serpentine vs v-belt
 

Building new engine so all options are open. Is serpentine any better-worse ?? than v belt. Closed cooling, bravo, n/a, salt water engine. Thanks for your time. R.

I thought about doing it but the cost was HUGE! Then I thought about it some. You don't see to many high HP motors with Serp. belts on them. Why change what works. I think that the V-belts give you a little more room up front as well it seems.

i was always told that serpentine is better,creating less drag and less chance of throwing a belt...all the blue engines now have serpentine...jmo

That is what I was always told as well. Then when I thought about it.... I have never tossed a belt. :drink: I think the loss of HP is probably small. So it comes down to cost. Tons of money for.....???

i agree...not worth to change over,but if he's starting from scratch, there's a lot of good used parts around...i've been stranded because of a loose belt slipping on the alternator:(

Depending on the engine family size and HP, belt type may be a small thing to consider. If you will be spending good money and boating in salt water, use the money to go with the closed cooling and a good aluminum head equipped engine. In less you have a good annual budget for supercharging I would recommend staying with a reasonable HP normally aspirated build and being able to use standard less expensive Bravo drives. Kind of a good piece of advice is to set your max budget $$ now and work backwards from there so you can complete your project and GO BOATING!! If your putting money in a smaller older hull it just does not make a lot of sense to put big expensive power in it unless you've got a good bottomless budget to set up and use all that extra power!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

serpentine vs v-belt
 

THANKS for the response. I'm doing a shp, afr, Madara build. 450h 500t goal. To clean the front end up I'm going to relocate the p/s pump to mid starboard side(knowing it's a big deal). Alt on lower port, moving up to mid also. So far it sounds like a 50/50 vote. Have more threads to follow. Thanks again for your valued input. R.

Serp belts will out last a traditional v-belt, lower maintenance is the main reason you see them on cars. Remember when service stations had thousands of v-belts hanging on the walls in plain site? Was a very common replacement. You would be able to keep one spare belt on your boat and have p.o.m.

However- You could lose an alternator, or ps belt on a v drive set up and still get home without a spare. The single dedicated belt on the sea water pump along with battery power for the ignition will keep you going. However my experience is the one that goes is always the one you don't have a spare for, or the one that requires taking all the others off :lolhit:

I too have been considering doing this conversion on my current engine builds. Not wanting to spend to much money as the benift is only a cleaner look and easier maintenance when removing/replacing water pumps, sea pumps, alternators, etc..... Please keep me inform on you build as you find the parts, hoping to find aome automotive excange parts from salvage yards to ease the cost.

Cliff

As 4bus stated you can make it home without a ps or alt belt, but not without that sea water pump belt. The flip side is throwing/breaking belts is pretty rare.

Did some searching and found this conversion kit to adapt early 90's small block serpentine belt and pulleys to big block http://www.kwikperf.com/index.html

Cliff

I just went V-belts on my new motors. I can see totally on a car that runs the same belt for 2000 hours, but how many of us put more than 20-40 hours per year on the boat?

ding ding ding.....


also, u lose that 1 belt.. your done, u lose an alternator belt or PS belt.. u still drive home !!!!

serpentine vs v belt
 

Thanks again for all of the response!!! Ordered SHP block on wed. Pulled old mtr. on fri. Hope it's going to be a good winter. Once again thanks and watch for other threads. R.

Cliff,

How would you run a sea water pump with that kit?

4bus,

Good question that I have been giving some thought, the only thing that comes to mind right now is using the old stlye sea pump with the "clamp" bracket and machine the serpetine pulley as nessecary, if any to fit. The reason for using the old stlye clamp bracket is it would allow me to move the the pulley out for belt aligment.

Cliff