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In this video, I tear down my Ford F-150 SVT Lightning engine and found something very unexpected. The mystery of this engine continues as I reveal its history and we dig deep to find date codes and updated parts! Enjoy!
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Hey guys welcome back to legit street cars and welcome to the tear down of our 5.4 liter supercharged svt lightning engine in this video. Oh, look at this. That's nice might be why we have so much oil in the intake, but anyway, in this video, we're gon na completely tear down this engine and get to the bottom of what's going on with the cylinder heads does it have one new head? Are they the eight thread? Are they the four thread? What happened to the head, gaskets, we're tearing it all down and we're probably gon na find a lot of stuff to replace while we're in there like this hose ford. What kind of design were you going for here? So a torn pcb hose at the top no big deal, but look at where this thing leads.

This is a horrible design. This is all mushy. If this failed with the cabin engine put together, be a total nightmare to replace and wow look at all the oil that came out of that line just by disconnecting it. This is really bad.

I'm thinking catch can and look at all the oil. That's in the throttle body too, this could follow our plugs. This is just no good, no good at all. This wasn't even making a proper seal, and we have this much oil in the intake, all right, i'm done ripping on ford's pcv system.

Here we got to get straight to work tearing this engine apart and if you like, an automotive youtube channel that works on cars and gets straight to working on cars, then consider subscribing to the channel. I was looking at analytics and only 37 of you who consistently watch my videos are subscribed. So if you have a free one, second hit the subscribe button, this channel could be a lot bigger um, but anyway, with that, i think we should just start at the top all right. So i already have the exhaust manifolds off and we have this egr tube right here - that i'm going to want to remove here from the intake - and you guys know - i'm a big fan of using penetrating oil, pretty much everywhere on these midwest vehicles.

Although this one's in pretty good shape but better safe than sorry, you know those exhaust manifold bolts came out real nice and easy, though so we'll probably be okay smooth like butter, oh and we got peter back today, all right. So i like putting bolts right back where they belong, although i'm going to consider an egr delete since we're going to be doing the long tube headers on this. So let's just get rid of this. Look at that goodbye wow that that right away just kind of cleans up this whole area.

What else do we have that we can get rid of all right? So it looks like here is our controller for the egr system uh it's attached to this bracket! That has two other solenoids um a sensor and we're gon na remove this whole bracket. I think in one shot, so let's start disconnecting, and i have taken pictures of everything i do that before i start tearing any engine apart, especially if you're waiting on parts for a couple of weeks, you will forget - and you want to get the routing of all This kind of stuff perfect, so it doesn't look like a hack job under the hood, and sometimes it's just like. Does this run over here or does it run under here? You know little stuff like that little details. If you can get that right, it's just that.
Much better of a job there's our vacuum line, going to the fuel pressure regulator, then we have this whole entire system right here. These are all in excellent condition by the way good job ford. If this was a european car, these would all be brittle and cracking all over the place, so bad pcv, good, good vacuum lines, looks like just a couple of thirteens. Look at that wow that's clean, i kind of wish we could get rid of all this stuff.

All right, then, we're putting all these parts in order on the table from when we took them off. So these are the first parts we took off and then, as we go further on down the table. Eventually, we'll have cylinder heads over in this area here and then that way when we're going back together, that's the first stuff that goes on and we know to go down the table. Nuts and bolts are getting labeled in whatever kind of bag we can find fan shroud because you got to stay organized my bedroom when i was growing up, not not organized at all but engines.

That's that's where it clicked for me seriously ford great job on the vacuum connections. Not everything you build is built for tough, but this is ford tough. This is great all right. Next up we're gon na remove this upper plenum and you can leave this on with the supercharger, but i may send the supercharger out to get ported and at the very least, if i don't do that, i want to replace this gasket just because it's probably really Old, that's easy! This is crazy guys.

Let me know in the comment section: if you have an svt lightning, is there this much oil in here wow and is that a bypass valve down there see that guy all right? Let's get this blower off and a couple people had mentioned that it was a lot of work to take the cab off and that you could just do this job with the engine in and you definitely can. But you see, what's going on here, guys like what you're seeing is in pretty real time right now. It's gon na take us, like maybe five minutes, to get the intake and the supercharger off with all the vacuum lines and keeping it nice and organized and not breaking anything. So it took peter - and i like about four hours, maybe with breaking two body bolts - to get the cab off.

