I drove my car last night and heard a weird noise in the engine compartment. When I open the hood, all I see is "spider web-like" material all over my engine. The noise appears to come from the supercharger area. I inspected the belt and it looks like it was shredding. Any idea on what the spiderweb-like material is from? Is this normal when the belt is getting ready to give? My pulley is rough now and not smooth like before. It looks like it started to melt. Any idea on what is wrong and what I need to do? How hard is it to change the belt? Any special tools?

 

I would guess that the bearings on that ideler went out. It looks like you have the old rev of it. ATI replaced it with a bigger one that has better bearings. They should send you a new one for free.

Removing the belt is pretty easy. You just put a socket on the tensioner (15mm I think) and load it up to get enough slack to slip the belt off (I usually slip it off the water pump). Do the same thing when going back on.

 

Dude..that **** gets into everything too! I had to power wash my engine compartment twice!!!!!! Go grab yourself a new belt, and Call ATI..they SHOULD replace that Idler for you

 

Guys, thanks but unfortunately, I'm clueless when it comes to mechanical stuff. When you refer to the idler, is that the small round wheel looking thing from my first pic? The tensioner, I have no clue. Do I have to unbolt all of the brass-looking nuts? Can I replace it with Andy's upgraded bracket and will it cure my problem? https://www.aandacorvette.com/cart/s...p?MainCatID=18
Sorry, I'm learning.

 

To fix the problem you have several choices:

1. Andy's setup
2. ECS setup
3. New ATI setup

Each of these brackets will address the problem. The new ATI bracket is very nice. For the best performance, you can go with either the A&A or ECS setup.

If I were you, I certainly would not drive the car any further. If the belt breaks, your engine will overheat immediately. You need to get it switched out before driving and getting stranded.

 

Sportsdude, the idlers that went out are the small round pulleys that are located just alongside and below your main supercharger pulley. The bearings inside the idlers wear out due to a design flaw. They need to be removed, taken apart and have new bearings reinstalled. You are at a severe disadvantage because of your mechanic skills. Is there a shop close to you that can perform these things? I would be willing to talk to a repair shop for you if you need some help in that department. Let me know ok?

VR

 

#4 the new TTiX kit
#5 the new PTK Twin turbo kit too.

I agree, dont drive your car. My Vortech blew bearings too, I cut the belts to the SC, and had my tuner come get my car. Dont want to risk more damage to the unit or your car.
You should be good to go once you change setups.

 

You don't need anything but the upgraded idler from ATI (which is free BTW). The original idler is too weak and small for that position and had crappy bearings in it also.

The install should be a 15 minute job.

Here is a belt diagram with a blow up of the idler area for reference.



1. Get the car on ramps.

2. Put a socket and ratchet on the tensioner pulley (labeled in the blowup area of the diagram). The (15mm) socket goes on the bolt in the center of that pulley. Push it towards the blower and it will create slack in the belt. Now at the same time (having two people helps) reach down under the water pump (H20 pump in diagram) and slip the belt toward the front of the car and off the water pump pulley. This will allow the belt to have a bunch of slack so that you can take it off all the other pullies and get it off the car. It will most likely require you to get under the car to get it to clear all the stuff that it gets caught on.

Now loosen the 4 brass nuts that have spacers near them (the short round tubes keeping the two sides of the blower bracket apart with the pulley in the middle).

Now you will be able to change the idler out by just removing the one bolt that has the bad idler and spacer on it. The bolt goes all the way through and has the brass nut near the motor. I think it is 9/16 on both ends.

It should be obvious how to put the new idler on.

Tighten all the nuts on the bracket back up and then put the belt back on.

Belt goes on in the reverse of how it came off. You will need to crawl under the car to get it on the crank pulley. Get it on everything but the water pump. You have to do the same thing with the tensioner as you did when taking it off, but you will be slipping the belt back on the water pump this time.

Sorry, but it is hard for me to imagine how someone could not do this on their own.

 

vetterdstr, thank you for the offer
quicksiler, thanks for taking the time. I will give this a try. It looks a bit complicated for me but I'll try it. I'm still waiting for ATI to reply back on the part. I hope I get it before deploying out again. Thank you

Thanks everyone. Happy Holidays

 

Or fix it right with an extra pulley.

 

FRC Tom, I ordered the two revised idlers and belt from ATI. I'll try that route first to see what the outcome will be.

How tight does the belt have to be? Is there some sort of guage that I need to use to determine the tightness?

 

The problem you are having is belt slip not bearings.
Even when your not under boost the belt is still slipping slightly causing it to shread. The original ATI set up gives you about a 30-40% wrap on the main pulley(depending what size pulley you are using). Even when I stepped down to a smaller belt all I did was wear down the surface of one of my idler pulleys about 3/16".
There is a groove in the pulley now as wide as the belt. You can see I now have close to 80-85% wrap on the S/C pulley.
This is the ATI set up minus the 3rd idler on the left. Notice how little of the belt is making contact with the main pulley so you can see how even when your not under load the belt could still slip some. These are also the 2 of the larger 3" pulleys that someone spoke of in this thread.

 

Spider Web like material is different than dust. Is it dust or spider web looking stuff? Do you have all the ribs on the belt. I have seen the idler pullies cut the belt so cleanly that it leaves only 5 ribs and you can hardly tell the belt has a rib missing. Check your hood liner, it is made out of fiberglass and when it gets hit by the belt trying to exit, it can cut the liner and it looks like spider webbing because it is fiber glass.

If its dust, it depends on how much dust???? If it is a lot than that is indicative of a problem. Does the back of the belt look burnt? Do any of the pullys appear to have burned belt on the surface area? If so that would be the pully that is most likely seized. The good new is, that there are lot of forum members on here that have had or have the ATI procharger...so you get a lot of free diagnosis. I don't know what I would do without the Bimmer Forum, Diesel Forum, or this Corvette Forum. Lots of great info. Even Hyundai has a forum.

 

You deserve props for solving your belt slip problem on your own, but I think it is just causing confusion in this thread. I would almost bet money that the problem in this thread is a bad bearing. They have went bad on all of us and the backside of the belt does not get tore up like that with just slip. I've ran the stock pulley configuration (with upgraded idelers) for years without any reliability problems. I can see why you need more wrap with the pulley you are running.

 

Didn't mean to confuse anyone.
Posts have been deleted.

 

The material was like spider web over my entire engine, strange stuff. It looks like spiders were living in my engine for 10 years.

Thanks everyone for the "how to". I'm still waiting for parts. How do I know when the belt is tight enough when reinstalling?