Hiding a Turbocharger in a '94 Ford Lightning MuscleTrux Wars Part 3

Today, it's muscle trucks part three. And this time, Kevin's taken over the shop to take a radical approach to making more power in his 94 Ford Lightning first. He's adding bigger injectors and a new engine management system under the hood before hiding a tailpipe turbo under the bed that will spin up boost on his small block

V8. It's all today here on trucks.

Hey, welcome to trucks. Today we continue on with muscle truck wars and we're stirring the pot and reviving the battle that's been fought bitterly for decades on the road courses and drag strips all over the world. Kind of like an automotive civil war Ford against Chevy. And our version of this still unsettled grudge starts with taking two factory sport trucks, the Chevy 454 Ss and the first generation Ford lightning and not only seeing how well they hold against each other but making improvements over what the factory did. Now, Ryan's already had the chance to make some improvements on that 454 but he locked me out of the shop while they were working so I couldn't spy on him to see what they were doing to make power. So I'm gonna return the favor and kick him out while we take a very different approach with this lightning. So, uh, what do you have a plan for that? A little forward? You see all these boxes,

you're not gonna find out what's in them until it's too late. So, get your and get out of here. I'm fine.

All right. Try.

Ha.

Well, now that he's out of the way if we can get started and the first thing that we're gonna do is get rid of these chrome valve covers that somebody stuck on here, they're crushed in the back. The P CV port is plugged and there's no real good way to get oil in the engine, but the original valve covers were in the back of the truck when we bought it and there's a few other upgrades we're gonna do up top here. So while me and Tommy get this tore down, why don't you guys check out what Ryan's already got done on that. 454.

The big block Chevy barely out torqued the lightning with 300 ft pounds against 293 for the Ford.

But the higher revving 351 Windsor pushed past the Ss 454 with an impressive 228 rear wheel horsepower to the super sports. 194 both trucks have them like slightly worn out street trucks a little bit of an average because of the factory tweaks

and both trucks took a pretty good beating on the road test. We gave them too.

So after Tommy and Ryan yanked the engine and tranny on his truck and discovered a rock solid short lock. They threw in a hotter cam.

A set of Edelbrock aluminum heads,

roller rockers and a pro fef I kit for fuel delivery

along with a set of headers, feeding a high flow exhaust and backing it all up with a B and M shift improvement kit, 400 horsepower. And we're guessing it puts the big block somewhere around the 400 horsepower mark.

Now, before we go anywhere else, you have to check out these valve covers and the custom fabrication the previous owner did to make them fit under the intake. It's 1000 wonders that the rocker arms didn't come into contact with these things from the bottom. And like my buddy, Ryan says, chrome won't get you home. So these things are out of here.

Well, now we can finally let you in on the strategy we've got for waking this Ford up. You first gen lightning guys know that these trucks came stock with a speed density EF I system that relies on throttle position 02 and vacuum sensors along with a

factory preprogrammed engine computer or PC M to monitor and operate the EF FIVE system. Now, these things make pretty darn good power. You guys know this and we proved it over on Joe and Mike Stein.

The problems start to come into play when you want to extensively modify these engine

and trucks with headers. A hot cam, lots of cold air coming in on the intake. The engine's computer and sensors are preprogrammed for one engine combination only and can't compensate for all the changes that you just showed it. Therefore, you're never gonna realize the potential of all your performance add ons. And chances are you're gonna make your truck run worse. A mass airflow system like the GT Mustangs have been a joint since 1989 is more efficient and infinitely more tunable.

It relies on a signal sent by the mass air meter that monitors air volume and temperature and that allows the ECM or engine control module to decide how much air and fuel is dumped into the engine and that is based on how deep your right foot is into the system. Now, all this takes place despite the mods that you've done. So an EF I system that's mass airflow will allow you to take full advantage of your performance.

So we're gonna use this mass airflow conversion kit from DURI performance that includes a new ECM or engine control module, an injector harness that plugs into the module and accepts the vehicle's injector harness allowing you to control and monitor the rest of the vehicle systems. It comes with of course, a new air meter duct work, all the filters and brackets, you need to properly install the system.

And since one of our goals is to blow the doors off a certain big block Chevy, we're gonna step up our game with this larger BBK throttle body. But the big picture here is that all of these upgrades are gonna allow us to take advantage of our secret weapon right here.

But more on this guy a little later,

like we touched on a bit ago, a mass air system will complement and feed performance mods, not ignore them like speed density.

So although we're going to keep the factory fuel lines and rail will beef up the fuel delivery starting with much larger 42 pound injectors.

The den right kit comes with an injector harness and since our kit works with the existing engine harness, we'll just peel back the factory injector connectors in case we ever want to return this limited edition truck back to stock.

The BBK throttle body reuses the factory fasters and sensors but will allow 30% more air and fuel into this engine.

