Introduction:
This is 2003 SVT Lightning #3380 and I purchased it as the third owner back in May of 2009, at the time it was lightly modified and had about 44,000km ( ~27,000mi) on the odometer. This writeup should hopefully assist some people considering the purchase of a used Lightning, and owners who are beginning to discover the little issues that crop up with an aging performance vehicle. I will be adding to it from time to time, if you have any specific questions post them here or throw me a PM.
Operating Conditions:
This truck has been a commuter, workhorse, and performance hooligan vehicle, which has never had a tow home or a serious breakage to date. It is used all year around in Northern Canada and operates in conditions as warm as +45*C (113) and as cold as -50*C (-58), in the summer I run a set of Nitto 555's in the factory sizing, sometimes a 305 series 555R in the rear depending on my plans for the season. For winter I run a set of old 16"x7" Expedition wheels with 255/70/16 Firestone Winterforce tires, which have been replaced with Hankook iPike RW11 studded last winter, either choice provided excellent snow and ice performance.
Fuel Economy:
I have tracked every single Litre of fuel this truck has consumed since purchase and the economy has been calculated using the trip meter and full tank method, it has proven to be a good bit of OCD to have as I can immediately tell when the truck isn't running right, economy plummets. For reference I run 94 Octane E10 typically, with 91 Octane gasoline only rarely. 87 Octane E10 was used once, when the wife borrowed the truck, I stayed out of boost, nothing blew up.
In the real world expect about 14 US MPG, with a best of 18.7 US MPG, use boost a lot and expect that 14 to drop to 11-12. City driving has never seemed to bother consumption much, so long as it isn't stuck in gridlock.
If anyone really wants a full look at fuel consumption for this truck click here to see the records: http://www.fuelly.com/car/ford/f-150/2003/Darren5L/44979
Maintenance:
Oil Changes - Every 5,000 - 7,000 miles, Mobil 1 5W20 Synthetic with a Motorcraft or Napa Gold filter.
Fuel Filter - Annually, don't skip this one, they are cheap, just do it.
Spark Plugs - Every 2 years NGK TR6, 0.032" gap, they are cheap, proven, and work, ran Platinum's once due to supply issues, worked fine.
Tires - The truck will eat back tires, but that is a torque issue. The fronts will cup the inside due to camber, rotation helps.
Notable issues and repairs:
I do all my own work, so I can't comment on labor costs, but can let you know how hard the job was.
167,000km to date (~103,000mi)
Brake pads and Fluid flush - ~90,000km Worn, but not to metal on metal yet, replaced pads with Hawk LTS, left the original rotors alone. Decent pads, low dust, went with Wilwood 570*F fluid, a holdover from my SVTOA track days. Note: All of Hawk's look up's mis-identify the correct front pad, usually a HB-299-XXX, this fits the 7 lug "heavy-half" and some Dodges. The correct part number suffix is HB-266 Ford and Lincoln Blackwood.
O2 Sensors - ~90,000km Truck persistently began to throw codes, Bank 1 sensor stuck rich, and/or Bank 1 sensor slow to respond, I replaced both upstream sensors and had no further issues.
Axle seals replaced each side - ~130,000km They were leaking and Ford's part system has two different listings which made it a case of buying both and returning the wrong ones. My truck used the larger seals with the "flanged" edge.
Alternator ~ 145-165,000km See Crank Position Sensor entry below:
Crank Position Sensor & Pigtail Harness - ~145,000km This was part of a misfire/running issue I had, a real gremlin to chase down. It would start and run fine, cruise along for hours, and then sometimes shut off while driving. Sometimes it would "catch" and resume running and other times I would have to pull over or bump into neutral and restart the truck. Once it refused to restart for 10 minutes, finally it started to throw codes indicating CPS sensor. I installed a Napa replacement and the problem was solved for a few weeks, then it returned, but not as bad. I wired in a new pigtail connector, and that fixed it for about a year.
