Che70velle

iTrader: (6)

G Atsma

Gotta love parts guys like him!

Double06

iTrader: (1)

Good to know about the Gates RPM belt.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

Haha that's pretty funny. I have one of those guys at the local parts house. Older man if he cracked a smile it would crack his face. Saw him driving a couple of days ago, with a parrot on his shoulder.. Not sure how that's relevant but it was interesting.

Kinda crappy to pay all that money for the holley accessories and get a crapo belt. They were probably trying to keep cost down, but it was likely only about $10, certainly not worth the destruction and mess. I'd be pretty aggravated.

Che70velle

iTrader: (6)

Thought I’d update this thread. So I purchased the Katech tensioner for the Chevelle...and...I bought a Gates RPM belt, well bought two actually, one for the trunk in case I lost a belt again while out somewhere. Car no longer has belt issues. It’s been to rev-limiter quite a few times this past summer and fall without issue. Having changed to the Katech tensioner and a high quality belt simultaneously ruled out me figuring out the exact fix, but I’m 99% sure the tensioner cured the issues. I say that because I figured out that my engine revving quickly, just sitting in the shop, would cause the belt to jump a few grooves forward, over on the A/C side of the setup, where the tensioner is. So what I believe was happening was the tensioner did not have enough tension to hold the belt in place during rapid acceleration. Car revs very fast with 720+ hp at the crank, and the Oem tensioner just couldn’t hold the belt on...
So the Katech tensioner is highly recommend and the uber expensive Gates RPM belts @ $80 each seem to be doing their job as well. Bottom line is I don’t have belt issues anymore. Hope this helps someone out there in cyber land searching around for a fix to an issue similiar to mine.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

I use the Katech tensioner as standard equipment for my builds.
.Andrew

ramairws6

iTrader: (33)

I have a high wall pulley with stock tensioner and A/C running low nines and have never thru a belt yet?

stilealive

I was throwing belts every time I walked the throttle on my 436ci stoker engine way back in 2002. I bought the Katech fixed tensioner and of course the problem was solved. But another fact that most people do not believe......I still have the same belt on my car when I replaced the belt back in 2002 when I installed the Katech tensioner.

These belts can literally last for 20 years......I too have a second belt that I bought back in 2002 and \kept it ion the back of my car, its still there too....LOL A belt that uses a tensioner that can bounce around like factory ones......thats what destroys and stretches belts. When a fixed tensioner is used it doesn't allow a belt to stretch at all, because it does not bounce and get yanked all over the place.

What even more stupid.....GM can design a fixed tensioner for less money and make more profit.......but instead they produce that piece pf garbage spring loaded tensioner....strange....

I'm waiting for my 17 year old belt to break.....

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

One thing I didn't see mentioned is that if you have belt slip from the tensioner not keeping the belt tight you're going to have a lot of slip and heat. That is probably what killed it.

Along with being a lower quality belt.

Che70velle

iTrader: (6)

Agreed. Had a good bit of belt slip due to tensioner. Alternator face was covered in black belt rubber dust as was the front of the ATI damper.

AndyTA

Went through this problem on my 427 build as well - any time I went WOT at a lower gear, the belt would get tossed. (It's the RPM delta that throws belts, not necessarily just the RPM itself)
Manual tensioner fixed the problem here as well.

I do wanna say though that, with the new build being revved higher than factory (up to 7,000 rpm) I threw belts far below that, around 6500.