Some Belt shred with centri s/c's normal?

[spederman]

I've had a lot of issues with belt shred in the past with my vortech and 8 rib setup. For the most part the problem is gone since the supercharger was shimmed correctly. Its been almost a year and the belt i have on there has been perfect with not a bit of shredding. (street driving-no track time)

However, after taking it to the track this weekend and having hard launches and hard shifts, the belt very very slightly on the side that is closest to the block started rubbing and has some slight evidence of shred. Now with normal street driving and beating on it, there was never any shred. I'm assuming because of the hard shifts and launches from the track that there was probably some flex in a bracket or pulley that caused this slight shredding.

Question: is this acceptable and a normal amount of shred/rubbing for the belt? Is there always some rubbing on occasion with superchargers? Or should i try to correct the problem (which might be hard since its only shredding upon very hard shifting/launching).

 

[darkside03gt]

there should be no shredding of your belt. it sounds like you might have a bad mounting bracket since you had to shim it. I have 6000 miles on my vortech with quite a bit of hard driving with no signs of the belt shredding. I would order a new bracket from superchargersonline.com and see if that helps your problem because you shouldnt have to shim it to make it work. you probably ended up with some belt shred because of all the flex when driving it hard. what did you use for shims? if you used a peelable style of shim then there is your flex right there. or if you used soft washers that would also be part of your flex.

 

[jprovence]

there should be no shredding of your belt. it sounds like you might have a bad mounting bracket since you had to shim it. I have 6000 miles on my vortech with quite a bit of hard driving with no signs of the belt shredding. I would order a new bracket from superchargersonline.com and see if that helps your problem because you shouldnt have to shim it to make it work. you probably ended up with some belt shred because of all the flex when driving it hard. what did you use for shims? if you used a peelable style of shim then there is your flex right there. or if you used soft washers that would also be part of your flex.

He shimmed because he has an 8 rib system. You have to shim to put in the 8 rib stuff. I dont know what kind of shimming you did, but I would have some spacers turned if you don't already out of some t-304 stainless or 7075-T6 alumiumn that match the specs for a properly shimmed blower. I would keep playing with the sizes until you get it right though. The bracket is proably flexing a bit. But I thought vortechs had a pretty stout bracket.

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

I would guess the alignment may be off, ever so slightly, or you're getting a little belt slippage that's causing some fraying on the edge. Since it happened after going to the track, I'd probably put money on slippage. How tight is your belt?

 

[spederman]

The belt feels pretty tight. The thing i did notice is that between shifts at the track, for a fraction of a second it feels like the engine cuts out, ive heard possibly thats a symptom of belt slip. Has anybody else heard that too?

 

[SaleenGT2001]

i just shredded a rib on mine for the first time since the build. i lost the inner rib....at least there are 7 left.

anyways i think some shredding is normal considering the amount of stress we are putting on the belt to drive the s/c.

 

[spederman]

i just shredded a rib on mine for the first time since the build. i lost the inner rib....at least there are 7 left.

anyways i think some shredding is normal considering the amount of stress we are putting on the belt to drive the s/c.

I hear ya. So are you going to mess with it to see if you can get it perfect or just call it good enuf?

 

[SaleenGT2001]

i'm happy with it. last year i was going thru a belt every 400 miles, so 2500 miles per belt is fine with me!! i always keep a spare with me just in case.

 

[spederman]

i'm happy with it. last year i was going thru a belt every 400 miles, so 2500 miles per belt is fine with me!! i always keep a spare with me just in case.

How in the world do you change your belt if it happens out on the road or at a track? Vortech makes it such a beat down to change the belts. I tried to do it once and couldnt get the ****in tensioner to move enuf. I cant imagine ever doing it anywhere on the road.

 

[SaleenGT2001]

i dont even have to pull the charger off anymore. takes about 10min to change the belt.

Novi 2K FTW!

 

[spederman]

i dont even have to pull the charger off anymore. takes about 10min to change the belt.

Novi 2K FTW!

Ahhh, i didnt realize you had a Novi. Didnt you used to have a S trim? Lucky, thats why if i could do it over again i would have went procharger or Novi.

 

[SaleenGT2001]

nope, same charger i've always had. i bought the novi b/c i knew i wanted over 500 someday.

 

[rconaway]

I can't imagine having to replace a belt every 400 miles and no, shredding isn't normal. However, as horsepower goes up, shred wear does also given the additional stress on the belt. I do know that guys at Silver State with 6-rib belts on vortech mustangs and 500+ horsepower were saying the belt couldn't last 90 miles and they went to 8-rib conversions.

If you are running on a road track with a lot of hard, full-throttle shifts every lap, you will wear the belt faster for several reasons. If the belt is moving around because the blower mount or something else in the chain like the alternator, is moving around, that will make the problem worse. If it's horsepower, the belt will wear evenly. If it's not aligned or something is moving under full throttle, you will have to find that problem. If you are running very high boost and the belt is slipping on the blower pulley, that will also cause wear but again, it should be even wear. Your belt tensioner might also be too strong or too weak and is caused the problem also. Typically it's too weak and the belt slips on the blower and other things. Too strong will stretch the belt and cause premature failure.

If you are 100% sure that you have the belt aligned properley, then grab a crow bar and start testing the strenght of everything attached to the belts. You be the judge if something is mounted weakly. You can put the car on the dyno and slam the throttle/gears around and watch to see if anything is moving also.

 

[SaleenGT2001]

mine was jumping the PS pulley and shredding.

the 8 rib kit cured the problem