Robert Butler

Corvette Racer/Mechanics Please Advise Mad Man !

For discussion, I test drove my 80' small block C3 without the power steering belt on (car is set up to handle and brake beyond stock) and while it turned harder at under 5 mph, it was no challenge around town or on the highway for me what -so-ever. Can Corvette mechanics here at our forum tell me if #1, this will free up more useble H.P. ? #2, Will this practice damage my steering components ?

Yes I am well aware of the dangers and am just thinking out loud .

Thank you for your input once again. You are a great help .

ezobens

20-30 HP? Hardly..
I'd be surprised if the PS pump used even 5 in normal driving.

The steering box on a C3 is the same for manual and power steering- So converting is only the difference in all the hydraulics and the relay rod. I wouldn't drive it regularly with the PS belt (only) removed.

I went from manual to power in mine because it was a bear to park the thing in tight spots. To each his own.

7T1vette

More like 1-2 HP...when turning. If it makes you happy, remove your belt!!

You won't save much on power...but you will build some arm muscles.

bence13_33

Probably more along the lines of around 5 horsepower at the motor. I removed mine a while back and looped the power steering line. It was nice to get rid of the belt plus every little bit in drag racing helps lol. Does very well at building up the arm muscles too.

cv67

You wont notice any gain at all
Think we all did that when we were young.
Toss the ac, AIR ps belts thought it made it faster. But it didnt.

30hp youll have to upgrade engine parts start with headers

bence13_33

I think that depends on what you mean by won't notice. Take two absolutely identical cars w/ identical drivers, the only exception being one of them has eliminated their power steering belt (parasitic loss) and setup.....the one that eliminated it wins (all things being equal).

A wise man(thanks Jim) once told me a lot of little things add up to a large one eventually....I believe he put it more eloquently than I just did.

gungatim

I run my log splitter with a 6.5hp engine, and it is a much larger, higher pressure pump, and I only run it at medium speed. so based on that, I highly doubt the low flow, low pressure power steering pump uses any more than one horsepower, if that....maybe combined with the waterpump and alternator you'd get to 5, but even that is pushing it.

I ran my 77 nova with the ps pump belt removed when it took a crap, and honestly, it was almost the same as a manual steering car, barely noticed it unless parking...drove it like that for a few years with no ill effects...now my duramax, OTOH, was about impossible to steer or stop when the PS pump shaft broke, but that's a different beast altogether.

if you want to drive it that way, you probably would want to move the arms to the other holes for a non p/s car, and probably remove the hydro cylinder...

jnb5101

As 7t1 posted, you will develop arms. I knew a guy in college whose PS system died-after 2 years he looked like a wrestler.

427Hotrod

I occasionaly removed the belt from the PS on my old 427 '68 SS/RS Camaro.

It was worth approximately .05-.08 hundredths at the drag strip on a car running mid 11's at the time. But of course I was running McCreary dirt tracker tires that were decent..but not mega sticky like slicks. Good street tire. Anyway, since it would spin and slide around a little...I was actually using the PS pump during corrections. If the car went dead straight and you seldom turned the wheel, wouldn't have been much at all.

On my Vette, I ran it with manual steering for years. As part of a magazine project I installed a Borgeson PS box using a stock type GM pump and pulleys. I will eventually change the spring in pump to lower pressure some more...but it is what it is.

Interestingly, even after adding the weight of the PS system, the drag of the pump etc...I went to an 1/8th mile test and tune one night and found without any "racer tricks", using my heavy stock front Cragars and street tires etc.....the crazy thing ran one of it's quickest times ever as well as MPH.

So how much you'll notice depends on how much HP you have and how hard the car runs. I can tell you that I've become spoiled by the Borgeson setup and how nice it drives on the street. I recently ran 177 MPH with it at a 1/2 mile event and it drove perfectly.

So as Bence said,,,,unless you're shooting for every last ounce of HP and can't find it other places....I'd leave it operating and enjoy it. Now if going to the max...well there's a LOT of things we can come up with to help you!

JIM

Jim Shea

We had a small dynamometer at Saginaw. We could run a power steering pump against various back pressures and determine that amount of horsepower required. A typical in-vehicle power steering system works against about 50 psi backpressure. This resulted in about 1/4 horsepower. So driving straight down the road (or drag strip) would result in about 1/4 horsepower loss. Now this number changes quite a bit when you are steering with the car stopped and you are near full lock.

Jim

Richard454

I read somewhere a while back-I'm thinking Hotrod Magazine- tested the HP loss of power steering.

IIRC- Turning the wheel lock to lock it took right at 6+HP- and took about the same HP at all RPMs (there was a little less at higher RPM)

I'm thinking that removing the weight would be of more significance down a dragstrip!!!

I want PS but not the mess of some more lines and another belt- so I'm working on an Electric Steering motor for the column.

Richard