So if you have a lift, this is definitely the way to go. That was all the filming stuff too yeah and filming like doubles. The amount of time there's some guys on the forums that can do this in 45 minutes, which i believe once you've done it once or twice all right, so blower's ready to come off. I could probably do this by myself, but when peter's around, it's almost become a tradition where we, you know, lift the blowers off, put them back on together.
How many what how many blowers have we done in the last like 40 days? This will be the third. This will be the third yeah, so we're turning into a supercharger channel. Here i guess: okay uh, it's just stuck on the gasket. Okay, oh wait a minute stuck in the gasket or someone forgot about peter, come on dude! That's! What's nice working with someone, you could just blame them.

Okay, now it's the gasket. Did i get all the bolts? Oh wait! No! No! I didn't. I forgot another one. Oh we're gon na have to edit this out or leave it in we'll leave it in.

What's the fun of working on cars, i only forgot, like 20 of the blower bolts, that's a passing score. Where i'm from okay there we go pro tip, remove bolts, oh yeah, you got it peter you're man you're, like an acrobat here, good job dude. You do! Your stretches today say hello to my little friend that was funny the amount of oil and garbage that's in here is it's not funny. You know what else isn't funny the fact that two out of three men by the age of 35 experience some form of male pattern: baldness, but that's okay.

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Like myself. Some of you guys in the comments had mentioned, that this was going to need a cleaning and just look at this so nasty. This cannot be good for performance at all, so we'll definitely be cleaning the intercooler and the intake and everything all right. We're moving straight along here.

I want to get this intake manifold off and i'm getting progressively more scared as we go along to see what we're gon na find all right there, we go. Okay, all right peter here you are so we're gon na take the fuel rail off with the injectors and everything so we're just disconnecting all the harnesses right. Now, our injector harnesses right here and let's just hit these coil ones too. We got ta, get the power steering reservoir bracket out of the way.
I'd say these fine-tooth sonic ratcheting wrenches are a lifesaver, so good, i got ta say guys this uh, this ain't, no ls all right! This ain't, no ls! This is very difficult to work on compared to an ls, i mean look, what we got to do just to get the valve cover off, there's no room whatsoever like if this was in the cab. This looks like a total nightmare just to remove the valve cover. I love svt lightnings, but uh. I don't know if we can trick ourselves into thinking that this in any way shape or form was better than an ls.

Just i don't think i could do it all right. Let's get these harnesses out of the way. That's beautiful! This guy out of the way too, look at this look at this coil right here i mean come on all right, so we should be able to get this out because it's kind of flexible yeah, whatever i'm probably going to do new, wires and whatnot on this Anyway and half of these coils are excel, half of them are something else, either factory or aftermarket, and wait till you see these spark plugs. Let's just again again ford ford come on dude ridiculous, no problem ford with the engine in the cab i'll just spend three hours getting this one coil out, i'm just exaggerating for it guys simmer down.

I know you can do this coil in three minutes, because you've just been working on lightnings for the last 20 years. There we go okay, all right, so we got ta pop these fuel rails off, and that requires a special tool. That's in there there we go and pushes this little spring clip inside and in case you guys are wondering yes, these connection points are supposed to have something like this: that kind of locks it on, but they weren't on there. So apparently you don't need these, we'll.

Definitely be putting them back, though, all right, there's the other one cool there we go, so i might replace the thermostat again. If it's all crusty look rusty, it doesn't look promising yeah, it's not good alternator bracket. Alright intake is about ready to come off. It's going to soak these bolts for a few minutes.

Oh yeah! These are real, real nice and easy. Normally, you don't need penetrating oil on intake manifold bolts, oh and if any of you lightning guys or ford guys, are offended by me, making fun of the difficulty of getting to certain things on this engine. Don't worry, i make fun of everything, i'm an ls guy. I'm a mercedes guy.

I literally make videos on factory defects from all of the companies, so i'm an equal opportunity roaster, i roast them all, but i also give credit to where credit is due. These things sound, absolutely amazing. The transmissions were okay and obviously the looks. This is an iconic truck.

I mean i love the lightning i paid like 19 grand from a bad head, gaskets all right, i'm invested for sure this is a dream truck of mine flaws or not. It is so nice working on an engine like this. Let me tell you: what do we have? Things are so crusty. I cleaned these up too a few videos ago, and this thermostat has already been replaced.
I'm sure it's fine, i'm just hoping. We don't see a lot of this nastiness inside of the coolant jackets of the block. All right, you ready for this peter, i don't know. Did you get all the bolts out on your set um? I got at least 80 of them out, so we should be all right.

Oh look at that. I learned i learned from my mistake all right, um here, i'll get it. I got it. I got ta, be pretty easy path out here, not too bad.

Okay. This is heavy all right. Here's what lies beneath the intake looks like we have a pistachio that a rodent friend didn't know how to properly open and just chewed through the side, but you never thought you were going to be cracked in half like that. Pistachio shell.

All right going a little crazy here. Here's our knock sensor and um nice gasket wow. This is sweet, oh and a random nut, an old nut! That's about to fall into our cylinder! Be careful guys! Look at that! No idea what this is for, but uh apparently someone's been in here before all right. Let's take a look at some of these valves that looks very shiny.

Wow. Are you kidding me that is the cleanest valve outside of a brand new valve i've ever seen so right now we're on the driver's side. This is the head that was stamped with the o3. That i suspected might have been replaced and are you kidding me that looks perfect wow literally all the valves look brand new here's another one amazing now something i did figure out from the last video was someone saw the vin somewhere in one of my videos.

I guess um and they ran the vent at the ford dealership and the engine was replaced, but it was back in 2002 at 409 miles. The complaint was a noise and it was coming from the bottom end and ford just replaced the entire engine. So it does have a new engine, but you know within months of it being delivered originally back in 2002. So i don't have any other warranty history past that as to a head being replaced um but uh yeah.

This is getting kind of weirder as we go along. These valves should definitely not be that clean. I mean, i know it's not direct injected, it's port injected, but still these seriously look just shiny and new all right guys. We are going to bore a scope.

I want to show you how clean these valves are there we go. You might want to clean off your face, get a little bit of war paint. I don't know that better good yeah, no, whatever i'm a mechanic, all right, it happens there we go. That was pretty bad, i mean look at the guide, it just looks freshly machined and the valve itself is so clean, even if we go up close, there's, basically, no deposits whatsoever and here's another valve every single one of these is just as clean as the next And so are the intake runners.

I wouldn't even need to do any cleaning at all. Look at this all right guys. Next up, we got ta, remove all of these accessories off of the front of the engine, including this gigantic bracket. Here with our pulleys this one's.
This one's pretty satisfying it's like it's a big chunk to remove it's gon na look like we did a lot a lot of work like this yeah, so it's um, righty, loot, it's righty, loosey, lefty tidy and that yup there you go good job, peter he's. So good he's so good, oh and also peter um, remove all the nuts. No, i i we only do 80 of them right. Well, yeah, but i mean most of the time it works a little bit better.

If you remove all of them, i'm not doing the alex method. No, no! No we'll do the we'll do the peter method. This is a very beefy tensioner. I got ta say credit where credit to do good job.

Ford, hey it's made in canada. What do you know about that? You know that's accurate canadians, you know it. Oh yeah, good job, dude, oh with the light behind you, it's it's like you just came down from heaven. I think we only have two tens for the alternator.

That's fancy look at that. They make it wow ford, ford, great job on the bottom of the alternator, phenomenal work and here's what our table of parts is looking like so far, we're about to bump up a step here to this one, but we're getting there we're getting there we're gon na Rip off all these accessories, we got a front timing cover we got valve covers. We got heads yeah, oh, this is really nice top dead center. I think that says before top dead center 10 degrees or something i don't know we'll clean these up.

Oh and look at that looks like we're pretty close too see a little notch right there i got ta say this is a pretty large engine, i'm definitely thinking we should get rid of the clutch van. Let's get an electric fan. That is one modification. I definitely like making cause.

Not only does the clutch fan rob you of power, it sounds horrible. You want to actually hear the engine, not a bunch of wind. This is ah there we go. Okay, ah, is our bigger crank, pulley in the way it is okay.

