I'm going to purchase a used 3lb lower pulley off of a lightining and it has a three bolt hole pattern and was wondering if it will bolt to our N/A 5.4 3 bolt balancer. I know I'm going to have to deal with some alignment issues to get the belt to track straight, but I'm determined to make it work without spending tons of money on a custom made lower 8 rib pulley. Btw I'm working on converting my chincy 6 rib Procharger belt system to an 8 rib to take some tension off of the Procharger's bearings. But if the lightning pulley will bolt up, I will make it work...

 

depends on the lightning year...

I believe it's the '99-'00 pulley that will work for the lightning swaps but i am not 100% sure if that matters since you are just shimming your ATI mount forward...


let me know how this work as I may be following suit

 

on top of that, I'll just have to buy a new blower pulley and some idlers and a belt, and if I can get it to align, I'm in buisiness. Instead of doing all of that plus spend 200-300 for a custom lower pulley. I hope it works, man I wish Procharger people would listen to this, hell the stock accessories are all powered by an 8 rib and the biggest draw there would be either the A/c compressor, or power steering "when you're going slow and turning steep", but somehow you drive a D1SC with a 6 rib????? I like the head unit, and the inercooler, but when paying the dough it take to purchase one of thes things you would think you could get a better drive system, BTW my tensioner doesn'n move when you tighten it down, really nice, why is it even spring loaded if it isn't free to move??????

 

I know the lighning crank pulleys are differnt but I don't remember why


I was thinking of modifying a stock belt tensioner to the ATI kit to keep the supercharger belt tight

 

I think they bring the belt out further from the balancer than a Procharger setup, I may just whack the hub down and reweld the flange of the lower pulley closer to the ribbed area.

 

they do, but i think the '99-'00 may bring the ribs out further than the '01-'04 lightnings

 

Well the lightning lower pulley I'm buying is from an 01, so if it will bolt up to the inner pulley or balancer closer to the motor, I guess I will have less distance to shim the blower bracket out to get all other pullies in-line. I hope this works as I'm only paying 40$for this lower pulley from a member from svt performance. I've seen many others for under 100$, and if this happens to be steel instead of aluminum, I'll cut it down and reweld it so it sits the same distance from the balancer as the Procharger unit. If it can be done. Although the thoughts of shrapnel flying through my engine compartment don't turn me on much.

 

As far as I know (thats not saying much) the 99-00 L damper was the same as the 99-03 NA. To put a 99/00 L aftermarket lower on a 99-03 NA is therefore a bolt on. To use a 01-04 L aftermarket lower the aftermarket compaines supply a small ring that goes on the inside hole where the pulley attaches to the damper. For what ever reason the later model L dampers had a larger flange where this attaches. No nothing about 3V motors.

 

so Jeff if nothing else you may need to change crank dampners

 

I believe the issue you will see is that you're NA stock dampener is not machined flat where the blower pulley will bolt to. That area is just rough casted, not to say that you cannot remove the balancer and have it machined flat. That is what the aftermarket supercharger companies seem to do. They supply you with a new balancer that has the center machined flat to accept their lower pulley. Just be careful not to reuse the factory lower bolt as it is torque to yield and should be discarded after every use.

 

???? prochargers crank pulleys just bolt right in...

bigtruck311 bolted an aftermarket lightning pulley to his 5.4 and had no issues that I am aware of

 

I ordered a 98' 5.4 HB for my 4.6 to add the 8 rib set up, and it bolted up right. As Chuck mentioned the mating face is not flat enough to correctly add the second pulley, so I had a machine shop mill a few thousandths off to make it dead flat.

 

My existing Procharger lower pulley is currently bolted flat against the stock balancer.

 

Again the only issue is the inside hole of the pulley (01-04L) or the outside diameter of the flange on the center of the damper (5.4 NA) depending on how you look at it. When I got my used aftermarket pulley (01-04L), it did not have the ring. Went back to manufacturer and they supplied. No problem. It will bolt up without the ring, but the fit will not be as tight, only the bolts holding its concentricity. So its not a flatness issue.