My power mods, trans mods, Traction mods, and brakes are pretty much taken care of for now. But my suspension is stock. I had my first ride on the highway yesterday, and the difference with just putting the rear tailgate down improved the overall feel of the truck (obviously at 80-90mph there is much more drag then around town) Not im thinking of lowering my truck a few inches, Im not sure which kits are the best, and how low to go? I want a complete suspension kit that was designed together, or seems to work well. Are there any smaller mirrors available for the truck? Besides the fact that they are pretty large, i have to fold one in every time i put my truck in the garage Im thinking about removing the rear tailgate, now that my traction bars are on. Any suggestions to lightening up the front end a bit? My goals are just to make this an all out fast truck, I know it will never be as aerodynamic as a corvette or a mustang, but im sure that there are things that fellow lightning owners do to gain advantages when at the track. at 100+mph there sure is alot of resistence, I would like to reduce this. I appreciate your time and info.

My mods thus far (a whole 3 weeks LOL)- Predator, K&N intake, C&L elbow + plenum, Accufab tb, LFP 4lbs pulley, Autometer gauges, FTVB, NGK tr6's,LFP 58in bars, Borla catback, Bassani x pipe,160 thermostat, alpine.
waiting to go in LFP 6lbs pulley, LFP fans, Stoptech Stage 2 brakes, Line locks.

Josh

 

Josh, I read your post twice and still did not find "ported blower". I'm concerned because running a 4# against a stock blower is dangerous. Against a six pound? Better toss a couple sacks of oil dry in the back. The blower port is not only the cheapest horsepower you're going to buy, it is also the best for the motor since it decreases detonation. Detonation has killed more Lighning motors than anything else. Please don't be next. Get it ported by somebody who knows what they are doing (like Stiegemeier) and stay out of the throttle until the ported blower is on there and the predator is re-tuned for it. Re-tuned means your truck, with your mods, on a dyno. No mail order, please.

 

Kerno no disrespect, but of all the years cruising on this board I have never heard of a 4# with out porting causing detonation. 4#'s from what I hear are safe with a good tune. If you have more info on this please reply as I am hoping to do the FTVB, 4# and tune soon. Thanks.

 

I wasnt going to reply to this thread but....
Theres plenty of us running 4 to 6lbs extra boost without port jobs.
Its all in the tune.
Kerno what are you smoking ?
And as for your suspension upgrades. Contact Stan, aka RUSLOW
ruslow@yahoo.com
Im sure he will chime in this thread.
He seems to be the go fast suspension guru around here. I belive he also holds the top speed record for the lightning.

02 lightning 6lbs extra boost, 65,000 miles.. no problems..

 

I have been staying back from this thread to see were it ends up.but running a 6 psi pulley with not port job is fine it is on the exhaust side.Remember you MUST get the inert[exhaust] gases out of the motor before you can get more in.Remember the engine is nothing more than a pump.IF you block the out letyou would get much coming in.
As for if you can get the front down you will increase the top end of the vehcile.Wait untill I post another pic of my truck.You will see major aero changes to the front and sides as well as the back.Since the Silverstate I have been in major thinking mode[When the back end comes off the ground at 196 mph air speed,ground speed of 168+,you tend to think ALOTT!!I've found the solution and still retain the stock appearnace.Stan

 

What am I smoking? Anything I can!!!!

Not a week goes by that somebody does not post a thread about losing an engine either at the strip or on the street. To my recollection the most common denominator is detonation. While detonation is often a function of too lean a mixture, virtually any mixture can be made to detonate if the intake temperature gets too high. We know that the engine is subject to the rules of Boyle's law in that doubling the pressure doubles the temperature. If we're running even 8 to 1 compression, the air temp after the intercooler is multiplied by 8 by the time the piston gets to the top. So, if by porting the blower we can see a 20 degree drop in the discharge temp, that is going to translate to a 160 degree drop on the compression stroke.

Since porting the blower adds horsepower and gives the engine a better safety margin, I guess whatever I'm smoking leaves me unable to understand why you wouldn't port the blower.......