All of this turned out to be a bad alternator, it would sometimes backfeed the system and would interfere with the CPS signal which would throw the computer into fits, everything below covers the process I went through trying to isolate and repair the issue. Finally I was ready to replace the PCM and threw a new alternator on the "last ditch" suggestion of a Ford mechanic based on his experiences with bad alternators in 05+ Mustangs, it seems to have worked. This was the original part and would moan on cold start, then squeak during operation. Operating voltage tested at 13.7V to 14.5V, the replacement operates at 14.6-15.0V regardless of electrical load or engine speed. CPS issue has not returned yet. More information is contained in POST#20 of this thread. The stuff below is left in the article for reference.
The problem returned once the weather got colder, triggering a P0320 code and nearly left me stranded in a parking lot with a no-run condition while out getting fuel. I crawled under the truck to check the connector for moisture and made a surprising discovery. When I removed the CPS connector, I expected to find some water or snow that could be interrupting the signal, but instead I found it was completely full of engine oil. This female part of the connector had a thimble full of engine oil like a little bucket, and was surely causing an issue with the CPS. I used the only alcohol based solution I could find at a nearby gas station, lock de-Icer, to flush out all of the oil and allowed the part to dry before re-connecting. This completely restored driveability and allowed me to complete the 4.5 hour drive home. Since my engine is relatively clean and free of external oil leaks I began investigating the source of this oil. I examined the original CPS and Harness that I retained from my first repair, and observed that there was indeed oil, but not as much, which may have been responsible for the initial issues. I now am fairly certain that the internal seals in the sensor are failing, allowing engine oil to drain down into the harness connector causing an intermittent short. The fact the issue returned within 1 year of replacing with the NAPA part and discovering a larger volume of oil suggests it is an inferior part to the Motorcraft piece. I have ordered a Ford replacement locally and after installation will continue to watch for oil contamination, while keeping a can a break-cleaner in case the issue returns on the road.
To cover all of the bases, I also tested the wiring and cannot cause a fault with the engine running while pulling, shaking, bending, or soaking the entire wiring harness with water.
Coil-on-Plug - ~155,000km Following a period of trouble-free service I was one day faced with rough running, power loss, and bucking at cruise. No codes were stored in the system, and no CEL action either. I spent some time suspecting it was bad fuel, especially being the dead of winter, so I added gas line antifreeze to clean up any moisture in the tank, but this changed nothing. A few days later I drained the tank, changed the filter, and filled with gas from a known good station, this yielded absolutely no improvement. Next I moved on to the ignition side of things, I got all new plugs (NGK TR6) and the only 2 Coils in stock at my local dealer. I changed all of the plugs, which looked fine, and started swapping the coils around, substituting two new ones. Luckily it was on the second try, Passenger side bank, rear two. The issue was immediately gone and two original coils went in the trash bin. Flash forward to 167,000km and it started again, but very rarely, one in every 8 hours of operation would I get a brief stumble. Always on the highway at cruising speed, so I replaced the other 6 COP and have been trouble free since, 1,000km and counting.
Automatic Transmission - ~44,000km -(Ongoing) This is a bit of an odd one, when the transmission is cold, or during colder weather I experience a hanging shift and/or flare going into 3rd gear. This issue only occurs if I try to accelerate to a low speed limit 50-60km/h (35-40MPH) with 50% or less throttle. Sometimes toggling the OD Off button will force the shift, or standing on the throttle, occasionally it will throw a P1714 code (Shift Solenoid A Inductive Signature) but I haven't gotten around to dropping the pan and changing parts yet, still fine after 120,000km like that. I think this is not a typical condition and is probably related to the first tune settings. (see below re:Hypertech)
Thermostat - ~90,000km During colder months (Fall & Winter) I would always get codes relating to engine coolant temps being too low and the ECM would continually drop back into Open Loop. This negatively affected fuel economy and the CEL light got to be annoying. First I had the tune adjusted to change the ECT malfunction limit to a lower number, but in the end I removed the OEM 180*F thermostat and replaced it with a 195*F. This solved the issues on my truck and a friend's 2003 F150 Harley-Davidson that was doing the same thing. I hated giving up the couple extra HP that the cooler thermostat would give in the summer, but it was the right choice for my use.
