CHRISPY

Heath is going to be using their system. Blackbird.

He should be able to give you some info on SD.

BIGBOS

How long did it take you guys to get the steel idler pulley from him...

Blackbird

yes, once I get everything in hand and installed I will be sure to post how well it does or doesn't work.

still at least a good month or two away though.

BIGBOS

TTT....

Where are you camarogod....

Texas_WS6

iTrader: (9)

I want to thank all you guys!!!! Thanks for this post. I was convinced I would get the ATI kit but now I know I am going to stay as far away from ATI as possible!!!!! After reading the belt issuies and seeing the charger in the car from your pics, what a nightmare. Why in the world would they set the charger up backwards like that?? It looks completly stupid to me. You have to have a freaking lift just to change the damm belt!! No, i am not going to buy an ATI kit now. I would be a fool to.

Speaking of the backward charger placemnet. It would seem to me there can not be any way to suport the weight of the charger like that. I bet the Charger is symply vibrating. Being mounted like it is there is no real way to suport the charger on both sides. It needs to be braced from the back side. But there is no real way to do that. If you brace it to the car, it will twist every time the engine torques up. The problem is not in the brackets or the belts or the pulleys. Its how it is mounted. It needs to be turned around so that the front is mounted by brackets of the front of the engine and the rear is stabilized of the side of the engine. In the configuration it is in now you will not be able to stablize it. Its just shucking the belts because the charger is bucking. Do what was sugested. Vidio tape it on the dyno and I bet you will see the charger moving which is causing the belts to go.

BIGBOS

I'm pretty sure mine won't move the way it is now, there is a support that is off of the alternator that braces the whole thing from going in that direction under load...next time the car is on a lift I will go over to the shop and take a few pictures of it.....

All of this "research" and trials will pave the way for the future ATI owners....

Thats if I decide not to quit and go turbo....

buschman

Keep in mind Texas, there are a lot of ATI kits out there that have absolutely no problems. I'm one of them. I had a few headaches during the install. Some of which could have been attributed to me, since I had never installed a supercharger before. But I am very happy with my ATI kit and this is not buyers remorse speaking. The belt tensioner system could use improving, which ATI has done by moving to an 8 rib system for their kits now. But it is still a very nice kit. I haven't seen any flex of the blower itself and the bracket setup is very sturdy.

I mean the choice is yours obviously. But ATI makes a quality product. There is no simple bolt on and forget about it kit made for LS1s. If that's what you want you'd be better off with a heads/cam kit. Hope this helps,

Mike

BIGBOS

I just bought a steel pulley off of camarogod..

Hopefully this thing will solve my problems...

SS00Blue

Do it... DO IT!

It's been "bolt on and forget" for me. And the turbo sound makes me giggle like school girl.

SC-

10.5 Dave

iTrader: (5)

I bet you don't have a engine built for boost either.People with stock engines and less than 10 psi usually don't have any problems.Anything beyond that and the belt woes begin.Only a small % of ATI owners have trouble free operation.Everyone I have seen at the track(me included)has belt problems.The ATI kit is designed for stock engines.It is a shame that they have the design flaw considering they make good power.I went 10.91@126.65 at 3840 lb in a 6sp car last year with one and got rid of it because of the belt breaking every other pass.

Texas_WS6

iTrader: (9)

That is true. My engine is stock. I dont want any more boost then 8 to 9 psi. I was looking at the D-1SC kits. I just don't want to be changing belts all the time. I drive my car cross country every week. I go from Odessa Texas were I live to New Orleans were I fly out to a platform were I work. Thats about 900 miles one way. Then I turn around and come home the next week. I can not have a setup that will eat belts off it coming and going to work. Thats why I bought the new cars I have. I have to be able to trust the setup to be dependable. So what you are saying is, if I keep the boost 9 psi or less, and just so you know I have my rev limiter set at 6500rpm, but if I keep it running under 6500 rpm, then I should not have a problem with the belts? I do like the kit, but it sure would be a nightmare to change a belt on the side of the rode 400 miles away from home. I like the QMP Turbo kits too. I will have to wait another 6 months if I go that route. Thats why I was looking hard at the ATI Kit. Will 8 PSI on the ATI set up make lots of power on in the lower RPM ranges too? What kind of power curves are ya'll seeing with your ATI kits? I am afraid they will not make any gains under 4000 RPM.

BIGBOS

8 psi on an ATI kit will put a smile on your face...

Boost either way is a powerful feeling....especially when you get to the upper RPMs....

Stock cars can put down close to 500rwhp with a good tune...

427

iTrader: (3)

Bigbos, i ran a ATI kit today on a engine dyno with a d1sc head unit. We used the stock ati plate and tensioner hardware. We produced the crank pulley and the tensioner pulley here. It uses a Napa 8 rib belt. It produced 825HP and 781 ft lbs. We can fix your car here if you can't get it repaired in ILL. My shop is in Warren Michigan.
Kurt

BIGBOS

What size crank pulley were you using, along with the blower pulley...

I took a look at my car today, almost half the belt is walking off the pulleys, I've never seen anything like it before....there are 4 ribs that hang off to the motor side and the rest of the best is non existent.....

I got a steel idler from camarogod that I'm going to be trying out next week, if that doesn't work, then I don't know what to do...

427, any ideas on what else the problem could be, I got bracket support so I'm pretty sure its not flexing, everything "looks" straight....

1dirtyZ

iTrader: (1)

texas ws6 ,as far as i know every blower i've seen ( ATI or others ) only uses one side of the blower to bolt to the bracket. i don't think it's possible to use the other side ( sandwich the blower between two brackets). the ATI design is ok for stock cars , but when you start spinning the blower towards max impeller speeds (almost double what it spins on stock setups) you start demanding more of the setup and you start pushing the envelope beyond what the kit was designed to do. i have an ATI kit, and if you ask me would i do it again i'd say heck yes! with ATI ? definatly. i have more hp than most people here do and i'm very very pleased with my kit.

bigbos, did you take the tensioner off the bracket to inspect the tensioner bearings? from what you're describing it seems it has to be an alignment problem. ( does the blower pulley seem to be pointing towards the timing chain cover rather than the crank pulley?)

427 , any pics of the pulles you made? is the crank pulley spaced further out from the stock pulley?

427

iTrader: (3)

Bigbos, We used a ati balancer with the three 3/8 bolts holding on a 7.750 aluminum pulley. The blower pulley was a ati 4.25 8 rib. The idler pulley is a aluminum 6 rib ati that we modify to use a 8 rib belt. I could take pictures of pulley set up, but i don't know how to put them up here.
Kurt

427

iTrader: (3)

Bigbos, We used a ati balancer with the three 3/8 bolts holding on a 7.750 aluminum pulley. The blower pulley was a ati 4.25 8 rib. The idler pulley is a aluminum 6 rib ati that we modify to use a 8 rib belt. I could take pictures of pulley set up, but i don't know how to put them up here.
Kurt

427

iTrader: (3)

Bigbos, We used a ati balancer with the three 3/8 bolts holding on a 7.750 aluminum pulley. The blower pulley was a ati 4.25 8 rib. The idler pulley is a aluminum 6 rib ati that we modify to use a 8 rib belt. I could take pictures of pulley set up, but i don't know how to put them up here.
Kurt

BIGBOS

How much boost is that car making 427, If this steel idler doesn't work I'm going to have to sell the kit, because I've basically run out of $ for the project...

And in that case you most likely won't hear about my car for another year or two hopefully with a turbo kit on it by then....

427

iTrader: (3)

11.5 psi with 408 ci. Good luck with your new project.
Kurt