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Folks, swapping a LQ4/4L80E from a '02 truck into a '87 Dakaota and have a WP/fan motor clearance issue. The pics are a side and top-down view of the clearance and I'd settle for another 1/2-inch of clearance. The issue I see is the wide and bulbous truck WP pulley. I'd like to avoid swapping out all the accessories for F-body or Corvette ones or having a custom low-profile shroud made with a low-profile 16" or dual 12 or 13" fans. Those fans are not efficient for So.FL.
One idea I have is to use a LS2 Corvette WP with the narrow/flat pulley and use the appropriate spacers to get back to the truck spacing. Anyone know if this would work? Any other ideas out there that could get me a little better clearance?
I think you would fine with just shortening the front of the pulley as said above. Either a cut off wheel or a die grinder to cut off the un-threaded part of the pulley.
I was wondering about the belt but along with the un-threaded part gone I would grind a bit on the shroud to get the needed clearance for getting the belt on and off.
Just one more thought. Not knowing how the radiator or fan shroud are mounted could you slot either mounting holes to gain some room and not have to mod the water pump?
I dislike modding stock parts because they always fail in the middle of the Power Tour and the local parts house only has stock parts.
Looking at those pictures I can’t see why you would have an issue getting the belt on and off, it looks like it would slip in the gap between the pulley and fan without much issue. Also I’ve never seen a radiator/fan combo that’s ever been mounted rock solid with no movement towards the front bumper so if that gap wasn’t big enough I’d assume you can just lightly pull the top of the radiator towards yourself 1/16” to slip the belt through the gap. If you’re really worried I would just chamfer the head of the snout on the water pump pulley shaft
03-23-2024, 08:58 PM
Truck Water Pump Clearance Question 