So this is actually a larger crank. Pulley for more boost come on now shoot me off peter get a hand on there. There we go. Oh, what guys does it take to get a lightning bouncer on we're not to involve any tools here peter? We must just continue to do what we're doing the entire time.

Okay, all right, maybe we need a pry bar yeah, all right, almost look, okay, all right! We did it all right. So with that out of the way we can do. One of these i said with that out of the way we can do one. Oh, don't embarrass me, water pump, pulley.

Ah, all right, so we're gon na get this water pump out of the block. This will begin to tell us how rusted it's going to be inside got a ford stamp on there. So this could be the original water pump. Yes, ah there it is it's a boy.
This is one beefy water pump. Man like this thing is, is legit like i could i'm gon na get a couple of these and it'd be cheaper than getting dumbbells? This is in great shape, though no play whatsoever. I don't know if i'm gon na replace this probably gon na, replace it yeah. Okay, but the coolant doesn't look too bad check this out.

Yeah i mean we flushed it like 50 times, so it's not horrible. All right, let's get some valve covers off. I have to move this dipstick out of the way and i already got the transmission one out of the way all right, driver side valve cover coming off. All right looks like they did.

Oil changes looks really good. Super clean, beautiful, cams look to be in great shape, awesome. Okay, so i forgot. I wanted to pull the plugs this one here.

I have not broken this free. It was this loose that is bad, so where's the threads coming out of this guy, and is that why it's loose, i thought it was just really loose like i was spinning the plug, but i'm not, i think, someone just mangled this thing like this guy goes In here and it locks in in here, it doesn't in here there's no spark plug okay. I took that one out, but in here yeah it locks into all right. Well, we don't have to take the plugs out right now.

I just wanted to make it easier to spin the motor over so we'll figure out what's going on there after we get the head off. So let's just take out as many as we can. We were getting a misfire from one bad plug before and i didn't swap the rest of them, but you know the gap's kind of big on there and just overall, just nasty nasty spark plugs. Oh yeah, all right, they're water cooled spark plugs.

Oh this one's nice! Look at that, oh that's, the one! I replaced! That's the one that was misfiring in that video, so that's new, okay, so we'll mess with timing. Obviously, when we're going back together, but i just kind of want to get it close and so see where we at top dead center. Okay, that is not where we need to be. We need to go around one more time: okay, so that is top dead center right here with that mark and yeah we're looking good so just generally speaking, uh, this camshaft sprocket should be in the 11 o'clock position, and this one, i think they said, is supposed To be at the one o'clock, we'll verify this, obviously, but at least we're in the ballpark right now or exactly where it needs to be all right.

Next up we have the harmonic balancer, which looks to be in great shape. You can see. The rubber here is intact, not coming out like a lot of the mercedes i work on, so we had to get a little creative here with our puller because it didn't have the right bolts. So i found three different bolts that i'd laying around the shop some random washers, which are actually just nuts to space that out and yeah.

This should work all right. So now we just need to turn this guy. Here there we go just popped, that's probably hard to see on camera, but this is pulling out a little bit from the timing cover. So we'll see more space in between here.
I've got the power stance going on here, brace myself. There we go there, we go. The balancer is off all right. Let's get this huge hose out of the way i'll just shimmy this guy right down here for now just want to get good access to the power steering pump.

I got the last bolt here for the power steering pump all right get this out of the way, all right guys. So i took the four bolts from the bottom that attached the oil pan to the front timing cover out already and now we just need to remove the rest of the bolts to get this gigantic thing off, and this is definitely something you're going to want to Pay attention to because looks like we have normal washers and in some cases, some spacers, so we're just going to leave this stuff where it came from for now, and i like to literally put stuff right back just so we don't have to think about it later And these guys down here are 22 mils, so we're dealing with 13s, 18s and 22s for the front timing cover all right. That's the last one. I know i got them all this time.

This thing is ready to just fall out of here there we go nice and easy. This is a really nice seal, so we don't have to deal with scraping off any gasket or anything. That is awesome. I love when they do that.

Another good job, ford, you're, gon na end up cursing or thinking more at the end of this video um. I think i'm gon na end up cursing forward more, not because anything is like a total nightmare, but it's just gon na be more like. Why did you do that like why you could have made it much easier? So just looking on the guides here - and we can see the manufacturing date december of 2001. so original for sure this one is one of 2002 slightly newer, but yeah overall, in really good shape.