Supercharger Idler Pulley Bearings - ~145,000km These weren't a "must do" item, they developed a little bit of a squeak and were easily repaired by installing a pair of new SKF bearings from NAPA. Installation was easy, drift out the old ones with a socket and hammer, use the old bearing as a protective block and hammer the new ones into place. $20 and 20 minutes.
Bilstien Shocks - 186,000 km These were leaking, getting awfully soft and starting to allow unusual wear across the tread block of my Nitto 555 tires. A very low-mileage set was sourced from a local Lightning enthusiast's part bin for about half the cost of new. Proper OEM Bilstien replacements can be located from Summit Racing. The passenger side front and rear are easy, the driver front and rear have a little less room to work. Ensure you have sockets and wrenches in the following sizes: 13mm, 18mm, 19mm, 22mm, 13/16". The wider selection the better, about a 1.5 hour job on jackstands.
Modifications
This truck is pretty lightly modded, a 4lb lower, JLT CAI, OBX Headers, Borla Catback, Lund tune. Few other little items, a PCV delete/separator, EGR delete, TA Performance diff girdle, boost gauge and a Aeroforce scan gauge. I'll add some observations in the future.
I don't have any before/after dyno numbers to offer because of the variety of dynos, tuners, and parts I swapped with each iteration of the combo. Seat of the pants numbers aren't reliable, and the DA at my local track can be as high as 4400 and drop to 150 over the same day, so if you are chasing dyno numbers check the magazines and the internet for best data.
Cold Air Intake Systems:
1. As purchased this truck came with an AirRaid Helix throttle body spacer/CAI combo. It was junk, only good part was the large conical K&N style filter, the rest was snake oil, who buys a throttle spacer anyway... it was replaced with:
2. AEM Bruteforce, this was a one piece tube with integrated MAF housing, so you removed the element from the stock 90mm MAF and transferred it to the new CAI, like the slot style MAF's on the 2005+ Mustang. It worked pretty good, but did require a custom tune to make the MAF behave correctly due to the oversized housing (105mm?), this also required a Diablosport MAFia because my combo was very close to pegging meter. Datalogs ran as high as 4.79 Volts so there was a serious danger of engine damage if I kept on without a MAFia.
3. JLT True Cold Air (Gen 1), I paired this with a SCT BA2500 MAF because I was tired of having a funky MAF combo with no real room to grow. This arrangement is fairly common, fits well, and works well.
Exhaust:
1. As purchased I got factory manifolds, factory cats and midpipe, with a Magnaflow 2 into 1 muffler with crush bent piping. This was absolute garabage, it leaked, choked down flow, and the single diesel tip looked completely out of place.
2. Borla Catback, I put this on as probably the first modification, it sounded better, looked great, and hopefully stopped choking out the exhaust side of the engine. However after 4 years the muffler rattles from inside, a baffle has broken free, Borla's Million Mile warranty is reduced to 36 months for Canadian customers and they refuse to respond to my emails. I might band saw it apart and weld the broken parts, or I may change to a different cat back out of spite, jury is still out on that one.
3. OBX Longtube Headers and Off-Road Midpipe, This one was cheap gamble, $450 shipped to my door, what could possibly go wrong? In this case nothing, they fit, sound great, and perhaps add power. Years later, they are now rusty, but not rusting out, they aren't particularly pretty now, but very functional, some elbow grease might even clean them up...
