The Lightning was purchased in May of 2003. What a bad pickup. This thing was rated at 380HP from the factory. Well it didn't take long to realize that mods were in order.
I started out with a CAI and a 6LB pulley. I recommend the METCO motorsports version. If you own one of these trucks you will understand. If the inner accessory drive pulley belt ever breaks and you do not have the uncaged pulley you will have to get a tow truck to get you home. With the uncaged design you can change it on the side of the road with great ease.
I then installed a Magnaflow cat-bak exhaust. I liked the fit and finish. The installation was not fun though. I don't know if it was this truck or what. But mine was a real pain in the butt. All-in-all great sound and noticed a difference in performance.
I then installed a Flex-a-lite dual fan set up. Real nice bank for the buck. This installation takes about a good 3 hours. Most of the time spent on wiring up the fans with a nice harness.
I then installed a "FTVB" which is Factory Tech valve body. This guy that builds these valve bodies used to be a Ford engineer. This is a great shift kit. In the Lightning, this thing regularly barks the 1-2 shift and sometimes 2-3 at full throttle.
This is a lot of fun. You will find yourself spending a lot of money in gas and tires enjoying this mod.
I am a no flash kind of person. I like things that look bad ass, but suttle. My last mod to the lighting was to have the wheels chromed. I shipped them off to Santa Anna plating in CA. They did a very good job and look awesome. They did not meet their quotation of time to do the work, but the wait was work the final result.
My wife's '02 Harley-Davidson F150 we bought used and it was bone stock at the time. I soon added a 8 lb pulley to get a little more out of the supercharger.
About a year after that I sold my Lightning and transfered all of the mods from that truck to my wife's.
It now sports a Apten ported and polished supercharger, 6 Lb pulley, Flex-a-lite dual electric fans, a FTVB, oil bypass mod and a CAI. I tried to do the cheap stuff that works.
On the dyno it pulled 411.1HP and 480.6 TQ. Not bad for a 5500LB pickup.
My wife takes great pleasure in smoking un-suspecting idoits at the stoplight and a few that know the real deal about these pickups.
Lightning in stock form
This is the Apten ported blower
The Lightning and Harley together
For more information about me:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mricker