Nothing is cracked. This is beautiful. I know a lot of audi volkswagens bmws that would kill to have these guides after 21 years. These are in great condition.

Another one ford another one you're doing you're doing pretty good at this point, all right, the coils get in the way of stuff, not cool. The head, gasket failure, you know, also not cool the egr in the back, not cool the pcb system. That basically doesn't work now cool. I think that's it.

I don't know, name name some more stuff down there. That's that's, not cool that ford has done here. Four. Three, oh, the four threads, the four threads.

That's right, bad idea, ford you'd only been building engines for over a hundred years. At this point, why would you go to four threads, especially on the lightning, because they had this issue with the regular non-boosted, tritons and they're? Like, let's strap a supercharger on it and not do anything about the threads for the spark plugs just like they have to know they have to know this stuff is gon na cause an issue right. I mean there's testing like what i don't know anyway, i'm just a mechanic, so i'm really curious to see the condition of these guides once we get them off to see if the chain wore into them at all. That was kind of an issue with these, and these chain tensioners also had an oil leaking issue as well, but i wasn't experiencing any issues with this engine, no weird noises or anything like that, so they should be good at this point.
Let's take this guy off right here and something to note is this: keyway right here on the crank is right at the 12 o'clock position. So when we put the balancer on top dead center and got this guy too, roughly the 11 o'clock position in this one to about the one two o'clock position, this goes straight up. So it's just another kind of guide when you're reassembling that this needs to be in the 12 o'clock position when you go back together with the timing chain. But anyway.

At this point, we need to lock our cams in place with this tool that i just picked up off of amazon. Okay, so basically this tool is going to go like so, and then this guy is going to go right here and we have a couple of bolts that are going to go all the way through and thread into the bottom portion. Okay, so we just get them started here by hand like that, and basically these two legs are going to rest on the top of the cylinder head where the valve cover would normally bolt to and then we're just going to go ahead and tighten these down. Okay, that's not cool! This is supposed to clamp down with the bottom one.

We have to get a little creative. This was the uh cheap version of this tool on amazon, so we basically need some washers in there, some big ones so we're just gon na use. Some nuts right here just to space it out, so that is courtesy of the subaru outback project, had some leftover hardware, so we're using it to make our own custom version of this tool. I think this tool was only like 15 or 20 bucks.

It should do the job they have way more expensive versions. That probably don't require you to use two rusted nuts to make it work. But you know it's a budget build all right. Let's snug it up, i'm locking the center of the cam shaft, because we have this lip here that just gives us a little bit more meat for the tool to rest on and the entire reason we're locking the camshaft in the first place is because once we Remove this tensioner here and relieve all of the pressure from the chain, this cam will spring back due to valve spring pressure, and we don't want it to kick back violently and open a valve that shouldn't be open and then also once we get the chain off.

You don't want to spin this cam around, because your valve events in relationship to the piston are going to be way off, so you don't want a piston. That's all the way at top dead center, with valves that are opening when they're not supposed to you, can cause a lot of engine damage that way. So not all engines are set up. Interference like this one, but many of them are interference and we're gon na need that tool when we go to reassemble anyway to hold our camshaft exactly where it needs to be all right.
So we'll just go ahead now and remove these bolts there we go. So if we didn't have that locked, this probably would have skipped back and forth. Yeah. There's no sealant here on some of the newer ones that had a seal that would go bad and leak oil that could cause the chain to slap and destroy the guides.

That was a big issue, but we're good here - and i have noticed a lot of this flaking off look at this. That is basically just paint. It's paint from the cylinder head, that's just kind of coming off, weird all right, so then we can just slide this guide out and this is an excellent condition. So when these wear through you can start to see like black spots - and this one looks great, this is really tiny print, but it says o2 january of 2002..

So this is an original guide. I'm gon na go ahead and say they definitely kept up with their oil changes here all right. So at this point, we're just going to roll this one chain off and we can remove it all right. Let's remove this guide here, 2002 right there and perfect, perfect condition.

