Building my lightning engine

Any of you guys built any of the 5.4 engines?

Give me some tips to look for and any thing that might bite me?

Looks to have the torque to yield bolts in the heads, what other bolts need to be replaced?

nice, bigger bore ? head work ? cams ?

.020 over bore TFS 185 CNC heads, cams maybe? 3 disc converter.

Trying to get the best of both worlds.............

Power and fuel mileage.

Need to know if the side cap bolts are torque to yield............

Better buy all ARP studs and bolts and use the lube that they come with! Need to put H beam rods in it while it is apart crank is good for a lot of power and abuse . Have it balanced. Also Pistons will set down in the hole a lot further than the engines you are use to building.  Cam degreeing  is a pain in the rear , but well worth the time to do it !  Good luck !

All bolts are torque to yield.

I have just bought all the bolts even the cross bolts. I have Manley H beams and Manley piston too.

I didn't deck it because of the compression and 92 octane.

Still debating on the cams.

How does Mick truck do on gas mileage wit the cams in it.

My 5.4 swapped vortech charged mustang got 20mpg with a Sullivan intake front mount intercooler on 18psi with a 5spd

ALL ARP HARDWARE is highly recommended

I had comp custom cams in mine I will see if I can find the specs don't remember off top of my head

Daily drive it if you have too , has very good street maners ,but has a 3000 stall . Has a chip with three tunes and the top tune requires race fuel. His is lower compression than factory with the probe Pistons than the Manley Pistons. Make really good power all the way around and runs mid 7s with traction. Crower cams is what we put in his.

gmsmkr wrote:My 5.4 swapped vortech charged mustang got 20mpg with a Sullivan intake front mount intercooler on 18psi with a 5spd

ALL ARP HARDWARE is highly recommended

I had comp custom cams in mine I will see if I can find the specs don't remember off top of my head

That would be great thanks...............

I'm thinking something in the 220-228 intake 230-236 exhaust.

I will have to ask him about fuel mileage . I can't really remember.

whitefield wrote:I will have to ask him about fuel mileage . I can't really remember.

Mike do you have your cam specs handy?

I will try find Micks cam specs too!

whitefield wrote:I will have to ask him about fuel mileage . I can't really remember.

That would be great............. Thanks

You showed me the cam card back when you were building it , but heck I can't remember that far back

Blake I had ( MHS - TFS ) 2.5 cams not comp lol....specs are

Duration @ .050" Lift Centerlines LSA
231 / 238 550 / 540 110 / 118 114

Hope this might help some I gave some where around 675$ for the cams

gmsmkr wrote:Blake I had ( MHS - TFS ) 2.5 cams not comp lol....specs are

Duration @ .050"   Lift   Centerlines   LSA
 231 / 238   550 / 540   110 / 118 114

Hope this might help some I gave some where around 675$ for the cams

Did you dyno it to know where the torque peak was? and how was the idle

It had a decent idle never put it on a dyno but it ran 7.0's in 660' with a street tune on 93 pump piss.... it was tuned by JMS with sct stuff and he estamated 550 at the wheels.

It was a 2000 stang fully loaded leather , air , power everything with 315s and 17" wheels 11" wide on rear with 9" wide on front.

No drag radials or slicks.... all out street tire or as we call them ( hard tires )

gmsmkr wrote:It had a decent idle never put it on a dyno but it ran 7.0's in 660' with a street tune on 93 pump piss.... it was tuned by JMS with sct stuff and he estamated 550 at the wheels.

It was a 2000 stang fully loaded leather , air , power everything with 315s and 17" wheels 11" wide on rear with 9" wide on front.

No drag radials or slicks.... all out street tire or as we call them ( hard tires )

Dang good E.T.   Where was your shift point?  And where did it feel like it started making good power?

And were they PI heads, ported or stock?

They where patriot performance ported heads back when Marty owned it...

It started pulling right around 3500 rpm and pulled all the way to 6800

We would drive it to huntsville and beat the fire out of it back when they had the hard tire shoot outs

That gives me a good idea where to cam it. I want to keep it around 6500.

Where in Alabama do you live, I go to Huntsville all the time. I'm an hr. north of there in Shelbyville Tn...........

I'm about a hour and a half or a hour south .... just outside of gadsden

I'm 12min from alabama international drag way... from my drive to the gate

Next time you go give me a shout...............

IDT-572 wrote:Any of you guys built any of the 5.4 engines?

Give me some tips to look for and any thing that might bite me?  

Looks to have the torque to yield bolts in the heads, what other bolts need to be replaced?

You said...."bite me"

I built one of those for a guy a few years back and it worked out fine but I got bit when I degree'd in the cams. I checked and corrected the one cam(back chain) and then I checked and corrected the other cam(front chain) thinking all was well. The customer took the engine and installed it in the Lightning pickup and it would only run on four cylinders, left side only. Right side had compression, fuel and spark but would not run. I thought about it for a while and then figured out that while the cams were timed correctly with the crank they were not phased correctly to one another and the running mate cylinders were both on compression at the same time!

We ended up taking off the front cover, putting the engine at TDC, backing it up so that all of the pistons were down, taking off the chain on the right head, rotating the cam 1/2 turn and putting it back together. It was a few hours' work but it ran just fine afterward.

I corrected the cams by putting them in the Bridgeport mill and milling the key slot wider and then making up the difference on the other side using shim stock before torquing the gear in place. It worked well and I think I corrected it about 8 degrees by widening the slot about .030.

Dave, were these aftermarket cams?


I have ordered adjustable cam sprockets for this one. +6 0 -6