Mini, you stated that the owners blew them up knowing exactly what they where doing. If thats true whay would you intentionally cost yourself thousands of dollars? Is every vehicle owner an expert as to what tune, detonation is and its effects? Do they know what said vehicles capabilities and limitations are or are they just going off of what they had read in a brochere? or what the sales people told them?
You stated that you have only seen a handful of lightning engines blown up. Why not go to the national boards and state that so you can have the hundreds that have enlighten you on that. The NLOC and F-150 online have countless horror stories of them popping and the poor service or down right refusal to do anything.

Ived repaired hundreds of spark plug ejections on the Triton as well and that can also be said for other makes but the Tritons have the competion beat there by a long shot. Most of these ejections are due to loose plugs from the factory and the fact that they originally came with 4 threads and before you state that Ford fixed that problem I will say yes I have repaired the 9 thread version as well from loose plugs from the factory. Most owners are oblivious to this when first get there lightning but unfortunatly find out.

I read exactly what you said and as Rob stated you really need to learn to play nice. Im not going to start a war here with you so if you would like to learn more about all fast trucks stick around open your mind and learn.

If you insist on bashing you time here is limited.

Scott

 

OK people you are blowing things way out of proportion here. If I was souly on this site to bash other companys, I would start a thread only about dodge, or chevy for example. Actually, I like chevorlets, and have owned a few myself. The only time I have stated a (bashing) quote, I was only responding to one the same about fords. Trying to keep an even playing field. I apologize if it came off differently to you.

As for first Gen lightnings requiring boost to run twelves, that is simply not true. My brother bought a lightning new in 95' and pulled the motor shortly there after. He built a 400 stroker with ported trick flow heads, a custom ground lunati cam, and a port matched intake, with 40 lb. injectors and swapped out the 4.10 gears for 4.56s.
He pulled off a best run of 12.02@112 mph. Just as an example.

As for most people knowing if they are going to blow their motor or not, most of the people I know or have talked to knoe they are leaving something out, or putting a little too big of nitrous jet in just before the semi- finals, or they compensate for being short on cash to build a motor by dumping on the nitrous and big gears. All while knowing perfectly well they are gonna be short a hot rod for some time after their last run. As dumb as this probably sounds, when people around my area go to the track, their mind is only telling them one thing..... WIN! wether it's a grudge match an actual event, or just knocking 2 tenths off your best et, they know it's gonna happen and they floor it any way. That has nothing to do with people that don't know when something is going to break, and your right that can happen to anyone. My Bad guys. I'm not trying to **** anyone off. Everything I state is from my own experiences or people i associate with.

 

As for the 327, I have one sitting in my shop right now and it doesn't say vortech, or have a throttle body and fuel injection. They also have not exactly been around since the sixties either. The 327 was only a production engine in chevorlet vehicles fro 1964-1970. A fair amount of 327 engines were actually installed in combines. yes international, and massey fergusson both purchased 327s from gm to operate their combines and some grain trucks. Gm did not start building this engine again until they were installed into late model gm pickups. and even then, only the bottom end is almost the same but not identical.

 

And last but not least, I am sorry if I came off as a bashing idiot, But if you think I am bashing, check out some of the chevy guys. Its all about slamming the fords best qualities. I am actually almost neutral between my fondness of fords and chevys. I'd say about 60-40. It is actually mopars that i despise and have mentioned not one thing about them. (good or bad) I have already learned that this is definetly NOT a ford specific site due to the lack of messages in the ford forums. Some still have 0 threads.
I have tried to start a few, but no one has responded. Even though this is still a Chevy dominant site, I greatly appreciate it and have been blown away by all the information. Any way, I apologize and stand corrected.

 

I dont know about Massey, but International built their own engines including V8's. We still have an 196x International Grain truck that is still in use with the original IH engine.

 

I can't speak for n/a ,but I have ran a few whipple 5.3's one of those happen to be a guy I know, and know it had longtube headers, cai, full exhaust,programmer, slicks and making about 10lbs of boost, and I could beat him by about 3tenths with me having only catback and slicks. And the other truck over half a sec on radials. This was with my 99 L I use to own, and it was not quite as fast as the one I have now.

