For all the Lightning Guys,

Well I have been pondering this question to a couple of my friends and wanted to get some feed back. I have a 97 F150 4.6L and just added 4.10 gears and a set of BF Goodrich Pro Slicks. Well I had my trans replaced before when i added the 295/50R15 Cooper Cobras. WHen i took it out to the track I had an awesome lauch plenty of power and ran pretty decent. But my second launch was a bummer, off the line i hammered on it and dropped my trans.. So I was wondering for your guys who have a Lightning..before i went out anbd spent alot of money replacing my trans with stock. If I could put a lightning trans in to handle the torque that i have.. Just a though and was wondering if this could be possible.. I dont know if a 5.4 and a 4.6 can bolt up the same trans.. Thanks for any information received.

 

Don't buy a stock Lightning trans thinking that they are bullet proof, because they are not. The Lightning transmission is a version of the 4R100. It does ok in the Lightning as long as everything is stock, but it is weak during shifts, especially 1-2. If you have the funds the best bet would probably be a 4R100 trans with a race prep on it. Once you do that, you'll have a very strong setup.

 

Go to ww.tccoa.com and look for the transmission build up. That trans can be built to handle alot of power, but you have to know the right parts. We did this to our trans in our TBird for getting ready to put the blown cobra motor in.

 

A 4R100 cannot be mated to a 4.6L. Yeah yeah yeah I know the bolt pattern is the same, but it's more complicated than that and barring spending a lot of money it don't work. My suggestion is to get another 4R70W and have a good tranny builder build you a box. Buy a remman from a dealer and send it to them to build, if you ask them to supply the origianl core they'll mark it up (I do, sorry to admit but I do)
Anyhow, thats MHO...

G