Gotta love Ford. They are so a$$ backwards. Cracked cap rods in a motor making 450 HP. I wonder if 450 is a conservative number? You know, the old 5.0 motors would break at a little over double factory HP (100% +), and it was almost never the rods (usually the block splitting), yet those rods are nothing to write home about.

Now, the rods they use have such a small margin of error, that with 25% (+/- 15%) more HP and a hint of detonation, you may have a pile of crap. Before people (like Tim) start crowing about detonation, I guarantee you the 5.0 motors were having the beJesus detonated out of them, and you know what? They weren't kicking rods out everytime you hold your mouth wrong. Plain and simple, it sucks having rods that are engineered too close to breaking. In fact, I have never heard of any other motor having as junky rods as Lightnings, and performance (drag racing specifically) has been a hobby of mine for over 20 yrs.

 

I'm not making excuses for Ford making their rods out of flour and a combination of other baked goods, but my understanding is that part of the problem with the rods in the L's is that the 4.6 is stroked like hell to get to 5.4 liters.... add a bunch of extra power and a little more RPM or get them to wind up faster and WHAMMO... swiss cheese block.

 

Listen, I'm not trying to start stuff here but, instead of crying about this lower end stuff on these forums, CONTACT FORD DIRECTLY. It does you guys no good on here or any other forum complaining about these problems. You guys have some really good gripes and I think you would be more influential writing or talking to Ford. Hell we should have one day where everyone registered on these forums calls SVT. We could read a statement that one of you......................... more mechanically inclined than myself...................... have written.

Alright, Rock on.

 

you cant tell ford anything may as well try to **** up a rope.......it just wont do any good

 

Blown347Hatch,

I agree about the 5.0 comparisons - I was pushing 12 pounds of non-intercolled Vortec boost throught two different shock blocks in my old Stangs (93 GT, 94 CObra). We used the MSD BTM to "tune" the boost referenced retard for timing - it was real simple:

lug the motor in a high gear and increase timing (reduce retard)until you hear ping, then back off a bit. Then you run it and see if that enough. If you hear pinging, you get out of it and retard a bit more.

The L rods would not even survive the initial "tuning" part of that scenario.

Herb

 

You are making excuses for Ford and you shouldn't - they were irresponsible in their rod selection for the 5.4L in the Lightning. 99.9999% of Lightning owners, given the choice, would have opted for the more expensive rods in their truck. $600 difference in price on a $30K truck is nothing, and the people would have told them that, had they asked or read these forums.

That statement is a giant crock of *****. I don't see regular postings regarding thrown rods from the guys on here who are running the vendors built block engines...

 

Hmmmmm...........thats too bad. I guess they just interviewed themselves for the Adrenaline ideas.

 

You're nuts.

50% of Lightning owners don't even know what a rod is.

Of the other 50%, 99% would rather pocket the $600 and take their chances with a broken rod, knowing that they can always de-mod the truck and take it in for warranty service.

So exactly 0.5% of the Lightning consumers would pay the $600 for Manleys.

 

Sad, but true.

Considering Ford wants $325 for a set of stock rods and the Manleys can be had for around $500, I think most people would've never even noticed a $175 difference in the final price. Although Ford's markup would've probably been considerably more on the Manleys.

 

If Lightning owners were explained that any modification could actually risk the motor grenading, and for $10/month stretched out 60 months, they could have peace of mind, I do believe alot of people would opt for it. But, to an extent you are right if the people buying don't know the first thing about motors. I guess it's hard to imagine that many owners of a vehicle like this would know nothing.....but who knows?

 

sorry...

60 MONTHS

 

Taken from an article I read,


"But, adding forced-induction power is more than just a bolt-on proposition. The engine's internals need upgrading for the sake of strength and durability. To that end, the Shelby Cobra GT500's powerplant benefits from unique connecting rods and forged pistons to handle the extra strain on the lower end of the block.

An all-new intake manifold helps to efficiently channel the supercharged fuel-air mixture into the cylinders. The low-profile manifold design also effectively packages the entire induction system under the GT500's special air-extraction hood. Fuel comes from a dual-bore electronic throttle body borrowed from Ford's 6.8-liter truck engine program. To manage heat produced by more than 450 horses, a larger radiator and increased-capacity cooling system also are installed.

Aluminum, high-performance Ford GT heads tout "Powered by SVT"

While supercharging is a key element in the Shelby Cobra GT500's ability to generate so much horsepower, another major contributing component is the design of the cast-aluminum, four-valve cylinder heads sourced from the Ford GT supercar.

Developed specifically for supercharged applications, these high-performance heads use high-flow ports and specially calibrated dual-overhead camshafts to deliver optimum engine "breathing" along with surprisingly good fuel efficiency and emissions. Also borrowed for use in the GT500 are the Ford GT's proven piston rings and connecting "

 

Don't assume that cracked caps means crap rods. You can use the cracked cap technique on any design of rods, including forged. It's actually superior to other cap alignment methods.

 

I've never seen a decent rod using that design.

Oliver, Carillo, Eagle, Scat, Manley and the list goes on.

 

Yes.

No

First, most of the people i know who own their trucks......just like most people.......financed them. So another 600 bucks on the note would have been squat.

Second, I have fixed numberous petty things on my truck myself just to keep my truck away from a dealership service dept. I think alot of people do the same thing. The last thing I want is ford pulling my motor. Happened to my old man's truck. Put it this way, luckily he traded it in toward and 03 because he would have never excepted the truck back in the condition it was in when done. Bent radiator mounts, scratched and dented fire wall. Scratched up fenders.

And if they were putting different internals in and the price reflected it, it's not like we'd have an option, it would in there and we would pay for it.

Plus many of us didn't know anything about blowing rods when these first came out. So as they kept making them and this little rumor about "bad" rods came around.......if people DID have and option, i would have paid the 600 in a heart beat.


To tell you the truth, i would have rather paid extra money for better internals and screw the extended warranty. I canceled mine shortly after anyway knowing that their wasn't much of my truck that was left untouched that they would warranty anyhow

Just my opinion