someone mentioned in an earlier post that putting pullies on our trucks was like changing the sprockets on a bicycle. this is somewhat true because in either case you have to decide between having all your power on takeoff(1/4 mile) or having it on top end (140 mph). sometimes you have to sacrifrice somethings for other things,depending on how you drive your truck.

 

Great informative post. I don't think anyone meant anything personal, just speculation. Please keep the flames down so we all can learn a little and get some info.

 

skank dog has a good idea. Maybe everyone on the board should submit there numbers to someone in a neutral position to see if there are any connection aside from performace part upgrades to the motors. The engines are assemled in different order from the trucks.....so build numbers wouldn't matter i think. The actual engine numbers are what could link everything together.

 

bubalightning, i was refering to someone i race with locally in my post about the plugs going first in a chain reaction. sorry for the confusion. I would never speculate on what your situation was. I won't name him in a post like this but i know the order in which his failures went. What i was reffering to is his tune as compared to his mods. I had a tr6' plug melt down in # 5 including the ceramic but you see ,i beleive it is never the plugs fault but the tune of the truck that causes this. All i ended up needing was a new head,so compared to some i am lucky.

 

Mental note: Dont buy a car from bubbalightning..

 

WHAT ROD TO USE?????
Why not use the same rod that Ford picked to use in the 2003 Supercharged COBRA. Looks like a Manley to me.

 

Bubba,

Did you read this eariler in the post?? Your motor had ALOT of really hard mile... Its no wonder it let loose if you drive like this ALL the time....




Not to sound rude man. Put if you pegged the speedometer all the time you were asking for problems. I mean with pulleys & chips you are set up for drag racing not Top End blasts at long term intervals. I mean think about it if you are running @WOT for LONG periods of time. That is like making dozens of 1/4 mile passes. And if you did this daily like you said with 15k miles on the truck, the motor has like 100k miles worth of stress.



quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10-15 1/4th mile passes. very hot high 13 seconds and low 14 seconds
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Id like to comment about this...

If you were running 13's & 14's with those mods you had something wrong the whole time. These trucks run 13's BONE stock. You should have been DEEP in the 12's with those mods...

Again not to sound rude but it seems like there is something funny that was missed or overlooked!!

 

These are what I am putting in mine. They are much stonger than stock and quite a bit lighter

 

Ok I am going to speak my thoughts again, this is not directed towards anyone. Just tell me what you think....

Ok All of our tuners run Drag racing. Im dont know of any that run top end WOT cross country style racing. I see alot of guys talking about pegging the speedometer with NOS or 5-8lbs extra boost. Some even have stock plugs. All of this is a NONO. I know of a few guys that threw rods BONE stock trying to peg the speed. When you have a highly modded truck with any of the Tuners chips they are setup for 1/4 or 1/8 mile racing. Long periods of time @ WOT is VERY HARD on any motor. Think about it. That puts ALOT of stress on your motor. One WOT blast to 140 or 150 for however long it takes to get it there and however long you hold it there is probably like 12 quater mile passes. Your asking for problems if you drive your truck like that ALOT. Like the guy said I live my life a 1/4 mile @ a time.....

 

hey don, those even look better, especially when they are in 1 piece!!!

 

Sorry! I have to disagree on the bad batch of rods theory. This is not Ford's fault. These rods have been proven and around before 99. And the fact the engines seem to be breaking at a higher rate with the availability of more pulley,N20 & chip combinations then in 99 & 00.

Ford has not changed the rods. My theory is, trucks that are lasting longer then others with the same mods aren't quite running under the same conditions. And they won't be running long!! This is not a single bullet theory. There is a combination of mods that is taking the rods to the breaking point. That is it!!!

People forget they are buying products that are determined ok because it wen't down the track however many times with no problems, but have not run on dyno's for hours or at high RPM cycles to see what long term effects that part has on engine life.

I agree with sal. You mod your truck! Don't expect it to last. Ford is cutting warrantys because they know what it took to break that engine. They have done all the durability on these engines.
Why should Ford replace the engine if a customer put a chip in it and didn't know what detonation was and killed the engine.

My opinion on JDMs truck is not a quality issue with the rod. He pushed that truck and it broke. I'm sticking up for my company on this one. Look at the mod combination. Not Ford. They did a fine job giving us a engine that performs as good as it does. If they made it 100% mod friendly that could hold 10-15# of boost over stock. The cost would be too high.

The 01,02 lightnings have the same exact engine components and tolerences as 99-00. Except for the lower intake due to the new bolt pattern. As i recall there weren't that many engines blowing up in 99-00. We have a pattern begining here and the sooner we find the combination the better off we will be.

It would also be in the tuners best interest to know this. That way if a customers engine goes they don't have people pointing at them saying it was their chip or parts. Just my .02 again.

 

Im glad someone said it!

 

Richard
You may have a point, thats why I had my truck data logged.

When I had my truck tuned Jim he hooked up all his diagnostic equipment to my truck. He first took stock baceline numbers with out a chip, then burned a few programs testing each program. He not only tested 1/4 mile performance, but also tested cruising and high speed runs.

It took him allmost a full day making small changes till he was happy with the total set of peramiters my chip is programed with. After each change he would take it our for a test ride and data log exactly what the truck was doing.

I know he tested it to 140 mph, because I was with him when he took it up to 140 mph. Holly $h*t Jim driving 140 with me in the passenger seat.

Then if I added a new mod I knew he had all my baceline numbers in his computer, and that he could make a informed decision on what to change for each mod.


Maybee thats why my truck has held so well for 26,000 miles and over 82 1/4 mile passes in 7 months. Wow I just counted my time slips, did I do that much racing?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thor01

I also agree with your observations, But Ford should known on a vehical like the Lightning that many of us would not leave them stock. For such a small production run they should have built a larger safety margin into our engines. For a few hundred dollars more our engines could have handled 6-8 more lbs of boost.

A set of our stock rods must cost about $200.00 I can buy Manley rods for $400.00 If Ford went to Manley and said they want 7000 sets of rods I bet it would cost them less than $400.00 a set. So for under $200.00 our engines could have come stock with Manley Rods.

I would have been verry happy to pay a few hundred dollars more for my truck if I knew the engine was built with a larger safety margin. Now I am in the process of spending a few thousand dollars to build the motor the way I feel it should have been made in the first place.

 

Don,

Thats really how it should be done it you want a totally tuned chip!!

 

I think Don just said it best. Knowing the abnormal stroke of this engine, ford should have made damn sure these rods were as solid as possible. Mods aside, these engines come factory with a supercharger....enough said. I'm gonna start a post of a survey,who would have paid as much as 500 more for their truck knowing they had better internal components, and it will put that debate to bed earley!!! I can see them using the rods they were using in 99 and 00, but by then, they've seen enough engines fail that they could've easily made the switch. Of all the engine's that have failed in these trucks, what has been he main component that has failed. Pistons....not as of yet. Cams and engine timming components.....a few here and there, spinning lower bearings.....maybe a few....crank failure.....never heard of it. Head problems have been mostly contained to plug thread damage, which is another aspact that should be enhanced. When these rods started failing, should have been enough evidence to change production at least for the new 2002 models. Ford gave us a great truck and a real good engine. Why not make it great!!!

Does anyone know if this topic has been brought up over to blue oval news .....?