This is very true, and I have learned MANY MANY lessons the hard way. It's taken me a bunch, and I mean bunch of screwing stuff up to figure out that OEM stuff is usually better than anything you can get cheap on the after market.

AND it has taken me years of screwing even more stuff up to realize that there's not a 308 duration cam in a car for a reason. That car did not come with 11:1 compression for a reason, and I was not "making it better" or "Improving their design" by stuffing domed pistons in it.

Modifying things correctly, and to last takes quite a bit of thought. If you just do what everyone else does, and don't know how, or why you are building something then it's probably going to fail. The impact of 1 modification on the systems surrounding it can be huge.

Take for instance your cooling setup. Sure those electric fans are going to blow LOTS of air, and sure it's gonna take the immediate load off of your engine, but have you considered the electrical draw? There is going to be an enormous load on your alternator now. It's gonna be angry at those fans <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />. Now stack a winch on it, and idle for 30 minutes while winching, and trying to get unstuck somewhere...... Have you thought of a PWM type of control setup for it?? Thats what most of the electric fan cars eventually went to. You see where I'm going.

If you look closely at the things I build, you will see that the OEM designers are being totally ripped off. I set things up exactly they were when they came OEM. My front axle for example... Thats configured EXACTLY the same way it was in the wagoneer that it came out of. ALL the forces on it are the same. My engine... It's configured EXACTLY the same way it was in the 94 GMC truck that it came out of.

I've just duplicated someone else's smarts cause I'm a dummy. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />