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Boost Intentions Lightning swap!

OK guys has anyone ever heard of or seen a 2nd gen Lightning motor stuffed into a 2nd gen Ex or even 1st gen Ex?

I'll give you a quick run down of the end goal. 1st gen frame swapped under my 2nd gen for ease of stock width SAS, but that leaves the 4.0 and well lets be serious...I don't want a failure prone motor that makes no power, if i'm gunna have a vulnerable power plant it had better at least make some power. I have a complete 2nd gen Lightning motor with a busted valve cover and a couple bent pullies I picked up from an assumed crack head for "CHEAP". I won't tell you how much because I don't want any hate mail but lets just say you could spend more on a good night of drinking.
I just can't help but think that my 2nd gen SAS would be the perfect home for it. I want to wheel it a little nothing crazy and I want it to drive down the road and not shake, rattle, and roll. I also want to be able to melt the tires for a couple of gears if the mood strikes me.

So.. my question is here is will it fit and how hard is it gonna be? I am willing to cut and move anything that would potentially obstruct this process as long as it won't be an absolute detriment to the derivable highway safety of the vehicle. also smog and emission constraints are not an issue where i live.

Next question. If it were your build "all things considered" what transmission would you run and why? Because I'm completely on the fence about it...

Thanks fellas and FYI this is as of now a hypothetical build so creativity isn't frowned upon.
 



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Are you talking a 351 or a 5.4 supercharged? If 351 then yeah, that's doable. If your talking 5.4 your talking some serious fab work (motor mounts, headers, oil pan ect.) deleting a/c and clearancing the firewall. The 5.4 is so wide each valve cover will be close to touching your coil buckets. Anything can be done with time and money though.

Judging by your sig I would do the 5.4 swap to your mustang, and throw the small block out of that in the explorer
 






Well I did some snooping and custom headers are a duh, and firewall fab is a must and obviously mounts, but other than that it should fit. The coil buckets can be moved down if that becomes an issue as it will get lifted anyways. I'm not cutting up my 60k mile mint 95GT. If I were to do anything to that it would be a termi swap, but my 200k 95EX can get cut, hacked, bashed and beaten into submission.... don't care the body is straight and the dash and paneling are 7 out of 10 but the drive train is garbage minus the 8.8 which will be kept and rebuilt.
 






It won't be a DD just a fun wagon...
 






It can be done with time.....3" body lift will be a must. I almost went for a 4.6 in my Ranger but I didn't want to ditch a/c or make a custom steering shaft. Also log style headers are about all that will fit and only if you get rid of the stock shock towers and use a steering box outside the frame for your sas. I am basing my info off a 2nd gen front chassis though.
 






well the ford lightning bolt is a ranger with a lightning motor in it built by svt and it doesn't have a body lift but it is lowered 2 inches and they modified the front suspension. I'm not sure what they did but the point is they did it with out notching the frame and they used a stock height hood however they did use a custom blower inlet for the 112. which i want to tig a custom freer flowing inlet for the 112 anyway so this is doable. They did cut the firewall and tunnle tho....
 






I have heard of a Ford Ranger thunderbolt and it's just an appearance package. Never seen one with a 5.4 in it, please post a pic or link.
 






Google it. It isn't hard to find, the lightning bolt is a lightning rear end shortened, lightning tranny, motor and custom headers built in house by svt, the firewall is cut and moved, and custom motor mounts were made in house, the goal was to build a performance ranger using off the shelf parts already available from ford.
 












Well damn. I'm pretty sure by the pic that the lower cross member had been modified. You can tell because the truck as a whole doesn't sit that low and the lower control arms go up in angle.
 






Well damn. I'm pretty sure by the pic that the lower cross member had been modified. You can tell because the truck as a whole doesn't sit that low and the lower control arms go up in angle.
They said they lowered it all 2" to clear the hood..
 






cowl hood is cool with me. Thinking bout selling lightning motor to buy an ls2 to cram in it instead...its way smaller and way stronger and makes tons of power with simple bolts ons..not to mention a hair dryer.
 






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