I had to send in my V2 unit back to vortech for an inspection, it was making noise. They said the front bearing failed, and due to too much belt tension. I told the guy it was the stock tensioner the way it came in the kit. He didn't offer any suggestions to fix it, but did tell me there should be 1/4" to 1/2" of play in the belt. Any ideas?

Here is the setup:
Vortech V2
blower pulley = 2.95"
crank pulley = 6.66"
belt = 8 rib, 41.5" long
stock kit steel brackets
stock kit vortech (ford) tensioner

Thanks,
Ed

 

Nothing? Guess I'll have to solve this problem on my own

 

I just got my head unit back from vortec yesterday, same problem it was making a little noise so I boxed it up and sent it in they fixed it no charge and even paid to ship it back

They told me the input bearing was notchy, minor rebuild (almost 400.00) if I had to pay for the service.

John

 

Yep, on my invoice from Vortech they charged $363 for the repair (for their accounting purposes). That's pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

Anyway, I think I figured out a solution by drilling some holes in one of the brackets, giving more adjustablility to the tensioner.

 

What kind of noise???? Mine blower whine is extremely loud. Sounds normal i guess.. But the blower also makes a SMALL ticking noise.. You cant really hear it unless you stick your ear next to it..

 

The blower was not noisy untill I pulleyed up. 7.2 crank 3.12 blower and last pass of the year spun the motor to 6700 through the lights. Vortec warr told me input bearing was notchy from overtension I don't think the v2 is as durable as a v1. Hats off to vortec at least they stand behind there product, every other time I had a problem I had to eat it.

John

 

But what kind of noise was it? Was it really noticeable?

 

I asked the guy at Vortech whether there was any difference in the bearing between a V1 and V2 and if there is a generic problem with the bearing. He said they are the same bearing and that they've had a few bearings go bad.

If the bearing is that sensitive to tension, Vortech should have engineered the tensioner to be adjustable like ati; they designed it around using the stock 6.0"/3.33" pulleys only, what bs. I asked about a manual type tensioner. They said there was not enough room for a manual type tensioner like in the mustank kit and did not have solution to my problem.

 

The noise it was making was almost like a bad water pump, really whiney if the unit wasnt so quite to begin with probably would'nt have noticed. I bought a T head unit to use while V2 was being repaired talk about noisy its new and it sounds like a gear cam drive. To bad vortec only makes a quite H.O. unit for reverse rotation (mustang).

As to tension issues I have a bench full of pulleys and belts if the tension is to low with a long belt I get belt slip so I had to buy assortment of gates and dayco belts to get all differn't usable lenghts. I have a belt tension gauge from my snowmobile days and at centre of belt tension is same as sepentine on cat rubbertire (8 rib) that runs accessarys on that machine.
The auto tensioner can't be as hard on a input bear as manual a friend has vortec kit on mustang with maual tensioner he stands on it when he tightens it still no problems. It probably was a batch of bad bearings.



John

 

Ed, You might want to ask Vortech if this is a recent problem with the bearings with the newer V2 units. Maybe they changed suppliers or something. I've had a V2-S trim thats probably 4 years old and have run the Napa belts on it with old and new Belt tensioner and have never had any problems. My belt with the new tensioner (Ford) is pretty tight. All I have is the usual louder whine on start up and less of a whine after warm up.

 

I did ask them about the bearing and they said a few have gone bad, that was it. I noticed vortech does not like to volunteer too much information!
Yep, mine is a ford tensioner. It has an arrow indicator on it, and it was within the okay range. Well, I drilled some holes in the tensioner bracket to rotate the tensioner counterclockwise a bit and used a shorter belt (8 rib, 40.8"). The holes were drilled to accomodate that little aluminum nipple protruding from the back of the tensioner. It still seems tight, but not as tight as before. I just took it out and it runs great. I hope it lasts though. I'm going to bring my car to a local vortech installer and see what he thinks about the current belt tension.

 

Does anyone have a part # for the ford tensioner? I may need a new one for my kit.

Thanks for any help

Eric

 

Ford # f4ta-6b209-db

John

 

Thanks for the part #! I really appreciate it.

Eric Bazan

 

I hope I don't have anyproblems with my front bearing..

I feel like I'm about to lift the nose of the car when i put a belt on.. The tensioner is the tightest i've ever felt in my life probally.

Aren't T-trims supposed to have HD bearings