Newbie w/ Wifes 03 Lightning
 

I am a member of this site, but usually I'm over in the 6.0 Diesel Superduty section. For my Wifes birthday I bought her a Grey 03 Lightning from the original owner. Its stock except for a K&N FIPK intake and some mufflers. The truck has 70K mi and was well cared and maintained for. I have other gas trucks where the standard is to change the air intake bot and put on a K&N or similar, then use a Hypertek or Superchips Tuner. What does one do to a Lightning ? I dont want to go radical, or give up dependability. Any suggestions ?

Thanks,

Change the pulley and get custom tunes from Troyer Performance. They're the sponsor for this section.

Drive it!!:)
The possibilities are endless. You need to be a little more specific on what you want to do.

yea you can just change the K&N and put a Bully Dog chip and change the pulley like ger.. said.. i think your preety much good for now if thats all you want to do to it...

If you're looking for a little more power while keeping it dependable, the possibilities are endless. Personally I'd start with a 4 or 6 pound lower pulley and a custom tune. At this level the stock airbox is adequate. Just cut some of the bottom out of it. If you do the lower pulley, I'd advise changing spark plugs and going with NGK Tr6's gapped in the neighborhood of .032-.036 With these changes alone, you'll think you're driving a different truck. Check out JLP, JDM, LFP, WMS etc for your parts. They deal almost exclusively with the Lightnings and can point you in the direction you want to go.

Thanks for the help. I Googled the suggested companies and that will get me started. It sounds like a pully and a custom tune will hold me over for awhile.

well for starters give your wife your truck and take the L, then go nuts lol. I think you are on the right track with a tune from troyers and a pulley. I would check the exhaust and think about some high flow cats and all depending maybe some longtube headers.

My wife is happy in either- they both move pretty good ! The PSD is a beast, but people stay out of my way. The Lightning is easier around town and in parking lots- both are great trucks.

well after the tune and the pully, it is gona fly. IMO the L would be hands down better truck. It would be way quicker and probly alot faster too. and im just not a fan of diesels but anyways you have 2 nice trucks.

The biggest problem with the L is that the dogs dont fit ! How do you like the V10 ?

well the X needs some more power, the v10 just dosnt make it move near quick enough for my tastes it weighs so much and only have 3.73 in it, cruising its fine tho.

The 08 is a different story with what feels like a more agressive shift pattern, 4.10 and shaving some weight from the X it moves much quicker.

None of them will keep up with my Roush but they do there job. I am just wished they made more proformance parts for them. After getting the supercharger its hard to live with out one. If the money is ever there the X is going to be turbo'd but i doubt anything will ever happen to the 08.

but what do you use the bed for if the dogs cant fit back there? sorry i am just not a diesel fan at all. Plus nothing gets me goin like fast truck lol

I recently got rid of my 04 L. bought 4lb lower pulley and NGK tr6 spark plugs. Pulley barely used plugs brand new. Also have a new fuel filter removal tool. If your interested in buying them message me.

I usually stay in the Super Duty forum but stumbled upon this thread.

Seems to me your misconception is that diesels are not fast. I know L's sure as hell are, but with a few mods, a diesel can certainly hold it's own against. Go to an all-truck day at a dragway and you're bound to see some fast trucks. I have some friends with hotrodded diesels (not me personally, my truck is a 5.4L) and all of their trucks are faster than you would ever think! The fastest of whom ran a mid 12 second (something like 12.34) the last time at the strip. That ain't slow! So what I'm trying to say is, diesels can definitely be fast trucks!

Oh and sorry for hijacking.

very true, but i am sure a whole pile of money was invested in that truck. For the money a L would be faster cheaper unill it just gets crazy and both the diesel and the gas are super expensive.

There are just things about diesels that turn me off that can be easily fixed I just dont like them.

But my statement early in the other post was more pointed towards taking the faster of the too. And for a while the L is going to be cheaper to get faster.

oh yah...:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijacked:-hijackedlol

I hear ya, a stock L would beat the piss out of any stock diesel!