Ford F-150 Lightning Nitrous Install - Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

Once the switch was in place, Specter ran the wiring to the engine bay, then he and Shaun made sure that when the truck was at wide-open throttle, the switch was working.

Once the dash bezel was back on, Specter got underneath the dash to install the wide-open throttle switch (see arrow). The switch operates in a similar manner to the brake-light activation switch in that it's positioned behind the main post of the pedal. When the throttle is planted wide open, the post pushes in the plunger of the switch and activates the nitrous system if the circuit is complete and the power switch to the system is on.

To make installing the nozzle easier, Specter removed the cold-air intake on the Fridge. A hole had to be drilled and tapped in the inlet tube of the Whipple supercharger, and it would be easier with the cold-air intake out because of the extra room to work.

With the cold-air intake out of the way, it was time for Shaun to drill and tap the hole for the nozzle. First and foremost, stuff a rag down the inlet tube to the blower, then place tape (sticky side up) around the area where you plan to drill the hole, both inside and outside of the inlet tube. You definitely don't want a small piece of aluminum to make its way into the blower case. With only around 10-thousandths of an inch clearance between the blower rotors, even a small sliver of aluminum will stop the blower from spinning.

Once Shaun had the hole drilled, he cleaned it out, ran it with a tap, and screwed in the nozzle. Notice he wrapped tape around the threads of the nozzle to seal it in the hole. One more thing-do not forget to carefully remove the tape and rag. As added insurance, Shaun put a rag over the mouth of the inlet tube and blasted the area with compressed air to get all of the shavings out of there.

The positioning of the nozzle is crucial to optimum performance. There is an orifice for the nitrous to come out on the other side of the nozzle as it is positioned in the photo. You want that orifice to face downstream; this way, the incoming air charge carries the nitrous with it toward the blower. If the orifice is facing the opposite direction, it will spray the nitrous against the incoming air charge, which will not help it blend properly with the incoming air stream.

Finally, we had to hook up the hot leads to the solenoids and purge, along with the appropriate grounds. Shaun tapped into the fuse block to hook up the hot leads and had an auxiliary ground wire mate to the ground wires from the solenoids. The ground wires were then promptly bolted to the fender. When the final electrical connections were made, he shortened the supplied stainless feed lines and linked them from the solenoids to the nozzle and to the holes he drilled and tapped in both fuel rails. When everything was finished, Shaun took the bottle to be filled while Jim D'Amore came up with the appropriate tune for the ECM. When the tune was loaded, the truck was started and readied for a future shot at the Dynojet chassis dyno.

We called Nitrous Express and asked them to send us all the parts and pieces we'd need to juice up the Fridge. The company sent its Ford EFI kit (PN 20922-15, photo 1) that comes with a 15-pound unfilled nitrous bottle, solenoids, and all of the wiring, plumbing, and hardware needed to hook it up. The kit is good for a shot of juice between 50 and 150 hp.

In addition, we ordered Nitrous Express' GenX-2 accessory kit (PN GENX-2, photo 2), which came with the purge kit, automatic bottle heater, fuel-pressure safety switch, pressure gauge, and NHRA-approved pressure-release fitting and blow-down tube, along with all of the necessary hardware.