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This may generate some hate from the Ford camp, but I am taking 1 of the 1800(?) Dark Shadow Grey Ford Lightnings and going LS.
This all started when my brother sunk a ton of money into his Lightning to make it quick, but is an LS guy at heart. He just happens to like the look and durability of the Lightning trans and rear end, and the ease of getting 370-390whp out of them. When the engine finally blew at 180k+, he spent at least $5k-$6k to make less than 500whp by forging the bottom end, and upgrading to an m122, and putting in cams. He does have plans to put a bigger blower on it, and there's a lot more potential, but the point is here... he was like, really I could have just LS swapped it and made a heck of a lot more power.
So I thought... that's a brilliant idea. I love the lightning, but have never liked the engine, but there is a TON of room under the hood to do a really cool build really easy.
The plans for the build are:
Stock LQ4 w/ rings gapped, head studs, and upgraded gaskets with a small-ish turbo cam (21x/22x)
Craig Weaver Automotive built 4L80E using the Jake's Stage 2 kit
Built stock rearend (9.75")
Smallish Single Turbo, I want it to spool relatively quick.
I have not yet started the turbo kit, but I am looking for around 650whp daily driven and reliable.
Most the work will be done by my brother (member of ls1tech) at his shop in Stockbridge, so I'll be posting pictures as we make progress. He does a lot of LS swap stuff and will be doing it in his spare time, so it's a long term (6 months) project.
Baseline pictures soon.
Last edited by distortion_69; 01-11-2016 at 12:28 PM.
I purchased the truck from someone who blew the engine up for $5800, and bought a new engine, but couldn't get it back together. It had been sitting a while, so the first step was to get it cleaned up. It's a solid 7/10 easy as it is now after the cleanup. It will need a few little touch-ups to really be nice.
I don't think the guy really knew what he was doing on assembly, because he had so much disassembled that was unnecessary. The front grille is back on the truck, and I am in the process of ordering some new headlights and a black billet grille setup for the top and bottom.
Last edited by distortion_69; 01-13-2016 at 06:39 PM.
I was able to sell the wheels for $650 to someone on Facebook, which scored me a nice little bit of cash to put back into the truck.
I also managed to trade the stock transmission with 90k miles + $100 for a nice set of 20" lightning rims in gloss black. They have brand new falken azini's 295/45/20 on them. I'm not fond of the size of the tire, but they will look great on the truck once I lower it a little. They were $1500 on a late model truck site new according to the owner.
I am currently listing the blower on ebay. The complete blower setup on these go for around $1500. That'd be a nice chunk of the $5800 I spent on the truck back to spend on better things
The motor mounts are ordered today, and are the typical 4.6/5.4 to ls1 mounts used on a mustang, because my understanding is the lightning engine bolts up the same as a 4.6. We will see when we begin to mock it up where we are if they will work.
Just a few youtube videos and pictures, I'll go ahead and post in this thread, not to derail, but just because I don't have any build thread or anything.
Best of 7.58 on motor, and 7.23 on a ~60 shot (friend mislabeled youtube vid). This was on nitto's. I ran the 60 because that's the most I could hook on the street, and I wanted to get an idea what I was pulling on the street. It's had a little bit more of a shot in it, but no track passes.
01-11-2016, 10:32 AM
2003 DSG Ford Lightning - Turbo LS Swap
