The reason I ask is I helped a friend put the same mods I have on his '00 red L over the last few days. The only thing different is he has a different tuner's chip and his truck is lowered and mine isn't. We decided to run 'em and see what happened.

I couldn't run with him from a standing start because I kept blowing the tires off mine and he hooked and went leaving me sitting and spinning. (His won't spin the tires and barely will do it powerbraking) I know I'm not down on power because we went again from 40 - 120 mph and I put at least two lengths on him. (See, black IS faster) j/k So, does being lowered give him that much of an advantage from a stop? He also said mine REALLY took a squat when I hit it.

 

gforce,
The squat your friend noticed was weight transfer. I would have guessed that you would have had a better launch because of that. Seeing as that is not the case, I really don't know. I would be interested though.
Thanks,
RW

 

The other truck had a 'older' 5.4L that was supposedly 20hp less.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...%2F4+mile+time

 

That has nothing to do with it.

 

blasted drop shackles......

 

I think you are making more power. Run him with DRs.
Jim

 

Lowering should hurt launching because of less weight xfer... and people have posted that their trucks hook-up the same or worse after lowering.

But there are lots of reasons for your problem:
- You are making more power.
- His chip isn't making as much low-end power.
- His chip has timing pull-out off idle (like the stock program) so its real easy for him to launch.
- Your tires are older / heat cycled more and not as sticky
- You need more practice launching

 

Well, here's the deal. His rear tires have 18k on them and mine have 13k with a lot less wear because I got the cam bolts for the front early on and have rotated the tires religiously.

I've read post after post on this board and NLOC where some people have trucks that chirp-and-go and others burn them to the ground. Stock and modified both. Mine did the burning-act stock. His wouldn't even chirp stock. To me, this is the strangest friggin' phenomenon why some have TONS of bottom end and others don't. Oh, I have a "slapper" that'll probably blow and he doesn't. Plus, he's had an I/C let go, the fog lamps are cracked and so is his driver's door. I haven't had any of these. Maybe because I know what NOT to do because of this board, who knows. He doesn't check the boards at all.

Jim

 

gforce, I have the same problem. My 2000 L with less than 4000 miles will not hook from a dead stop even though it is totally stock with 32 PSI in all tires and nearly new amounts of tread.


I tested this the other day. Stop on level, smooth, good pavement, let off brake, mash pedal, instant spin. I let off immeadiately because I value my tires. I just wanted to test the launch.

I ask anyone, if I spin hard just from idle, how in the heck could I ever power brake to 1000-1200 RPMs for a good, hard launch. It is not possible with my L, I don't think.

My take off quickly from a light technique, is to feather into it on the verge of spinning, then all the way to WOT. Even when I feather into it sometimes it will chirp a little at about 15-20 mph when I mash it after the feathering in.

I always wondered if I have a truck with more low end than normal, it seems to be really strong. Maybe because mine is Red?

 

Mystery solved....

 

gforce, has your friend lowered the entire truck?

If so, he should not necessarily be able to launch harder. Theoretically, if you lowered the rear only, you should be able to launch harder due to more static weight on the rear tires.

There are so many things that come into play when you go from static to dynamic, all theory seem to go out the window.

Influences such as spring rate, shock valving, rotating mass, tire pressure, wheelspin, ect. all effect your launch.

My guess is you are just making more torque and spinning harder.

Case in point. I ran my truck at LA County raceway, which is in the high desert. Add to that a temp around 94 degrees, and the truck will do 2.03 60' times.

If I run closer to sea level, the truck spins harder an 60' times go up to 2.15. I can run a tenth quicker, despite running worse 60' times.

 

Hey bro, my chit is lowered 3 inches and it launches awesome for me. I average a 1.74 with my truck now, and my best was a 1.71 with my signature run. I have no problems launching my truck and everyone thinks it looks nicer too!!!!! HAHAHHAHAH

 

My Lightning is a lot trickier to launch since I had the 2.5"/3.5" drop. I now have to spend a lot more time and concentration feathering the go pedal than I did when my truck was stock.

My problem is that I still don't have all that much practice at launching correctly, so I still constantly spin the rears even when I'm trying not to. Just this afternoon on the way home from work I tried practicing some launches, but I kept spinning the rears no matter how hard I tried not to.

With more practice I can probably get better, just probably nowhere near as good as 'killa's times. I do agree with 'killa that lowering the Lightning makes it look a heck of a whole lot better than stock, IMO.

~rick

 

Yeah, my buddy lowered it 2" both front and rear and his was much lower than mine stock. I have no idea why. All I know is that his takes off like a rocket and leaves mine sitting and spinning - of course unless we're rolling and then I leave him sitting. If I feather my throttle to avoid the spin....he's gone before I know what happened. It would take at least an 1/8 mile for me to catch up but I'd win if we ran for a 1/4.

Jim

 

Jim,

I had a Shelby Dakota and kept doing mods until the tires would burn to the ground. So I went to wider rims and 275/60's which helped but I still had a launching problem on the street especially having a 3:90 rear gear. I lowered the rear 2 inches and it made a big difference. I still couldn't slap it to the floor but it only took a minimum amount of feathering. Basically, I had to barely get it rolling and smash it to the floor because the weight transfered so well. I could see where lowering all the way around could hurt weight transfer but just lower the rear should help.