Hey. I am really interested in purchasing a 2001+ Ford SVT Lightning. I was told by my girlfriend’s brother that with the supercharged engine around 85,000 miles then there comes a lot of engine problems. Is this true and if it is, what kind of complications am I looking at?

thanks, dave.

 

Welcome to the board! There is no reason a supercharged engine will not last over 85,000 miles unless you neglect some basic maintenance or make poor choices if you decide to modify it. There are several members here with over 100K miles on their trucks and they are still going strong.

There area few basic rules you need to follow if you own one of these trucks. If you purchase a 99-02 model you need to keep the spark plugs checked for the proper torque. Due to a poor head design, some have been known to launch spark plugs and that was fixed in the 03-04 models with newly designed cylinder heads. You need to keep the fuel filter changed at least every 7,500 miles to avoid clogging and running the motor to lean and run a good brand name fuel.

If you decide to modify the motor with a pulley and chip, be sure to do a lot of research and deal with people who specialize in supercharged engines. If you don't, your running the risk of grenading your engine and a huge repair bill.

 

i think it depends on how well they're maintained... There are a bunch of members here creeping up on or already over the century mark on miles. I guess some good preventative maintenance would be changing plugs, fuel filter, a fluid flush, and maybe new bearings for your SC snout... and while you have the rotors out you might as well get the SC ported oh and maybe a new gatorback SC belt while you're at it.

 

some trucks run mid 11/s and are daily drivers with over 100,000.

 

I guess if you take care of anything it will last a long time, i see looking at the lightning boards around the internet that alot are up forsale and alot have had motors blown up, i guess with the aftermarket goodies its pretty easy to gernade a motor, theirs alot of horsepower potenial their, is it true you have to take the cab off to replace the motor?

 

http://www.svtperformance.com/forums...0&postcount=39

 

A reason a lot of the enegines blow is unfortunately a lot of the people simply push it too far or don't do regular maintenance on the truck.

You do not have to remove the cab to replace the motor. some people do, but you don't have to/ Suavy has had his engine in and out several times. just remove the hood and radiator.

 

speaking of spark plugs how many foot pounds do you torque them down to?