Well Darkfire your partially right.. The center diff locked will make your truck full time 4 wheel drive or better yet send equal power to both front and rear diffs. The effect of doing this is very dramatic in the ability to do wheelies!! As well as improve performance IMHO. With the center diff "open" as it comes out of the box, when you squeeze the trigger to full power and the front end lifts your center diff will "Unload" and cuase the front tires to spin more than the rear tires because they are not making as good of contact as the rear. When your center diff "unloads" you will actually lose accelleration until the front tires settle down again, good for racing, but not as much fun. IMHO the wear is not that much more than open than an open diff, and what little eccessive wear is well worth the fun factor.. Now when you are cornering and the inside tire front tire lifts it will spin faster than the other tires, again good for racing but not as much fun bashing, that is your front open diff "unloading". I have my front and rear diffs open and the center locked. a good balance for fun and track time.

As for the heat I think you may be too lean and do you have adequet air flow over the head??(a hole cut in the windsheild) your engine will burn up if you continue to run it that hot, you should be closer 240*. Check your tune and your airflow. If the brakes were dragging enough to cause overheating you wouldn't be having as much fun as you were. When you adjust your brake linkages, your levelrs should be able to rotate about 15* lock to lock if you can rotate them more then check the screws that hold the brake assembly to the tranny. They could be looser than desired. Take a pic of the brakes from the bottom so we could see....

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