Lucky Strike Jr

Does anyone on the board have one? Good? Bad? Complaints? Any known problems? What kind of fuel mileage do they get or is that a stupid question becuase it is a truck? How many were made each year, I know the last year was 2004. Thanks in advance.

Zudnic

My ex neighbor had one kept it in my garage for awhile. Used it for a couple weeks. Brakes, handling sucked, for all that supposed power could'nt feel it. Dont think he had any issue's, cept for an alignment problem, that was the local tire stores fault not Ford.

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

Tough on rear ends.
Pop spark plugs out of the heads once in a while.
Head gaskets leak on early models.

phragle

iTrader: (3)

milage is horrible I was looking at them a couple years ago..talked to a couple owners, they said they got around 12-14 if I remember right.

mwdill

lightning 4.6's are alum block, bulletproof bottom end, can be tweaked to make massive HP, there are several running in the low 9's and 10's in the quarter,
the person you need to talk with is a man named Johnny Lighning.
www.johnnylightningperf.com

Slick02

I've owned 2 lightnings(a 2000, and a 2002), plus 2 Harley edition f150's(a 2002 and a 2003) all are 5.4 s/c motors, they all got 13 to 14 running around town and 17 plus on the hiway as long as you stayed under 80 mph. Rearend gearing starts to hurt mileage alot above 80, all of mine have had pulleys/tuners/air intakes, the 03 H-D edition kept kicking the check engine light on Put the tuner on and it quit doing it. I personally have never had one blow a plug out of the head, but have heard that it does happen on occasion,,,,towing my 6x12enclosed motorcycle trailer the fuel mileage dropped to app 12 mpg on road trips to Myrtle Beach....Would I buy another one,,,,,YES the only thing I had against the Lightnings was the suede interior and lack of space which is why I went to the s/c Harley trucks (leather and a crew cab.)

baja27

Hey Lucky if your looking for a fast truck, check out my 454ss in the classifieds

Jupiter Sunsation

My buddy Oliver (orig owner of black 38 PP) has one as a work truck and it just clicked 100K with only brakes, batteries and tires so far as replacement items. My brother in law had a 360 HP one (02 I think) and it was trouble free for the first 30K while he owned it. I drove it once, thought the supercharger whine was annoying and truck was limited in its usefulness.

TeamSaris

Ive ridden in one, One Fast Truck! But it wont touch a Ran SRT-10

tzrider

iTrader: (-1)

Lucky
I am the owner of Razors Edge Motorsports and have been modifying Lightnings since they arrived in 99. (my shop is in margate). Having owned a few and having 3-4 in my shop on a daily basis I can answer some of your questions.
First they are NOT an aluminum block nor are the bottom ends bullet proof. The motor is a 5.4 liter cast iron block and the rods are powdered metal swinging on a forged crank. The Pistons are manufactured by corbin-shmidt unisia ( spelling may be off) and closely resemble the Mahle piston in The Ford GT..MWdill may be thinking of the 03-04 cobra which is an aluminum block with a forged crank and Manley H-beam rods.
the 99-00 Lightning HP was rated lower than the 2001-2004 as it had a smaller intercooler, it also had a steel driveshaft and 3:55 gears. In 2001 Ford enlarged the intercooler(not the heat exchanger behind the bumper but the actual intercooler below the supercharger) they also went to a 3:73 gear `and an aluminum driveshaft. The infamous spark plug blowout was common from 99-very early 02 as the plug holes only had 3-5 threads holding the plug in, early 02-04 had full thread holes and the problem stopped. If you were buying a used one I would check to see if the heads were replaced with the later model castings.
Aside from that they are very very good trucks. With some minor mods such as a bigger crank pulley, a good tune and an open element filter you'll have a truck that makes close to 500hp and 600lb\ft tq and in the heat at moroso is capable of running from a 12.2 to a 12.8.
If you have any questions or would like to look at a few feel free to call anytime, I have 3 in the shop now being modified and know of a few really nice ones for sale

Paul
Razors Edge
954-917-9200