 

Dude. Did you take take the Sally Struther's correspondence school physics course? You're logic is all messed up. I think you're TRYING to apply a form of the ideal gas law, i.e. P1V1/T1 = P2V2/T2. You incorrectly assert that by reducing the volume of the combustion chamber by 1/8th, you multiply the temperature by 8. This would only be true if the chamber pressure were constant; it is not. That 160 drop in combustion chamber temp is pure B.S.

-Edward

 

Edward: Help!

Sally Struthers here: I need you to do me the favor of working out the math for me.

I really tried to understand what you were saying, but here's where I got lost in your response:

"You incorrectly assert that by reducing the volume of the combustion chamber by 1/8th, you multiply the temperature by 8. This would only be true if the chamber pressure were constant; it is not."

One part at a time. It may just be a problem of semantics, ok? But I don't think I asserted that the volume of the combustion chamber was ever reduced. The combustion chamber has a fixed volume, usually measured in cubic centimeters. But, whatever. I don't think that I asserted, rightly or wrongly (both words the correspondence people hate) that it would ever be reduced by 1/8th. I was thinking of a reduction to an 1/8th, or 8 to 1, not just bringing it down by 1/8th. What I thought I was describing was the ratio between the volume of the cylinder with the piston at the bottom of the stroke to the volume of the cylinder with the piston at the top. That's what I've always thought of as "the compression ratio". For my example, I used a theoretical ratio of 8 to 1. I don't know the actual compression ratio of the Lightning, but figured 8 to 1 was probably close. So maybe I got a little messed up by the difference in "by" and "to", but let's move on to the real problem:

Item two:

"This would only be true if the chamber pressure were constant; it is not."

Edward, I apolgize because I honestly don't know exactly what you mean, so please assume I am on drugs and explain what you are trying to get through my thick head. What chamber pressure are we talking about and when or why is it not constant? I can read and re-read that sentence and the screen stays blank......

Taking it down to a simple problem that I can understand, here's the math I'm apparently having problems with. If I take 8 units (liters, quarts, or whatever) of air at 100 degrees and compress that air down to one unit, what will the temperature of the air become?

I always assumed it was a direct ratio, but I'm doing my best to re-think it. So, if I take 8 liters and compress it to four, I have halved the volume and should have doubled the pressure, right? If I then take that 4 liters and continue to compress it to 2 liters, I'll double the pressure again. If I then compress that 2 liters down to one I think I will have doubled the pressure for the last time. I think that's the same as compressing it 8 to 1, but if I look at just the pressure, I've doubled it, doubled it, doubled it again and finally doubled it one last time. So if I did this twice, once with air at 80 degrees and once with air at 100 degrees, what IS the difference in the temperature of the two final volumes? I sure as heck don't seem to be able to figure it out. I thought the final difference would be eight times the initial difference.

I'm not taunting here, I'm stuck. High school physics was a long time ago. I tried to take 20 degree air and by doubling its pressure to make it into 40 degree air. I double the pressure again and I thought I'd have 80 degree air, which when the pressure was doubled again would become 160 degrees. What am I missing? This may keep me awake!!!

 

omg, whats going on here... ruslow, im intrigued to see the changes, and see what i can do to increase the top end of the truck.

thanks

Josh

 

Interesting reading.

Anywho I would say if you don't go with a Ruslow set up I would say check out the Roush kit. It is quite a bit lower, but it really looks and performs well. Let us know what you decide.

 

The FRPP lowering kit is under $200, includes new springs and shackels. Great buy for the money and I'm very happy with it. really firmed my L up.

 

 

JNAHM1

Relieving the engine room pressure at speed and putting a tonou cover on will help you toward your goal.

Rich

 

has eanybody come up with a good idea to vent the pressure/hot air out from under the hood? i have seen, and plan to make a cover for the upper grill to use at the drag strip, but i wanted to do someting else to vent air out from under the hood that can be left on all the time on a daily driver in a hot climate.

 

A typical "cowl induction" hood that's open in the back.

I don't have the money for one.. so I just raised the rear 1".

Rich