Now, if we were just upgrading to mass airflow, now is the time to where we put our duct work, air meter and filter onto the throttle body. But since we're having a little help later on from our secret weapon, there's some duct work that has to come up from the bottom and tie into the air inlet. So we're gonna deal with that later

and our ignition

system has already been upgraded by the previous owner to an MS D coil distributor and wires and it's all working great. So we're gonna leave that alone. However,

we will be using the Summit racing multiple discharge box with boost retard for our little force induction plan. It's gonna spank that Chevy

up

next. It's out with the old exhaust as Kevin lays out a plan for turbo charging and later, we're running the tubing from the front to the back and back to the front again. Stay tuned.

Welcome back.

Now, Kevin's obviously heading back in the shop and I'm sure he's locking the door so I can't even get in to get tools. So I thought I'd take the time to clean the front end of my ss up a little bit. Get rid of some of the crud that's built up and maybe a little bit later I can sneak in, get enough tools to bolt the sheet metal back on

and uh, maybe do a little reconnaissance, see what's happening with that. Ford.

We want this lightning to hall but, but it has to pass mission. So Tommy is just gonna cut off the custom job and the rest of the exhaust since it's not gonna help our upcoming months anyway.

Ok.

Let's check out this exhaust system that Tommy pulled off of here. We got some of the original pipes still here into a good set of mufflers. These are flow masters, but the outlet size is mismatched. So you're gonna have restriction

and over here here's where it starts to get hairy. Now, this is a gasket surface joint right here. Uh They've got it welded solid along with a cluster of grapes at this junction here.

But over here these are the ports for the catalytic converters which are strangely missing. So this truck is not legal in any state and check out the welds. It's just amazing. There's leaks everywhere. Uh There's restrictive bins, there's mismatched pipe and all of this stuff over here leading up into the somewhat restrictive but better flowing than stock cast iron manifolds. Now, I'm not dogging the guy that welded this up. All I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with having a buddy that knows how to weld, help you with your exhaust system.

Well, now we can finally come clean about the power adder we're gonna use on this lightning. This is the Squire's turbo system, universal tailpipe turbo kit. This system adds 5 to 7 pounds of boost and is gonna throw on about 100 extra bolt on horsepower to our engine. It comes with the turbo itself, the oil pump and lines clamps, couplers blow off valve and waste skate, even electronic boost valve that's gonna allow us to dial it a little more boost if we need it or have a switch two stage boost system. Squires even throws in some manual

sections to help with the plumbing.

Now to give you a little clear picture of how we're gonna route our new exhaust system. Check this out. We're using a Flowmaster Universal Manager bent pipe kit to help us with our plumbing. So we're coming from our new BBK headers into a down pipe from each bank, exiting into a new catalytic converter and then into a Flowmaster Y pipe.

The Y pipe dumps out into the turbo charger and exits exhaust at the back which spools up the turbo draws fresh air in from the inlet in this filter here and throws it back up into the front of the engine,

up into the front to get processed and read by the mass airflow sensor and finally dumped into the throttle body.

Now, all that returned and recirculated air creates a multiplying effect which is turbo charging. And if you've been doing the math and you realize the 228 horsepower we've already got at the rear wheels combined with 100 horse for the turbo system. Well, it doesn't quite equal our

power goals that we want. But remember we're now running mass air and it's infinitely tunable so we can reach into that computer, grab some more power and we should be ok. Now, before we start throwing all this stuff on, we got some housekeeping to do in that transmission so we can tap into that sweet spot of the power. Besides the fact that I think this looks a little bit better than that. Anyway,

when we come back, we'll route the bad air to the turbo to make good air for our small block. Stick around.

You join some,

pushing your shot.

You

have to

replace

him. Hey, get the hell out of here.

Hey, welcome back. Well, they got the truck up on the lift. I can't see what they're doing but, uh,

smelled like they were working pretty hard.

Well, anyway, I got some tools so I can get some work done and check it out. We got a new good Mar cow induction hood to throw on the front end of our 454. Let's see how she looks.

Here you go, Tommy. Thanks.

Well, now that we got the side door lock too, the smell Ryan's referring to is nothing more than a little bit of a TF since Tommy's just got through doing exactly what Ryan did, installing A B and M shift improvement kit into our E 40 D transmission.

Now, one of the issues that you've got with converting a truck like this to mass air is that the speed density engine computer also controlled the transmission. Well, fortunately for us, duri

performance offers a stand alone computer and harness for the E 40 D transmission. So, between this and the shift kit, our transmission shifting issues are fine, but there's still one more thing we gotta do to our tranny before it goes back up in the truck.

And that is thrown in this TCI Saturday night special torque converter. Now, the stock torque converter has about a 1314 100 RPM stall speed, but the TCI unit stalls about 22 to 2400 RPM, which is gonna tap right into that new power that the turbo is gonna make

and all that starts up here with our new hitters.

