?'s
1)what are the exact differences between the 5.4's in the Lightnings and the standad triton 5.4

2)Would a standad triton 5.4 block be suitable to base an engine build for a lightning or are the casts different?

3)What pistons, rods, crank, bearings, gaskets , pushrods, rockers, cams ect. would you recommend for such a project.

4) Has anyone experimented with oversized boring on these motors

5) Lastely, what are the differences in the heads between the lightning engine and standard engines.

 

Search Police. Try a search. Most if not all your questions have recently been covered.

 

you got me bro , so i'm lazy. Just figured someone would read this and answer my ?'s rather than have to try to search for all this. My computer is very slow when downloading mp3's. They should make blowers for computers!!!

I could use the excuse another guy got used when he got caught by the search police. " yeah, but i wanted the latest news and technology, things change!"

 

I know the block and crank is the same and I am pretty sure about the heads also. Cams?
I know the major differences are the rods, pistons, & fuel system.
I have heard that they can only be bored to around .020-.030 over.
I am not an engine builder, I just do my homework on the monsters. I am getting everything together to build my bad monster myself. Here are a couple of things I will let you know about;
Manley forged rods
JE 8:1 pistons w/17cc dish
custom grind cams

 

I believe it's the same everything except rods and pistons and intake.

J.D. - those manly rods and JE pistons sound like a smart decision. I think alot of us should step up and do that.

 

1.) The only differances between the 5.4L Triton motor and the 5.4L S/C Triton motor is the pistons and intake design.
2.) Yes.
3.) JE Pistons, Eagle Rods, Worked Stock Crank, Stock Bearings, and stock gaskets. Info to come later on Cams. Also a over head cam motor doesn't have push rods or rockers.
4.) Not to my knowledge.
5.) They are the same.

 

tallimeca
I am getting my motor rebuilt this winter, there is nothing wrong with it, just doing it as insurance.

You will have to come up to New England Dragway this spring and see for yourself.

If all goes as planned it should be a real beast.

if you want to e-mail me dhco@rcn.com I can fill you in a little more.

 

totally slipped my mind that these were ohc's. That whole scenario makes me have explorer flashbacks. Don, i'll definetely have to meet up with you guys at new england. Never raced before(well not legally). Wanna get some stock times in before mods start. Kinda undecided about mods, but leaning more toward waiting untill warrenty is up. Just remember to keep that tailgate locked, still don't have the clears on the tails yet!!!

 

J.D., i went to manleys web site and found the rods for Ford 5.4L modular V-8. are those the ones your using. i am a complete rookie when it comes to engine internals so i want to make sure these are the right ones. also, if those are the right ones. which of the two are you going to get? the ones with the 22mm pin or the ones with the .912" pin?(fyi, i have no idea what the size of the pin means, i just copied to here what was one there web site)

thanks
joe santana

 

I know the L's crank is a forged steel piece and I would guess that the standard engines use a cast crank. There's a big difference in strenth between them.

 

No it is the same crank as the regualr 5.4L. It is rumored to be good up to ~800HP.

 

Be carefull of dense forged pistons, ie: Manley, JE/SRP, Speed Pro, etc. Their forging are very dense and subsequantly the piston "swells" a lot when it comes up to temp. The problem lies with the 5.4's long stroke. It creates a very, very short skirted piston. This is the reason we get a lot of "piston slap" with a cold motor. The piston is actually rocking on it's thrust side in it's bore (a very small amount). That's why Ford put the coating on the piston's skirt to minimize the slap noise. With a dense forged piston the slap is exponentially increased due to a "looser" cold fit. Some forgings require a 0.005" to 0.006" clearance. I believe our Ls have about 0.0025" clearance. If the slap is bad enough two things can happen. The skirt can "collapse" as some of the early (69 & 70) chevy LT1s had problems with or you'll "scuff the thrust side of the bore and have a ring seating problem. This can lead to loss of power and a lot off blow-by.. With this in mind I believe the stock pistons and a good 4340 H-beam rod would be a good combo along with a extremely precise balance job. Tons of nitrous would change the piston equation....

 

Undy, do you have experience with the forged rods in the 5.4's? I had planned to do a rebuild also, using the manley rods. SHM uses the manley and so did Sal when he redid his engine.
Now you have got me concerned about my plans.

 

Easterisland,

The rods in our lightnings are PM rods (Powdered Metal). It's a somewhat new process that Chevy uses too in their LS1s and newer LT1s. It's not a traditional forging, altough almost as strong. They have "cracked cap" big rod ends too. If you look at the rod the big end it has been "broken" in half. They halves are not machined and each rod is different. The cap halves look terrible, but they work. I could of sworn I heard a goodly amount of "piston rattle" up in English Town when Sal drove by after just starting his truck. You probably need to talk to him about his feelings on this. I could of been mistaken. I would do some research with the various piston manufactures to see if someone makes a stronger and a "tight-fit" piston. Our Ls really could use stronger pistons too, especially with large doses of nitrous. I think the Manley rods will be perfect. If you look at the stock rods they look awfull whimpy.. Good luck.

Dave

 

That was a quick reply. Thanks. I'm glad I read that. One thing I don't want is piston slap.