Anyone out there try any exhaust modifications yet? I talked to one other Lightning owner in my area who said he had an H-pipe added which took a half a second off of his quarter mile times.

Lightning Bob
99 "Arrest Me Red" Lightning Build #624
Chipped Saturday, unchipped Monday and soon to be re-chipped, Bright Red Rhino Lining, Glasstite "Rally" Hard Tonneau(Red of course!) 6 disc CD and Class III hitch
130+ to date

 

A home made one or store bought? I was looking into replacing the muffler with either Gibson or Borla mufflers, leaving the rest of the system intact. Any of you have a preference on one or the other? Also putting either Gibson or JBA headers on it.

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1999 Black Lightning SVT all options, (Factory soft tonneau cover, 6 Disc CD, Class III towing hitch), Loyd one piece floormat (Fits well, looks good), Tail light covers (Killer painted black to match), Black spray in bed liner (looks very good), Windows tinted gray 15% on doors, Dark Limo on back glass, Ordered 1st truck 1/21/99 till salesman told me a $5000 premium would be added, On the same day ordered second truck 2/24/99 (BEFORE getting my check back), Took delivery 6/21/99 After MANY many MANY promised ETA dates, Build date of 5/20/99

 

I replaced the stock muffler with 2-2 1/2 flowmaster Delta flows(p/n 942550). I had the stock muffler and tailpipe removed and had the new system built to fit in the stock location. I had a small H-pipe added just before the mufflers. We used two 3" SS tips that exit in the stock location.
I had 30 1/4 passes on the truck before I changed the exhaust. I have 6 passes on the new exhaust and I have not seen any improvement in ET or MPH. The truck sounds alot better now though, not much louder than stock, just a better tone to it.
The stock muffler looks like a very good piece. Looks very similar to a dual inlet/outlet dymomax ultra flow inside. Looks like 2 1/4 dia all the way through. The tailpipes are offset 90deg from the inlet pipes that run straight thru to the other side of the muffler.
Save your money on the exhaust and buy the chip.

Dee Jay

 

Thanks for the info Dee Jay.

Lightning Bob

 

some of you might not have seen the early posts, and some nloc members have seen sal's posts, concerning 99.5 exhaust. he is a ford tech, big time lightning guy, and owns a 95 &a 99.5 lightning, and doesn't seem to be afraid to do "any" mod to one. he claims the exhaust is a "computer flow" design for optimum performance,now, if it is a better sound you want, it might cost you, and it might not(some hp/trq) i have been on the losing end of too much flow, and it cost me a pair of supertrapps to regain some backpressure thru use of their discs.

 

Good point. My experience with motorcycles (especially HD) certainly bears this out. Most of us die hard bikers like a "richer" sound than what the factory installs but we have to watch it or we can end up with significantly less low end torque. Drag pipes on bikes (totally open) are great for racing or wide open runs but for more normal operations, a little back pressure is a good thing. Guess that's what made muffler cutouts and lakes pipes so popular on hotrods a few years ago.

Mike

 

Hey guys, Sal here. Well I finally decided to join the forum here. I was recently turned on to this site, and it's pretty cool. But anyway, the exhuast on the 99 Lightning is a pretty decent system, but does have a weak link. The cast iron headers, were computer designed and flow almost as good as the tubular headers used during 99 develpoment. The cat back system, also proved to be adequate for the 99. The bad part of the exhuast, is the cat pipe. Unlike the older trucks, the cat pipe on the 99 is standard issue F-150, not Lightning specific. This proved to be a real restriction during testing. Removing the cat pipe and going to high flow cats, or a catless pipe, should result in a noticable performance gain. I have spoken with Bassani, and they have headers coming out for the 99 in a few weeks, but no plans for a cat pipe just yet. If some of you are thinking about having a catless pipe made up, but is hesitant to do so because it will set the check engine light, I can take care of that in one of my 99 Lightning chips. Anyone interested in a 99 chip, can contact me privately at my E-mail address, NLOCsvt@aol.com

SAL-NLOC-Chip and Mass Air Division

 

All I'm asking for is an exhaust system that sounds like the truck runs. The stock exhaust on my 95 was great compared to my 99.5 and I changed it out to a Flowmaster system. The superchips that Mike has supplied for us is great, but we have to find an exhaust system that will make these babies sound like they RUN!!!! What I would give for Corsa a make a system for our trucks!! I think if we wait long enough some of the aftermarket companies will come to our aid....but can I wait????later...Tybee

 

I've e-mailed Borla 3 or 4 times and have not received a response. I did hear from Triflo Exhaust Systems (B&B Fab.) and they said they'll develop a system if enough interest is shown. I wonder what that number is?

 

Hi Sal. Great to see you here on the F-150 board. No sense limiting your good advice to just the Lightning-L list.

It will be good to have another true Lightning expert and Ford tech to add to our knowledge base. Welcome to the list.

So, when do you think you might have your NLOC chip ready for combat?

Mike Philpott

 

I just talked to Gibson about a exhaust kit for the 99.5 Lightning. They told me that they had a Lightning in their shop and after two days of inspecting the unit their dissision is NOT to make a kit due to the limited number of Lightnings.

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99.5 Red Lightning,CD Changer, Trailer Towing A.R.E. LS2 Tonneau w/ Spoiler, Bed Rug Bedliner, Carbon Fiber Dash Kit, Tinted Windows, Colorado Custom Breckenridge Wheels, Superchip

 

ELR,

Kind of a strange response from Gibson. Didn't they know about limited Lightning production numbers before they took a look at the stock exhaust? I wonder if they determined that the stocker is pretty good as is and the cost of developing an aftermarket application might not be worthwhile considering the negligible performance gain?

Mike

 

BaBolt,
How many miles do you have on your Lighting?
Are you superchipped? How much did you spend
on that awesome exhaust system? I have a Red
99.5 Lighting that is superchipped,line-xed, and waiting a new air filter and plenium but I wanted to do something else with the stock exhaust system but did not want to spend a fortune. How much HP gain did
you estimate that you received by the new exhaust?

Thanks for the Info,
Terry

 

Hey BABolt, Sal here. I can correct your PCM for the gear change with one of my custom chips. If you are interested, you can E-mail me at NLOCsvt@aol.com

SAL-NLOC-Chip and Mass Air Division

http://members.aol.com/NLOCsvt/cmad.html