I would like to do some thing different on the pulleys for my 383 I'm building, I’m already going to install a aluminum radiator with duel fans so I don’t have to worry about the fan and shroud, I would need a pulley set up for the crank, water pump, alternator and power steering (I don’t have air), I've looked at March and Zoops web site and liked some of there polished aluminum stuff, I really don’t like the look of the long alternator adjustment arm so I’d like some aluminum brackets as well, for my 77 with a 5.8" long water pump I could only find aluminum replacements pulleys. I would like to keep this below $400.00 so serpentine is out, I plan on changing the alt with a 120 amp and go with a aluminum pump. March has some nice things for long and short water pumps so can I go this route?
I’ve read that a long pump will interfere with the power steering pulley and cross member, I have about .200" clearance in this area now and a shorter belt would help, I don’t think I can go with a short pump, the pump that’s on the car rest against the timing chain cover, I wonder if the pump on the car now is a short pump because the bets are slightly cocked forward to the other pulleys and a shorter pump will not fit over the timing chain cover, does a short pump fit our car? Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

 

I don't think you want to go with a long water pump. Corvette kept the short water pumps but used a larger ¾-inch pilot shaft (standard is 5/8 inch), which is the diameter of the small snout that locates the water-pump pulley.

You can up your alternator output by getting an alternator rebuilt kit - $39 or so and save a few bucks.


http://chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/49718/

 

Check out Concept One

 

Nice but I have power steering and that seems to double the price.

 

Come on guys help me out. Will a short water pump fit our cars if I change all the other pulleys and brackets?

 

Well, I just looked at my stock '78 and it has a short WP. So short the back of it appears to be against the timing cover. I just bought a gm crate motor and it came with a long wp.. I think it is 1 1/4 inch longer but it is hard to measure exactly right now...will check later. Looks like I may need to use the short one for the PS to clear the crossmember...looks real close. There are 3 pulleys on crank. The one on front is smaller and serves the ps pump. There are 2 belt pulley on wp for ac alt and wp.
I'll let ya know of any problems when I do the swap next week.

 

My stock pulleys are set up like yours but with a 5.8" long pump. After reading Z-mans link I realize that a long pump (7.0"), a short pump (5.65") and our pump (5.8") could all have the same dimension between the front of the block and the front surface of the timing chain cover (interchangeability?), the difference in length is the total length between the front of the block and the forward surface of the pump pulley flange, these differences could be in the casting on the pump forward of the chain cover area. I checked (my vette’s down for the year ) and have a stock 5.8" pump with stock pulleys, I can not see why a short pump with matching pulleys and brackets will not work but I don’t want to flush $400-$500 bucks because I missed something.