Would removing the Serpintine belt help ET's? A couple years ago I drove about 40 miles without a serpintine belt cause it broke. Aside from the lack of power steering the car actually felt more peppy. Would their be a measurable gain at the track from removing the belt?

Thanks...

 

Yes, the belt creates drag on the engine. Removing the belt simply frees up the engine. Don't do it to often as you're likely to kill your battery.

 

Depends on how much reserve voltage your battery can supply. You need good voltage to power the ignition and fuel pump. It is possible to reduce mechanical drag by removing the belt, but you might get decreased performance by lowering the voltage when you need it most. Do some test runs and see what happens.

 

cant you run a shorter belt so the alternator keeps the charge up?

hope i remember this post when i dyno my car this summer.. might be interesting to test.

 

Im not sure, but I dont think you could just run a shorter belt from the crank to the alt. Heres why: You neet to incoperate some sort of belt tightener/tensioner between the two. I don't think its easy possible with the setup on the camaro.
FWIW I broke my belt and drove to napa, to house, back to napa, and back to house (they gave me the wrong belt). So I had to start it a couple of times and run it for a total time of like 10 minutes, and I couldn't tell the (except on the gauge) that the alt. wasn't charging. This would vary depending on the condition of the battery.
Would it help, probably a little. It sure is easy to put on and take off, assuming you can get under there. (Rhino Ramps = light, cheap, and easy)
Hope Ive helped
Zack S.

 

I think its alright to do that. My brother took his belt off his police pakage LT-1 Caprice, and it was a noticeable difference. Granted, those Cop cars have humongous batteries in them. I thought if you ran MSD or other ignition boxes, they wouln't operate right, wihtout the 14.5 volts or so. I had a hopped up 1980 malibu, and tried to run it without alt. belt just fan/waterpump, and when I nailed it, it fell on its face.

 

the big thing you need to worry about is if your battery can't supply proper voltage to your fuel pump, your car will run lean. Electric fuel pumps are very dependant on the amount of voltage actually getting to them...

 

An old drag racers trick was to wire an alternator cut out switch. So you could shut off the alt. right before the run. Free's up a little HP and you don't lose your power steering.

Smokn '94 Z, is that little icecream shop still at the intersection of 59 and 126?

 

Search or Look at the thread titled: "$500 and I'm in the 12s!! "

This guy ran a 13.4 with the Belt and consistent 13.1 without the belt.

Hope that helps,
Claude