hello all,

my '00 lightning spit a spark plug sunday night and instead of fixing the ford head i was thinking of installing aftermarket heads. does anyone have any experience with Trick Flow heads? can anyone recommend a set of heads?

my truck has a Bassani exhaust and a K&N cold air kit. i don't plan on doing any other mods.

thanks in advance.

 

JDM at www.teamjdm.com

Excellent, quality heads and cams. Call 'em up and tell them what you want.

Stewart

 

I ve heard mixed reviews on the new Trick Flows.I like anything JDM sells..You can also look into Patriot heads.

 

Has the quality of the Patriot heads gone up? It's been a couple years since I've been immersed in the L scene over at NLOC, SVT P, and L/Rodder, but Patriot developed a pretty bad rep for failed heads. Unless you're using them as bare cores and building them yourself, or having your builder put them together, I'd stay away from their completely built heads. Unless of course they've gotten better.

Stewart

 

Theres quite a few peeps over on LR that uses them.I never heard anyone say anything bad about them while I have been on there and the other L boards

 

Yeah, they had some pretty bad failures, and a couple near catastophic ones that almost took out some really high powered, built engines, if they hadn't been found by the owner.

I know a lot of guys took to using the bare heads and building them with the components they wanted, using the correct process to assemble them, to eliminate the problems that were cropping up.

Stewart

 

are you talking about the Trick Flows or the Patriots?

Thanks for all the input, guys!

 

See post #4.

Stewart

 

The only "aftermarket" heads are the Trick-flow heads.
All the others are ford factory castings.
Shop around for the best price but I wouldn't recommend the patriot heads even though they are the cheapest. lol
.: Johnny Lightning Performance
LFP Stage II Ported Heads Ford 5.4L SOHC [Stage2] - $1,649.95 : Lightning Force Performance
I run stage 3 from here! Total Engine Airflow Whoever you order from ,have them fix the plug threads! TEA welded up my plug holes ,re-drilled them and they have like 10 or more threads now
Fox Lake Power Products, intake manifolds, assembled shortblocks, modular shortblocks, CNC modular heads, P-51 installation, comp cams, crower, ferrea components 1999

 

thank you all again for the input.

i decided to stick with stock heads and sleeve every plug boss so i'd never have to worry about this again. my lightning's mill is currently on a stand having this done...decided to change the water pump while the motor was out (it's still running the original pump).

 

I have heard good things about the Patriot heads

 

Do your research at NLOC and SVT Performance and you'll change your mind.

Stewart

 

Anyone have any experience with these guys:
ModularHeadShop Modular Heads

 

Just had patriot heads put on my 01 lightning. The heads were bare, I just switched the parts from my old heads. Now I have no power. Boost will be around 10 psi but the truck does not increase speed and the rpm's are low. The mechanic can not find any vacuum leaks. There was a code that came up, when the check engine light came on, for excessive fuel and he fixed that but no change in the way it performs. Also, it sounds like there is air blowing through the vents but there isn't. As of right now, there is no engine codes coming up. Are these problems caused by the heads or something else?