Hey guys,

My 99 Lariat is being retired to the garage as a toy now. Since it already has a 5.4 in it, Im wondering what it would take to make this thing into a Lightning...not just the Supercharger assembly, Ive read about that, Im talking about the whole motor...inside and out. Possible? What kinda money are we talking here. I would def. need a good shop to do this work as Im just starting to learn more about these motors. Any suggestions, I think Ive got the whole "how to bolt on and tune the supercharger" story down, its the internal stuff that gots me scratching my head.

Im looking for about 350-400 HP right now, this thing is going to kept mostly stock except the motor, brakes. How tough is my transmission? Not tough enough?

Thanks!

 

2bscrewed posted on here and NLOC he will be selling his stock longblock soon, send him an email. Or PM him on NLOC.

 

Myself and 2bescrewed will be doing the motor next weekend. We will have the longblock out on Saturday. Anytime after that it will be ready to be sold.

 

Id put a turbo in it. Talk to one of the supporting vendors on here. Obviously it will never be an L, so you might as well drop a turbo instead a supercharger. Just my thoughts.

31C

 

You can do a search to find out exactly... but I believe that the only differences between your engine and a L engine is the dish of the pistons. To me it wouldn't be worth the money to tear into an engine just to make .6 or so change in the compression ratio... especially if you are only looking at making 350-400hp. I say watch the timing and just bolt on the supercharger and go . Good luck.

 

there is also a difference in the crank and the pistons are also forged, not just a larger dish.

at that hp level, it will probably not matter. you can just run it at a slightly lower boost level and achieve the same dynamic CR.

 

with the cost of the conversion, you can sell your truck and buy a lightning for cheaper probably.

 

A 99 Lariat doesn't sound like a very fun toy?

 

He could rebuild the lower half of the engine, Valves, Cams, Rods, Rings. Strap on a KB and you should be good to go. Of course, you have the exhaust to think about as well as the fuel system.

Best of luck to you!

 

Well I don't know for sure... from what I've read in '99 all 5.4s had forged cranks. In fact I think it's harder to find a cast 5.4 crank than a forged. From my own personal experience... I've had a '99 Lightning 5.4, a '00 F-150 5.4, and a 2002 Navigator 5.4 all apart in my garage and they all had identical forged cranks.

The pistons, I thought were made from the same process just with different dishes. Again I don't assemble engines for Ford so I don't know for sure... just what I picked up somewhere. The engines I've had apart had "similar" looking pistons... but that doesn't mean much .

... just did a quick search. Here's what Sal said at one point: