Got $100 for my B-day what do I get?

walter said:

I thought about that but I'm a little concerned about two things.

1. It gets hot down here I'm a little bit concerned about cooling issues that may arise from underdriving the water pump.

2. Balancing issues, I'm going to lighten up the drivetrain a lot (Flywheel, Clutch, and Driveshaft). I heard some horror stories about people getting UDPs with lighter drivetrain throwing the rotating mass in the engine out of balance and causing a disaster.

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Let me see if I can shed some light on this one for you....

1. I have yet to see a Modular overheat with under drive pulleys. It may have been an issue with the old Fox Body cars, but the S197's with their more modern cooling system and generous radiator surface area doesn't seem to suffer at all from this. Besides, if worse comes to worse, you could always swap out your stock 192-deg thermostat for a 180-deg one.

Look at it this way. I'm running under drive pulleys, a pair of 10" electric fans and an electric water pump on my 5.4L hauling nearly a 6,500lb vehicle weight around on a daily basis and my truck never moves out of normal operating temperature. Hell, my fans hardly ever even kick on.

2. Unlike OHV engines, Modular engines are "internally balanced". Lightening up weight at either end of the crank shaft isn't going to throw a wrench into the mix one way or another. As long as said weight is neutral balanced, there won't be a problem.

This is also why the 4.6L, 5.4L an even the 6.8L have all used the same harmonic dampener over the years.