 

Mini, I hope you stick around and learn something.

You say your brothers truck with just a stroker TFH, cam and gears ran a 12.2? well hes bested some of the best HP minds out there when it comes to Gen I's
Look at this thread it may change you story a bit or at least your brothers.

http://nloc.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60705

Mini the fact is most owners really dont know what there Lightning will handle,
and read to many adds saying that this mod will do that and this but wont let you know what might happen and wont guaranty anything at all.
Fords powder cast rods are some of the weakest Ive ever seen. They are grenades waiting to ventalate your modular engine.

The first engine I built was with my dad in 72 and Ive built many since then.

Ive personally owned several 327's and they are one of my favorite engines. Ive always loved the way they rev.
The engines you speak of are reproductions of the venerable GM 327 but are not chevy engines.

Yes there are Chevy guys here that bash but there are also a lot of good chevy guys here that want to help and to learn about us ford and dodge guys as well. Dont let it bother you! this is a place to learn about the competition. I think that (from what Im reading) you are brand proud and there is nothing wrong with that and jacking with the other guys is ok to but you have to walk a fine line in doing so. Its ok to poke but be prepared to have them poke back..see where im going here? Stepping lightly and accepting and giving criticism can net you valuable respect here.

Like I said earlier hope you stick around and learn. BTW Thats why Im here!

Peace

Scott

 

Thanks for the advice SVT. The 95 lightning I referred to earlier has a lot more to it than I stated before. I'm not changing my story, but I was trying to cover a lot of subjects at once. The engine was a 400 cu. in. stroker like I said, Scat crank and rods, srp forged domed pistons (11.8:1 comp), Heads were stage three ports, with 5 angle valve job, ferrea 2.02 valves, anodised rockers, Custom cam was "604 intk. "618 exst. and he was running a c4 instead of the aod. This was not a street truck by any means. also had 12" Mickeys on the rear and 5" skinnys on the front. Unfortunetly a 1000 ft. mark t-bone from a 9-sec camaro ended its racing career before he could dump on some spray. Poor lightning went to the crusher after only owning it a year and a half. He still has the motor though. Unfortunetly< I think its going in an ever popular 5-slow fox body. My dad SWEARS by the chevy 327 as being the best engine chevy ever produced. Something about a 66 stingray motor in a 65 impala ss with some 4.10s will run mid 13s. I find that very hard to believe considering ahp rating of 335 in a 4200 lb. package. But hes almost 55 now and I let him blabber on without dispute. The 327 I posses right now has a GM stamped block, but international exhaust manifolds and intake. Maybe it was a "custom" overhaul while it was propeling the combine.

As for the chevys guys bashing, I do not really worry that much because I know what they would be saying if gm had built a sbrc with a supercharged v-8, and ford was running the big extended cab and no power adder. Probably something like "It's fords own fault for not putting a blower on their truck" or "Your just mad because chevys are better" or something along those childish lines. Too bad you couldn't get one of them to admit it.

 

Please Please Please don't start that juvenile"a cammed 5.3 will beat a jet fighter...a bigger blower will bet your dad's boat" stuff. This sounds like high school kids at best. Can't you come up woth anything better than that!!!!

I have a SRT10 regular cab. I have added a few goodies. Could I have beaten a 5.3 before that? Yes. Can I beat a C5 now? Yes. Who cares. We do this with our trucks to have a blast. Someone will always beat your stuff. No matter what the hell you do. By the way, I do run in the 12's.

One thing to remember about supercharged vehicles. More power? Spin it faster and add more fuel. The Ford truck will have after market blower pulleys and software ready before the truck is released. They will have that truck up to 650hp faster that the law allows. I run 550+hp and there are many cars that can have my lunch.
I'm an former lifetime Corvette owner. I would love to see GM show up in the truck performance market. It just won't happen while they are still trying to stop the bleeding.