underdrive pulley
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
From: Clarksville Tennessee
underdrive pulley
I am a 2 month corvette owner, I know little about cars, but I like to do work on my vehicles myself. I don't have money now for massive overhauling in power, so I stayed cheap and bought a high performance underdrive pulley system. When I put new belts on, I left out the air compressor because it doesn't work and AC doesn't really matter to me. It feels a little quicker and smoother, but it could be my imagination, at the most, what kind of gains did get from it.
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
From: Clarksville Tennessee
from my understanding the system is designed to decrease drag and optimize the power distributed by the crank and increase cooling, I have never had any overheating issues and it runs pretty much the same temp. now.
Safety Car
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 4,883
Likes: 11
From: North Easton Mass
I doubt you picked up much HP from the conversion but if the car runs better and you can feel a difference that justifies the $ spent then all is good.
Rick B.
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,305
Likes: 2
From: Lewisburg WV
thegazman
Most under drive pulley systems such as March under drive the A/C, Alternator, and power steering pump. The water pump pulley is slightly smaller so it drives at the same speed as a regulator crank pulley.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 3,226
Likes: 668
From: Northeast
In the reading I did on other forums the consensus was a 5-7hp increase. Some guys did dynos. Most seemed to say that to increase hp save your money and spend it on something else. If you start with 200hp, a 5hp increase wont seem much.
The car wont overheat because of the underpulley. You would need to have other problems. Perhaps the engine could run hotter. Mine has been fine.
If you have problems with charging at idle, then you could increase the idle by 100rpm if you want.
My March does look nice.
The car wont overheat because of the underpulley. You would need to have other problems. Perhaps the engine could run hotter. Mine has been fine.
If you have problems with charging at idle, then you could increase the idle by 100rpm if you want.
My March does look nice.
Race Director
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 15,892
Likes: 42
To save or 'recuperate' power lost to the the original set up, first it has to have been spent or 'wasted'. In other words- to save 5HP, it must have been spent in the first place.
Stock AIR pump takes 1HP
Stock water pump takes 2HP
Stock fan takes 1-2HP when not required for max cooling
Stock alternator takes 1-2HP if not trying to charge a dead battery.
Stock fan belts and pulleys are about 97% efficient in power transmission.
Pretty hard to save 5HP from that unless you throw the fan belts away completely. Hope your new pulleys look nice at least.
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