Excellent, all right! We're gon na be loosening up head bolts right now and we're going in the reverse torque sequence. So that's ten! This is nine and we have eight up here wow. This is a really easy, i'm not using that long of a half inch ratchet here. These are just really easy to do so.

These have four stages of tightening from what i read and there's angle torques involved. So it's hard to just check the torque on these, but wow these are so loose. You know i had mentioned this in a previous video. I was gon na actually experiment with just tightening the head bolts uh.

Just again i was always gon na. Do the head bolts, but just as an experiment, i didn't do that, but jeez. That is just too easy. Maybe it's your italian power, i mean it could be, but you've been working out.

I don't know i don't know that was that did not feel like four stages of head torque, but i don't know once they're loosened up. We can just go crazy here with the gun and the reason we're following that reverse torque, spec sequence is pretty much the same reason why they're torqued in sequence, to begin with, and that's especially with aluminum heads - you don't want to warp them, so the manufacturer gives You a torque sequence and a torque spec, of course, so you don't mess things up, but anyway, another nice thing with this camshaft holding tool is it's a sweet head holding tool? Okay, yeah! This is we're gon na make a mess, make it a mess. I love aluminum heads they're, so light where's, your problem, yeah yeah right me and peter. We uh, don't really have a lot of time to work out, so we have to use car parts uh.
If you guys follow me on instagram and on facebook, we post up short reels of working out with car parts, so check it out. Would this be a legit street game? This is a legit street gain right here. This is kind of the closed grip, uh curl yeah. Most of this coolant filled in there when we pulled the head.

This isn't actually what happened here with the blown head, gasket um, but let's see if we can figure out what did happen here with this blown head gasket. So a lot of times you can physically see it it's right in front of your face and let's just go around here and feel them and yeah yeah there we go that is your blown head, gasket wow! This is brutal. Look at that! It's completely separated glad we're doing these. That's for sure! Let's take this guy out.

Okay, i'm just checking the surface here on the block. It looks really nice and smooth okay, so nothing was damaged there and we'll suck this coolant out and get a better look at our pistons too. So this is what a head gasket should look like very intact, and this is what it shouldn't look like hello. This is a blown mls head, gasket, multi-layer steel, head gasket, look at that carnage.

This is sweet, wow yeah. So this is a three layer head gasket right here, i'm not going to say it's necessarily the fault of the head gasket. This is probably a decent head. Gasket, it could have been that they weren't torqued down properly.

This also could have been just from a bad tune, so my lightning had a larger crankshaft pulley installed, which increases boost pressure, which also increases temperature, which makes the engine more susceptible to detonation, especially if the tune isn't spot on. If it's not reducing ignition timing like it should uh, this also could have happened because of improper heat range spark plugs. So i think this had the factory heat range spark plugs uh. They were all in pretty rough shape as well, so that can cause a hot spot, especially with the increased temperature from more boost, and that can cause detonation bad fuel can cause detonation um we're running more boost with factory exhaust manifolds, and that creates a lot of Heat as well, so that's why i'm a big fan of long tubes on supercharged applications, so a lot could have gone into this blown head, gasket and no matter what i'm definitely going to get the tune checked after we put everything back together.

So this doesn't happen again so far so good on the block side. But that's to be expected. It is an iron block, but these aluminum heads they can get damaged um. But in this case this is where the head gasket blew.

It seems perfectly fine uh. The combustion chambers all across the board here look to be in great shape, oh and how many threads do we have? This doesn't look like four i'll. Tell you that much one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight eight! We have eight thread heads or one eight thread head, but i'm gon na go ahead and say the other one has eight threads too, because that's the driver side that has the o3 stamped into it, the date code and that's the one that looked like it had. Eight threads and we borescoped it, so we might have already gotten the upgraded heads which this could all make sense, because the person that commented who looked up the vin said that the entire engine was replaced at 400 miles.
But he didn't tell me the date - and this is a 2002. So had this thing sat around at the dealer or they just didn't drive it much in the beginning. It could have been 2003 when they had released the new engines with the new heads and i think, a couple other improvements, so we could have a 2003 lightning engine from the factory in a 2002.. All right guys we're going to suck that cooling out here in a minute and see what's going on with those pistons, but i can't wait.

