serpentine

Adding an alternator, A/C and P/S from another vehicle onto my sbc. Couple of questions I have:

1. Assuming I will use a normal water pump, guess I am forced into a sepentine belt arrangement unless there such a thing as a 4 grove pulley, or is that getting a tad too long?

2. Most of the seepentine brackets/pullies I have looked at talk about a percentage reduction (30% reduction etc). Is this simply to allow the device to turn more than 1 to 1 that the crank would do? What is the purpose of this, to save HP or save the external device?

3. Any reason that the donor car's equipment would not work on the sbc, such as the P/S pump needs X number of revolutions instead of Y?

Thanks

 

1-can't you get donor stuff from a v belt application like anything from the 70s-80s? You should be able to run that stuff with 2 or 3 belts, no need for four belts.

2-Serpentine driven water pumps are typically reverse flow waterpumps, they are designed to spin backwards. If the pulley on the water pump is smooth, it runs on the backside of the belt-this will make it run opposite of the crank.

3-the components will work with the engine you have solong as they are all spinning in the direction they should. a few rpm either way will not drastically affect their operation.

 

Thanks.
What are the advantges to a serpentine arrangement over a V belt?
I am thinking that a serpentine MIGHT allow it to install easier as my heads don't have accessory mount holes.
I understand the water pump thing and actually have long versions of both.

 

The main advantage of serpentine belts over Vee type is reduced requirement for re-tensioning once run-in.

I have a simarlar problem adding an alternator to my current hemi project,
I have opted for bolting an extra pulley to the waterpump and taking a second belt off there to drive the alt (which allows me to hide the alt).
I was not using the mechanical drive fan, so was fairly simple to find another pulley which bolted in it's place.

 

Serpintine belts last much longer, but, I believe the main reason for their use is to save space. Generally, the alternator, a/c compressor p/s pump will only use the one belt.

 

My 89 Caddy Bro Ham driver has p/s,a/c,w/p,air pump, all on 3 v belts,maybe look into that setup

 

if your heads dont have the acc holes in front u cant use the stock serp brackets.If u have headers u have to make support brackets for the P/S and A/C that were braced to the manifold w round brackets. I put a set from a 89 on a earlier SBC and i was 1 hole short on the heads,used everything from the 89 includeing w/pump. There is a pully to eliminate the A/C
bob

 

v belts fall off at high rpm. They suck compared to Serp belts, but serp belts look like poop on a more traditional car. Kind of like radials on a fenderless coupe.

 

Visit Alan Grove's website. He advertises in most of the major hot rod magazines.