My Ford svt lightning 5.4 supercharged v8
Discussion
I've wanted a red Ford SVT Lightning for around 8 years, but I never seemed to find the right one.
At one point I thought I'd found it in Leeds, but after digging into the MOT history and finding evidence of welding repairs and missing parts, I decided to walk away. It was disappointing at the time, but looking back it was definitely the right decision.
Then this one popped up for sale in Ireland. To be honest, I nearly missed it because, in my opinion, it was poorly advertised. The photos weren't great, the advert didn't really do the truck justice, and I suspect a lot of people simply scrolled past it. Luckily, I looked a bit deeper.
It had a great history file, plenty of receipts, and some decent upgrades already fitted, including a quality stereo installation. The more I looked into it, the more I realised this was probably the truck I'd been waiting 8 years to find.
The trip home was a bit of a mission: taxi, flight, taxi, train, taxi, then finally behind the wheel for the drive to the ferry and back home to the UK. By the time I got it home, I already knew I'd bought the right truck.
Since then, I've overhauled the entire brake system. What amazed me was being able to order parts from the USA and have them arrive within 3 days. For a 26-year-old American performance truck, parts availability has been far better than expected.
For the first few weeks everything seemed perfect. Then came a slight bottom-end rattle...
That's the reality of owning older performance vehicles. Rather than patching it up, the plan now is to pull the engine and carry out a full rebuild, giving me the chance to go through everything properly and make sure it's right for years to come.
I keep telling myself it's a fantastic truck, despite the fact I've only owned it a short while and it's already asking for an engine rebuild! ? But that's all part of the fun of owning an older performance vehicle. If it was sensible, I'd probably be driving something else.
I'll be keeping a blog of the engine removal and rebuild process, so anyone interested in these trucks can follow along, offer advice, laugh at my mistakes, and hopefully watch the Lightning come back stronger than ever.
After waiting nearly 8 years to find the right red SVT Lightning, it's definitely not going anywhere.
Sometimes the best vehicles are the ones hiding in bad adverts.
At one point I thought I'd found it in Leeds, but after digging into the MOT history and finding evidence of welding repairs and missing parts, I decided to walk away. It was disappointing at the time, but looking back it was definitely the right decision.
Then this one popped up for sale in Ireland. To be honest, I nearly missed it because, in my opinion, it was poorly advertised. The photos weren't great, the advert didn't really do the truck justice, and I suspect a lot of people simply scrolled past it. Luckily, I looked a bit deeper.
It had a great history file, plenty of receipts, and some decent upgrades already fitted, including a quality stereo installation. The more I looked into it, the more I realised this was probably the truck I'd been waiting 8 years to find.
The trip home was a bit of a mission: taxi, flight, taxi, train, taxi, then finally behind the wheel for the drive to the ferry and back home to the UK. By the time I got it home, I already knew I'd bought the right truck.
Since then, I've overhauled the entire brake system. What amazed me was being able to order parts from the USA and have them arrive within 3 days. For a 26-year-old American performance truck, parts availability has been far better than expected.
For the first few weeks everything seemed perfect. Then came a slight bottom-end rattle...
That's the reality of owning older performance vehicles. Rather than patching it up, the plan now is to pull the engine and carry out a full rebuild, giving me the chance to go through everything properly and make sure it's right for years to come.
I keep telling myself it's a fantastic truck, despite the fact I've only owned it a short while and it's already asking for an engine rebuild! ? But that's all part of the fun of owning an older performance vehicle. If it was sensible, I'd probably be driving something else.
I'll be keeping a blog of the engine removal and rebuild process, so anyone interested in these trucks can follow along, offer advice, laugh at my mistakes, and hopefully watch the Lightning come back stronger than ever.
After waiting nearly 8 years to find the right red SVT Lightning, it's definitely not going anywhere.
Sometimes the best vehicles are the ones hiding in bad adverts.
Edited by mk85 on Sunday 7th June 15:09
Nice 
where are you based? I bought my own in January this year after wanting one since I was 12 (yes because of the fast and the furious).
Mines currently in the garage trying to trace a vacuum leak appears to be from the plenum hopefully new gasket and it’s all good.
Also has several other ‘quirks’ that need sorting but as you say all part of the fun!
Get nothing but good attention though people seem to like them and they sound great don’t they
Here’s mine after a good detail and ceramic coating.
where are you based? I bought my own in January this year after wanting one since I was 12 (yes because of the fast and the furious).Mines currently in the garage trying to trace a vacuum leak appears to be from the plenum hopefully new gasket and it’s all good.
Also has several other ‘quirks’ that need sorting but as you say all part of the fun!
Get nothing but good attention though people seem to like them and they sound great don’t they
Here’s mine after a good detail and ceramic coating.
I'm sure you will love it, I've had mine a couple of years now & daily drive it.
It's needed a bit of work here and there to make it perfect.
I've replaced the cam chains, tensioners, waterpump, all of the pulleys, front brake calipers and fitted a steering damper which makes it steer a lot nicer.
Getting rid of the massive viscous fan for electric ones and an uprated, faster shifting transmission valve block are both good mods which I've also done.
I'd recommend you do the "turkey pan mod" with an oil separator to minimise oil build up in the inlet manifold and clean the chargecooler whilst you are in there.
Feel free to message me if you need any help, I know these things pretty well now.
It's needed a bit of work here and there to make it perfect.
I've replaced the cam chains, tensioners, waterpump, all of the pulleys, front brake calipers and fitted a steering damper which makes it steer a lot nicer.
Getting rid of the massive viscous fan for electric ones and an uprated, faster shifting transmission valve block are both good mods which I've also done.
I'd recommend you do the "turkey pan mod" with an oil separator to minimise oil build up in the inlet manifold and clean the chargecooler whilst you are in there.
Feel free to message me if you need any help, I know these things pretty well now.
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