I want to see how many threads this one has for the spark plugs just to verify. We have two new heads. I already have that cam locked all right, so, let's get our tensioner out of here. There we go and our guide.

That is in excellent condition. If anyone knows this comment down below, but when they fixed the cylinder head issue by adding the eight threads, did they also update the timing chain guides, because these are definitely original and just in great shape? I was not expecting this at all pop this chain off. As well - and we have a ford stamp here on the oil pump thinking about upgrading the oil pump while we're in here so again guys, let me know, what's a good oil pump to get on one of these, or do we just run the factory one and Call it a day and guide number two on this side, a couple of eights and this one's looking pretty too. Let's just see what we can figure out here.

I have my torque wrench set to 60 foot-pounds, all right, so we're getting a click at 60.. Just go up a little bit more here is 70 foot pounds, i'm turning the bolt there, so it's not actually clicking because we've hit the torque. So let's go down to 65. yep, so you figure.

These head bolts are torqued down to about 65 foot pounds um. That does not seem like enough to me. This isn't an exact science, because the torque spec, i believe, is torque it down to 30 and then two 90 degree rotations. These are torque to yield bolts that need to be replaced, but they just they don't feel right to me um, so it's possible that they just weren't torqued down all the way and that's what caused the head gasket issue on that side.

So let's take these off and see what's going on here, i'm curious if we have two blown head gaskets, i have a short 3 8 ratchet here and i'm breaking these free, these middle ones, because this is kind of in the way. So i need something smaller there we go. I don't know why i left the head bolts in that head when i took it off. I was just too excited kind of jump.
The gun there. I normally take the head bolts out before i remove a head, but we got a ton of room here, just gon na leave them in just being impatient all right. So far so good, i like it. Okay, so the head gasket came with the head and uh.

So far, it's looking pretty good in here. Obviously we have a little bit of rust that you can see, but overall, i think we're gon na be okay. I don't think we'd need to send the block out to get cleaned or anything like that, and all this dirt is just for me lifting it off. That's nothing, but the pistons look great block so far looks great.

We still have to get a straight edge on the block and the cylinder heads to be sure um but don't suspect any block issues. That's for sure, and maybe we do some new engine mounts while we're here as well. All right. So here we go here is the head gasket on the driver's side.

I don't know what i want to look at first threads for spark plugs or blown head, gasket carnage. I don't know these are good good problems to have kind of bad problem. These are bad problems. These are bad problems to have um, okay, yeah.

I don't think, there's anything wrong with this head gasket. It looks totally fine. I don't see any spots where it broke free overall, the driver's side is good and again no science to this, but that side did seem slightly tighter than the other side. It took me a little bit more force to break those free.

I still thought it wasn't. As much as it should be, but i'm pretty sure it was torqued a little bit more than the other side um, but anyway we're looking good, let's uh, let's count some threads. All right, i can already tell these - are gon na, be eight thread. One two.

Three: four: five: six seven eight eight thread heads sweet. I'm gon na figure out how to get this spark plug out all right. I got all the coolant out on this side and, as expected, the cylinders look great, no issues at all here with the block. So far, looking really nice, the pistons aren't even that dirty, although you can see the one with the blown head.

Gasket is definitely cleaner than the others, because it was ingesting water and it turns to steam and cleans the carbon off the pistons. So if you have water or methanol injection, you guys know all about that makes your engine look nice and pretty inside, but um yeah we're looking really good here and here's how we're looking as far as parts on the tables there we go. This is it so now, when we go back together, we'll just go back together in reverse order. Heads first timing cover valve covers, and you know, yada yada, all right guys, so we've disassembled the entire engine.

I have a lot of cleaning to do and i have to order a ton of parts, so i'm gon na walk around with a clipboard and piece of paper right now and just write down every tiny little gasket nut bolt whatever that we need to get this Engine completely assembled and drop some comments down below as to some other parts that i should replace, while i'm in there so in the next video we'll start building this thing right back up with some new parts, and i hope all of you will join me for That episode uh, so with that, if you enjoyed this video, give it a big thumbs up share the video with your friends subscribe if you haven't already and most importantly, have an awesome day i'll catch all of you in the next video you.