Install article is here: http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...tall-Longtube-Headers-1999-2004-SVT-Lightning
Tuning:
1. Hypertech, when I got this truck it came with a Hypertech hand-held tuner that was allegedly custom tuned by somebody in Alberta, at some point, to some degree. The previous owner mentioned it was done before he had it and aside from jacking the transmission shift firmness to "kill" as he put it, never did much with it. With that arrangement it would ping on first bit of WOT and clean up after 1/2 a second, not a good thing, and on a 3rd-2nd downshift it would fry the tires from a roll, neat but hard on equipment.
2. Diablosport Canned Tune, to get me by I installed this to keep the Hypertech calibration to from detonating my pistons apart. It really softened everything, reduced timing, made the truck slower, and ran rich at WOT.
3. Diablsport Custom Tune, (Version 1 & Version 2) these were done by a tuner in my region, they improved the WOT performance over the Canned tune, but did not hit as hard as the Hypertech mystery tune. The throttle response was deadened, fuel economy was the worst since I'd owned it.
4. SCT by Jon Lund, This is the current calibration, and markedly better than any of the previous setups. Snappy throttle, excellent idle quality, very good fuel economy, and additional power. Go with a "Brand Name" tuner and don't look back, that is the lesson here. Quick numbers are 16 degrees total timing at WOT and 11.8:1 AFR, Horsepower is currently 404.8 RWHP & 514.3 RWTQ on a Dynocom Dynamometer, which is running a SAE Dynojet Correction factor. I feel the TQ number may be slightly inflated compared to other Dynojets, but the HP should be accurate +/- 2% from other cars I've run on this dyno. Dyno numbers are easy to mess about with anyway, Ford Racing has an excellent article published on the topic.
Miscellaneous Modifications:
1. Billetflow Single Blade throttle body, this is a beautifully crafted piece, and the "Lightning" logo looks great. It does make the throttle much more responsive, you have a bigger opening so more air will come in with a smaller movement of the pedal, it can lead to unfamiliar drivers doing accidental burnouts, which is entertaining. The butterfly does "stick" in the closed position if you snap it shut from WOT under high vacuum conditions (heavy deceleration) which requires a little bump of the pedal to pop it back open.
2. DMR EGR Delete, this one is defunct now, but I'm sure there are alternatives, or even craft your own. This really cleaned up the engine bay and made sparkplug changes so much easier. I did have the EGR function turned off in the tune to avoid any CEL issues.
3. Autometer 2 Gauge A-pillar, I wanted to install just 2 gauges and needed a spot to place them so I went with this, it works, with modification. If you have a grab handle on the driver's side, be prepared to lose it, this piece will not allow remounting due to pod positioning. Some creative work will be required to mount the OEM A-pillar without the handle, because the handle is part of the retention system and the Autometer part fits over the top like a skin.. Color match with Dupli-color Light grey Plastic and Vinyl rattle can paint and you are good to go from that point. Also, be sure to buy a pack of spare Autometer Christmas tree plugs, you will need these along the way, color match those with the same paint for a more finished look.
4. Aeroforce Interceptor Scan-Gage, in a word; indispensable. Real time OBD data at a glance, I went with green backlighting, and painted the white face an "off white" to match the factory cluster a little more closely, the "SVT" face cover is great and the black bezel works best. I generally monitor Engine Coolant Temp and IAT2 (Charge Temp) to keep an eye on my blower discharge/intercooler efficiency. Generally the IAT2 hovers around 25*C above ambient unless boosting, racing, or stuck in traffic.
5. Autometer Phantom Series Boost/Vacuum Gauge, I chose the Phantom series for the closest match against the OEM cluster. To enhance the lighting I used a green LED bulb from Autometer colored over with blue sharpie, it is acceptable but not perfect. The Boost side of the gauge is a neat "bobble head" and it would let you know if there was a major boost issue. The Vacuum side is an often overlooked tool that can really let you know what is going on with your engine, this offsite link is the best description of using one to your advantage.
http://www.fordf150.net/howto/diagnoseengine.php
6. TA Performance Differential Girdle, made from cast aluminium this cover adds a bit of bling, a bit of additional fluid capacity, some jack screws for the bearing caps, and very convenient rear fill/drain plugs. I have one of these or a variation on all of my vehicles, they aren't by any means a necessary thing, but make for easier maintenance.
