Hi Guys, this is not Cougar related but i would be great-full for some input.
I am considering buying a 2000 F150 lightning with moderately high milage.
Does any one have an opinion on these trucks and what should i look for, good or bad ? 
Yes. Make sure it didn’t overheat. Have any of the spark plugs blown out? Did they use a cheap spark plug thread fix.
Is is it factory pulleys on the supercharger/crank? Any mods?
I had a 2003 f150 Harley edition with the blown 5.4. It was a beast. 5200lbs running 13.23 Qtr mile with 16lb boost. It had waaay more to go. I should’ve bought slicks, but didn’t have any use for them.
A lightning is an easy way to hit 12s. Very consistent.
The owner says the engine is stock, but he’s only had it 2 years from being imported to N Z,
is this likely to make it to 200,000 miles with out issues…
The truck and motor itself are solid, I have always wanted one myself.
The issue tends to be with the life the lived, seems like most now days got hammered on pretty hard or some kid tosses on a tuner and pulley with nothing else and takes it to the street races.
Worst part of the engine is the cylinder heads. 97-2000 didn’t have enough threads put in for the spark plugs. If you over boost it, they can blow out, literally. This engine requires at least 93 octane.
If it’s all stock, cool!
True, but the triton series all had issues with the plugs coming out of the heads. Alot of times caused from a over torque/under torque during sparkplug replacements or lack of replacement. Also 5.4s they had a pretty nasty oil leak from the headgaskets during those years. It was later corrected with a design change
We have 95 & 98 octane gas here in NZ
were was the head gasket leaks ?
any were else to look at ?
How long do the long life spark plugs last, are they under the injector coils ?
they would leak externally towards the rear of the engine
plugs typically last about 90k. I always recommended changing them on tritons around 60k and yes they reside under the coil packs
The plugs are a PITA to change with the blower. Once you have the 10mm screw out of the coil packs, do not put them back in on some of the packs. One of the packs will require a real interesting setup to get to it. I recall using 1/4 in sockets with a universal, “wobble “ extensions (short and long), that’s for the coil pack, then the spark plug…once you find the correct setup for it, take a pic! Or, remove the blower. The head gaskets are different on the blower engines, I’ve never heard of one blowing. I used a Diablsprt tuner with Accel coil packs, TRK spark plugs, easy change top and lower pulley from Lightning Force Performance, C&L intake, Accufab wide mouth throttle body, BBK cold air intake, LFP water to air inter cooler, inter cooler cooling fans, Ford Taurus electric fan, cat delete, snow injection
I still got 15 mpg.
you do want to put back those 7mms that hold in the coil packs, if not they will eventually cause a misfire or damaged boot. The hard one to get too is under the fuel pressure regulator towards the rear of the engine. using 1/4 drive socket wobbles is the key.
The headgaskets wouldnt blow in the typical sense just cause an sizable external oil leak. It was only a particular build date range but something too look for. If I recall there was a tsb for it back in the day.
What is the beginners guide to initial performance upgrades,
reliability is absolutely first priority !
Is head gasket replacement just a possibility or a probability, and is it simple to do for a reasonably competent mechanic ,as we wouldn’t have much experience with this motor down this end of the world ??
Its only a possibility depending on the build date of the vehicle. Ford revised the gaskets around mid 2000 IIRC. I can actually run the vin through the ford system and look for tsbs related to the issue to see if your particular engine is affected or not. This will also give me warranty history(if any) but not anything performed outside of the warranty date or any service records.
05/00
2FTZF073XYCA90963
made in Canada.
Many thanks 
Go to lightning force performance. Start with a lower pulley, tuner, coooler plugs, thermostat. They should have a package with all those included. I prefer a lower pulley, the upper requires a special remover.
Just the boost increase will be felt in the seat of your pants. Nothing like the whine of the blower. Add a nice exhaust, call it done. All very safe mods. Should be about 10lb boost. Plenty!!! Don’t for get a new set of tires 
Build date is May 2000 and sold in July of 2000. I can not confirm selling dealer but based on the history it appears it was sold from Maguire Ford in Pennsylvania. History shows it had a door ding removed before the sale date so most likely this is the dealer that sold it. After that All other repairs had been at a few dealers in California up until December 2006 at 59k miles which is when the extended ESP warranty ran out and no other history behind that time. Its possible you could contact those dealers with the vin number and check for any customer pay service history, some customers will tend to come back after warranty expires for oil changes and such. I can get you the dealer names if desired.
Warranty history has several small things, mostly trim issues, ignition key sticking, weather strip flaws, a couple small recalls, door lock issue, vacuum leak etc.
However the notable repair here is a blown out spark plug on cylinder 3 at 29666 miles in July of 2004. The good news is it got a new cylinder head and not a in vehicle thread repair. The engine would have been removed to replace the head. This was the standard repair when the vehicle was under warranty since ford did not authorize the use of the thread repair kits. However IIRC there was not much of an design change with the new heads.
There is an open recall for fuel tank strap inspection/replacement. The recall number is 11S21
More good news is this one is not affected by the the cylinder head/ head gasket leaks. There are TSBS on this issue with several types of repairs ranging from just a head gasket to a complete cylinder head. The only affected engines are built at the Romeo plant so I checked the build sheet to confirm this engine was manufactured at the Ontario Plant so these issues would not apply.
Hope that helps some. Not much in the terms of helping know its history on the last 3/4 of its life but this might give you some insight on the early days.
The fuel strap recall is to inspect for rust and replace as necessary. My F150 had a strap break before the recall was issued years ago.
Mike
WOW, you guys amaze me how much info you can find on any cars…!
Its really interesting stuff, many thanks …