicle with stick shift, will run quicker than me. Once I throw the 75 shot in, I believe that will drop me at least another 1.2 seconds....at least, which will then bring me down to 15.5. Some stock lightnings down here don't even pull that. I would be very happy with 15.5.

The NX EFI kit for the Ford 4.2L V6, you can order from Jegs for 550.00 and it took me 1 week to install it myself. It's pretty simple. Just make sure you read the instructions about 25 times and completely understand everything before you hook it up. The actual install was very very fun. I did one piece per night after work. One day I would install the WOT switch, the next I would install the Solenoids. You know, take your time and enjoy it. It's not greasy work and there is nothing on your motor to really disassemble.

and in all my research prior to purchase, i found that running a modest shot of nitrous is no more bad for your motor than a turbo or supercharger. All three do the exact same thing. Force more air and fuel into your throttle body. Nitrous, believe it or not, is a non flamable gas. So your probably wondering how it works.

Well, what happens is, when you boost the nitrous, the system injects both fuel and nitrous directly into your intake. the fuel mixes with the nitrous, which contains more molecules of oxygen than regular air, this allows the fuel a more complete burn, that's all. It's not like your forcing alcahol or some other combustable liquid into your motor.

Done in moderation, Nitrous is very safe for your motor. Just make sure you reinforce certain parts of your drive train before you start running 150 shots. Becuase your little 4.2's drive train isn't designed for that type of power. But stick with the 35-75 shot and you'll be fine.

Tom

 

that sounds pretty good. i was wondering though how you sprayed when you raced. what gears did you spray in and and how long did you spray for? i was also wondring about the NX kit. i thought that it was a dry kit, not a wet kit. is it really that simple to install? ill look into jegs for it. keep up the good work. good luck on your truck.

 

Joseph,

Anyone else, correct me if I'm wrong, but a "wet" kit is when liquid nitrous and gasoline are sprayed directly into your intake manifold through your throttle body. There are most likely people out there who know alot more than I do, I'm still learning myself.

However, nitrous kit these days are so advanced that they've got it down to a science. It was pretty easy to install, I think just about anyone can do it, if they have the patience.

I took 1 whole week to read through the instruction manual about 20 times before I attempted to install the 1st part. It's important to have a good working knowledge of the installation before attempting. But once you've got that down, it's pretty much simply connecting a bunch of hoses and wires on the external part of your motor.

You have 2 solenoids to mount, anywhere in your engine compartment. Mount the bottle behind the passenger seat or in the bed of your truck. Drill some holes in your floor and run the nitrous line from the bottle to the nitrous solenoid and so on.

I'd say the hardest part was connecting the safety WOT (wide open throttle) switch to your throttle. This is a switch with a metal flange on it that you have to twist and bend so that it touches, or activates, exactly as your throttle twists and hits its wide open throttle position. This is the most important part, because you do not want to engage the nitrous unless you have you foot all the way to the floor.

So, how you work it exactly takes a bit of practice. Nitrous should not be used unless your both wide open throttle, and your rpm's are above 2500. You have two switches to activate the nitrous. the first switch is the arming switch, which you mount to your dashboard someplace, the second one is the safety WOT switch on your throttle.

What I do, at the staging light, is put my foot on the brake and full throttle the truck, this drives my rpms up to 1800 and also activates the first switch. Once the 3rd yellow light comes up, I let my foot off the brake and take off. Within 1 second my rpms hit about 2300. At that point I flip the arming switch on the dash board which engages the solenoids and begins feeding the nitrous. you can feel very noticable instant surge of power the moment you flip that switch. Then I just stay full throttle all the way down the track.

If at any time you should feel something irregular, simply lift your foot off the gas pedal just a little bit, and the whole system shuts down.

The smaller shots of nitrous, 35-75 shot are really very simple and safe to use. It's not until you begin to go over that, that you have to begin adjusting other areas of your motor to control detonation. Such as switching to cooler plugs and re-gapping them, running 100 octane racing fuel, which you can get at the track, and strengthening up your drive train.

A 35 shot will get you alot. Got me a full 1.2 seconds in the quarter. and it's really fun to play with. Bang for the buck its the best way to get power. Once you do a few runs your bottle pressure begins to drop. You want to keep the pressure in the green when looking at the pressure gauge. To keep the pressure up you can purchase a bottle heater from NX, which is not cheep. I purchased a Lizzard cage heater that plugs into an inverter which plugs into my cigarette lighter. This was much cheaper and just as effective.

I'm posting some more pictures on my gallery of my bottle set up today, so you can check them out.

Tom

 

Hey guys I have a 2002 f150 4.2l v6 THUNDER . Thunder is just a kit that makes it look exactly like a ford LIGHTNING(my dream truck) Anyways have any of you guys heard of puttin a turbocharger on a 4.2. I would love to do this to mine. Turbos sound awesome so if any one of you could tell me whats up it would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,
Brad

 

Brad, so far I don't think there are any turbochargers specifically for our trucks.

The are, however, superchargers for our trucks. I have never witnessed one personally, but Horizonhuskies is getting one on his truck shortly. He is our 'guinea pig' so to speak, so we are all hoping for the best for him.



With that said, guys lets put our heads together. From what I've heard turbo's are universal meaning it will fit just about anything, but you would have to make it fit. Is this true? Just wondering ya know.

 

Any turbocharger will work, as long as you can flow the air to spool it
Now with that said, to actually get it mounted with all of the plumbing you're going to have to be very good at fabrication. Like true 4.2 said...nobody makes a turbo setup for the 4.2's.... but that doesn't mean that one can't be made

Twin Turbo's on a V6 Mustang
That car ran an 11.9 in the 1/4. So any of you guys who are good at fabricating things should go for it! Plus if you can reproduce it and sell it you can make a few bucks

 

Thanks guys, I would love a turbo but from the looks of it I'm going to start saving for a supercharger, and soon very soon I will have a fast bad ace truck (unless there is someone willing to try to put one together on their 4.2)there is no way that I could fabricate that kind of thing. I'm not mechanically inclined, but I'm just 17, and kindof inexperienced in that sort of thing. Other than that I am very serious about putting some sort of charger on my truck.

What about a used sc from an old thunderbird or mustang 3.8? Could I make that work? It would be a ton cheaper.

thanks again,
Brad

 

Whre thsoe SCed or TCed? If turbo you will still need major fab work o teh exhaust side. for a SC, it may fit. But will not be very big or powerful, not for what you want. Spend the extra dime to get something worth it.