Now, there's a lot of debate over header gaskets whether you even need them or not, but we're going to use the ones that came with the BBK headers and see how they hold up.

Since we're not changing our pipe diameter much, we're going to reuse the factory down pipes and save some time, then we'll replace the catalytic converters and stay with the stock configuration making room for the two sensors. Of course,

now, with our exhaust system marked up to this point, it's time to think about mounting the turbo. Now, the good thing about a universal kit like we've got is that there's lots of options for location. The best piece of real estate we've got on the truck is right here where the factory muffler was mounted. And since the turbo needs to be shock mounted, like the rest of the exhaust, we're gonna utilize this exhaust hangar. Tommy has got a really good plan for making a bracket

with some 316 inch plates shaped and trimmed down to use the turbo case as a mount. We can use a 38 inch steel rod welded to the factory exhaust hanger and isolator to act as a shock mount for the turbo.

This keeps it tucked up out of sight and eliminates any chance of the wheels, throwing debris up at our ducting or oil line.

Now, way skates function is to help control boost by releasing pressure at a predetermined level and you want as little restriction as possible going into the way skates, we're coming right off our main exhaust trunk into the gate and then using a couple of pieces of scrap tubing that we found in the pile ducting up here and exiting right over top of the axle. Now with the exhaust finished, it's time to route a fresh boosted air on up to the front of the engine

using some of the universal two inch bends that Squires included will come out of the pump and parallel the exhaust for a while.

But we're staying far enough away that we don't get heat soaked and then

cross over to the driver's side right under the transmission tail shaft

and then turning up and back up into the engine bay.

And before we go up, top and finish our duct work on the inland, we'll pop our filter on and we'll make a sheet metal splash here a little bit later on for that

up under the hood. Even with the V8, there's still lots of room to isolate your boost pipes. And since we're losing the factory air box and inlet tube. We've got all that extra room to make an unrestricted bend straight into the air meter and finally into the throttle body.

Now, our mass air meter needs to be mounted where there's the least amount of turbulent air going into it. So this

section of straight pipe right here gives us that

our blow off valve relies on a vacuum source. The easiest place to get vacuum is the intake manifold. So the closer we are to the intake, the quicker our reaction time is. So right about, here's a good spot for the blow off and that gives us this wide open space right here to be able to mount our coolant reservoir and our windshield washer jug too.

After the break. Ryan figures out something's up. I see a blow off valve.

You convert the

mass air. Yep,

I see regular headers.

Where are you hiding the turbo? You're gonna like this.

Ok. You can come in.

All right.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. Now, obviously, Kevin must be just about finished with what he's working on. Check out my new cow induction hood. Speaking of hoods, see what Kevin's got underneath his,

I'd say that's one fancy cold air set up, but I see a blow off valve.

Did you convert to mass

mass air? Yep.

I see regular headers.

Where are you hiding the turbo? You're gonna like this?

Well, I still don't see a turbo. We'll get to that. But check this out, we got the stock down pipes coming into two catalytic converters. So now we can actually drive this thing legally. You mean to tell me you got rid of that great looking free flowing exhaust system, sadly, yeah, it's gone. But there's more good stuff back here

from the cats. We go into a wire pipe and then into a three inch pipe all the way back here to what we've all been waiting for the turbo which is mounted right where the stock exhaust was. We took advantage of all that great space exhaust itself goes up over the axle waste gate dumps over top. And right here is the Turbo inlet filter,

oil pressure line, oil return line of the pump itself. Now, the charge there, we've got going over here and across to isolate it for heat and then back up to under the hood, which you've already seen. It looks pretty good. How much

is it gonna make? Uh, we're gonna shoot for five pounds. We got the option for a little bit more. If we need it,

you're gonna need it.

Well, where do you think that's gonna put you power wise? Well, with five pounds of boost are BBK headers and throttle body plus mass air conversion that can adapt to pretty much anything on paper. It's looking like about 400 horse that's not too shabby. I know you don't want to run a boosted engine lien what are you doing for fuel? I was talking to a guy named Rusty Barris on the National Lightning Owners Club for him. And he was talking about these gen one trucks having dual fuel tanks and each tank has its own pump. So you can electronically wire them together and almost double your fuel flow. But since we're using BBK headers and throttle body anyways, they sent along an in line pump that should take care of us. Cool. Well, you know, I like a turbo engine. You gotta give me the keys once in a while. Swap keys. All right.

Hey, if you've got an OSE

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Now, it's hard to walk into our shop or any other shop for that matter and not find cans of WD 40 everywhere, but we're constantly losing the little red straw. Well, that won't ever happen again. Thanks to WD 40 smart straw can.

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Now, if this isn't enough for you, WD 40 also has their new big blast can that can cover large areas and do it rather quickly.

WD Forty's big blast and smart straw cans can be found just about anywhere. You buy your auto parts. Thanks for watching trucks. See you guys next week.