By Alex

16 thoughts on “I took apart my svt lightning engine found something very unexpected! mystery engine!”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars eidem11 says:

    Funny how early on you say you use a lot of penetrating oil, then proceed to struggle removing pulleys because they were dry. 😉 A bit of WD-40 goes a long way!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Harris says:

    I hated the 5.4 Triton… Such a pain to work on and for its size, kinda under powered… the Lightning version has nice kick with the blower, but the std one, nuh huh…

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DebtLife Projects says:

    Couple things I'll share some input on, been around these trucks for a long time now. Delete that line going from the back of the lower intake that T's into the pcv, it pressurizes the pcv system, and is not helping with the oil your seeing, plus as you saw, it's a major potential vacuum leak and a pain to change in the truck if that happens. So most plug it (the lower intake) with a 3/8 npt plug fitting, and get rid of that line. Then run one line up from your pcv in the valvecover to a catch can (JLT is good), then from catch can to plenum, and you should be good there!

    Sounds about spot on with detonation and making heat. Cooling mods and tune needs to be on point when changing the crank pulley for more boost. I'd at least run a larger heat exchanger (afco is a good one) paired with a larger intercooler tank (LFP megatank is my preference here), and some nice 3/4 lines (get rid of the stock metal intercooler lines, very restrictive). Then of course the right plugs ( ngk tr6 most likely, but get with whoever tunes it) and a proper tune from a Lightning specific tuner. JDM engineering is really good with these trucks, highly recommend talking to them about a tune.

    If you have any questions feel free to dm me on Instagram or Facebook at "DebtLife projects" I can at least point you to some OG Lightning guys and vendors if I can't help ya myself lol ⚡️

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Harris says:

    Ugh, stop peddling the new hair club for men, Keeps… its all snakeoil!!!! There is no magic keep your hair cure.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Harley Heritage Springer says:

    Hey Alex! I've just started watching this video and decided to pause it to comment on what you were saying about the analytics you were looking at…

    So I'm a relatively recent subscriber to your channel, but I've been watching absolutely everything you've put out for the past few years. The thing is, I'm almost never logged into YouTube when I watch your videos, and I always use a VPN. Also, my browser is set up to clear my cookies whenever I close it. I imagine there are a lot of your viewers who do exactly what I do. In other words, I'm a subscriber, but you would have no idea about that by looking at your analytics (except for now, I logged in to "like" & comment!).

    Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Oli_HDZ Hernandez says:

    Can’t believe I used to live so close to you! Wish you could help me fix my ford lol. Love the videos never miss one

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars no longer in use says:

    strange i drive a 19 year old Rover 75 diesel any my vacuum pipes are in perfect condition with 138000 milds on the clock. So even some European cars do have decent tubes.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert Forslund says:

    Not hitting Subscribe and thumbs up when you watch regularly is a pretty shitty thing tto do if you ask me! Go support the channels you like, a sub and thumb up isn't that much to ask tbh! 🤔

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Raven's Repair & Restoration says:

    I've been subscribed since the first amg video with the gold wrap and green accents. Don't know how long that is but Ive watched every video since!

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Samantha Eichhorn says:

    This is a message to all youtube creators. We do not care about your not subscribed viewer to subscribed viewer ratio! 😎✌🏾

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Adam R says:

    I have a Melling high volume in my 5.4L. It's been doing fine for the past 30k miles. FordMakuloco recommends them as well. I'd ARP stud the heads on any supercharged Ford.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Oscar MaGurk says:

    Alex, will an oil catch can be in order? I have one on my 02 4.6 liter and it works pretty well. It catches the junk, and it is nasty. Love the Lighting vids

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jeff Boyer says:

    I know you are fixing the 🌩 ⚡️ but what about the rear window for the Alpina? I don't believe you have ever waited that long for window.
    You should just Ls the lightning you would have been done already!

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Anabel barajas says:

    That head gasket is a physical representation of my brain when trying to learn something new 😂 awesome video Alex!

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Natzoo says:

    I cant watch this video now, I have to wait till tonight. It has to be my reward, but keep up the great long videos man!

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Reggie Reginato says:

    All the oil in the PCV system is a little worrying – the crank case shouldn't be getting that pressurized unless the PCV system isn't working right…Well, okay, seeing the condition of the hoses it for sure wasn't working right…

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