If I am not mistaken, the noise you hear with a blower is actually the cogged belt! Now if you were to put a cogged belt an toothed pulleys on your engine, it might make almost the same sound as a blower drive. But what would be the point of that? KK
Lots of engines came with gear drive, but as mentioned they use helical gears, and you can't hear them. I even had a 396 chevy that had a factory gear drive in it, I think it was a marine thing, they were also used on the ZL1, as I recall
I ran a gear drive in the old truck for several years. Lots of highway miles, and many trips down the drag strip. My camshaft had a lobe go flat and when I replaced the cam, I removed the Pete Jackson gear drive and I now use a double roller chain. I do not think that the gear drive had anything to do with the flat lobe on the cam, it was probably caused by oil without zinc. The gear drive looked new when I changed it out. It is in the original box on the shelf in the shop right now. I liked it but it did make a lot of noise. If I was worried about noise, I would probably drive a Lexus or a Mercedes. John
Not taking a side in this debate.......but I do have a NEW IN BOX gear drive that came in the pile of parts when I bought my car. Will sell for 1/2 price or less.......but, mind you, I'm not taking sides.
On an engine that needs a gear drive, the RPM's don't stay at a constant speed (harmonics) and you can't hear the gear drive for the open headers.
X2 on poseur. Kinda how I feel about Olds Rocket valvecovers on SBC's. Or quickchange covers on 9" fords. Who ya trying to impress?
We chose a serpentine style belt to lessen the noise on our 58 Apache. You can still hear blower noise just not as loud. We have more fun seeing the look on people's faces when stepping on the throttle. The blower is completely under the hood so you don't have a clue until the engine starts revving up. And no we don't run a gear drive, it doesn't give anything performance wise. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Had one in the sbc in my coupe. It came in the motor so I left it in. First time I jumped on it it broke a tooth off the crank gear. Luckily no motor damage clean break and the tooth dropped straight down. I attribute it to the backlash from the set/ jumping on it and letting off quick with steep gears. I learned my lesson. It very easily could have cost me a motor.
My sister Mikki had a '40 Ford coupe she had Ron Tomasello (San Jose) build an engine for. Her dipstick boyfriend and his bud were to install it, (it was already 'transplanted', all they had to do was bolt it in...350 T.H. trans) Genius boyfriend slipped in a Pete Jackson gear drive, then installed the engine. They started it, ran in the cam, and put a few miles on it. She asked me to take a drive to Fresno with her...in 20 miles I was getting a headache. I told her how fast that blasted gear drive would come out of that coupe if I had to drive it... She disagreed. She loved it. I was working at a BMW dealership then, used her car for about a month...the other "techs" thought that '40 with the 'whine' was the Cat's Ass! Lesson: A BMW Associate Techician Cert doth not an expert make...
I disagree on a gear drive not working on the street. I have been using one on my blown hemi for years without any failures. I would never use a dual idler. I use a fixed idler milodon small block mopar adapted to the early hemi. With close to 300 lbs on the seat i have not found a chain that wont stretch. The directions say run a piece of news paper through the gears. Push the idler in tight. Then tighten up the bolts. It runs quiet. It can hardly be heard. The difference between the dual idler noisey and quiet drives is the amount of lash involved. The more lash the more noise and sloppy timing. I dont run one to be cool. I run it out of neccesity. I do agree with several on here about having phony sounding cars. They are a joke. Only the posers have them.
Someone mentioned a gear drive was like clipping baseball cards on your spokes. I think it more like putting a potato in your Speedo.
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