7. AFCO Pro Series Heat Exchanger with Fans - I had an animal strike late one night, it cost me a lower valence grille, and the OEM Heat Exchanger, a very expensive rabbit I must say. I had wanted to upgrade to some sort of fan equipped HE for awhile and faced with a leaking stocker, it became obvious it was time to do so. The old HE would generally keep IAT2 temps at 25*C over ambient while cruising, and would creep up to 60-70*C in traffic, the AFCO unit runs much better typically 17*C over ambient at cruise and temps never exceed 50*C in traffic. It also does not take a lot of time to start having the temps drop after hot start, good improvement overall. I did have to trim back one bracket "ear" a little to keep it from contacting the fins of the transmission cooler, not a big issue.
It is a truck, and does get used as a truck, not that modern truck commercial level of hauling Bayliner boats, towing barns, and generally saving the day, but still used when required. The advertised payload is 1,500lbs in the box, which it handles very well, and towing is 5,000lbs, it has power and brakes to do more but I've never tried it.
The most I've pulled for a trailer is this 1993 Lada Niva (google it) on a U-haul dolly, a combined weight of 3,000 lbs or so. Towed that load with absolute ease, and yes that is the thick of winter, a balmy -35*C day.
A load of "The Patrician" magazines from the print shop for my old Infantry unit, judging by the springs, this was probably the heaviest load I've ever run. Did it on Nitto Drag Radials without issue.
A 4.6L DOHC Aluminator crate engine, light duty work that garnered plenty of "thumbs up" from other motorists.
Conclusions
This is a good truck, and an even better performance vehicle, I would go so far as to call it a Legend among modern performance vehicles. The 2nd generation SVT Lightning took what was accomplished with the 1993-1995 Lightning and went a bold step beyond. This wasn't something the consumer was screaming for at the time either, a very small market segment to gamble on, so for SVT and O. John Coletti they built a product that went above and beyond when it rolled off the line. Remember this was billed as the fastest factory vehicle Ford built until the release of the 390 horsepower 2003 SVT Cobra. (Who can forget when those things hit the streets).
If you haven't driven one, they are something else, I have been a Mustang guy since I got into the performance car hobby, and while I always knew what a Lightning was "on paper" and in the magazines. It was the first hand experience that really etched their capabilities into my mind. From seeing them lap our local road course during an SVTOA HPDE, Eatons wailing with the tail hung out at will, to watching others embarrass then new Corvette C5's stoplight to stoplight.
From a driver standpoint, they harness the brute force launch very well, point and shoot, I have even given mine to novice drag racers for a few runs. It is quite satisfying to see my wife holeshot friends in their 5.0L Mustangs. Braking and handling are excellent for a truck, and quite possibly better than my street going SN95, for certain the Lightning feels like it is far more planted and predictable, the only toss up there is the weight.
For competition in the sport truck segment there really isn't a lot, I have never lost to a SRT-10 yet, the Silverado SS and/or older SS 454 isn't even worth the race, Toyota's SR5 truck is basically an appearance pack. The Bi-Turbo BMW X5M will run in the 11's and a SRT-8 Jeep with mods can be equal or faster at times. The biggest challenges come from the Diesel world, but they are strictly a straight line truck, and very few have the gearing to exceed the Lightning's top end if it goes that way.
They aren't the best performance vehicle in the world, that is for sure, but they are still damn cool. Next time you see one at the races, parked, or at a show, see if you can go for a ride, most Lightning guys like to show off, at least a little, you probably won't regret the experience.
This truck will not be leaving my "collection", there hasn't been anything like it since the last job rolled out in 2004, and by the looks of the future there may not be for some time.
Recent Photo
If you liked what you read, feel free to drop me a line!
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