Serpentine kit

Post by **Pine** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:52 am

OK, Uncle Bill (Forcecooled's) son Wade has a serpentine kit on his Beetle, but does it serve any purpose other than 'eye candy?'

Post by **Pine** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:55 am

My logic says it puts more tension on the altenator pulley, so rapid bearing wear, right?

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:58 am

There are two fields of comment here...yes, and no.

At any rate, a Serpentine on a fairly stock engine does nothing but look pretty.

They mount in two ways...onto the alternator stand, which has in some cases, broken, or with custom jobs, onto the fuel stand, making an external pump necessary.

The general idea is that it lasts a lot longer than fanbelts, reduces vibration, and scqueezes that last bit of power out whereas a fanbelt produces a bit more friction.

A Serpentine will, on average, cost you between 180 and 200 US, and for most street applications, is not of any use.

Post by **Pine** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:01 pm

I see. Thanks

Post by **calooker** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:07 pm

EYE candy not good on the cooling fan above 6000 rpm's, the stock system is desighned to do X amount of RPM's above that the belt starts to slip and saves the cooling fan from blowing up. The Serpentine kit does not allow the belt to slip, so motor @ 6000 RPM's, fan is turning at about 12000 RPM's then BOOM, no fan no nothing just a Fuc#ed up motor. The temsioner does not place much pressure on the belt it can be set by hand.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:18 pm

Learn something new every day...is the fan 'geared' in that it runs at twice the rpm rate?

Likewise, unless you've got a seriously hooked up engine, 6000 will blow it to smithereens.

I'd like 4agebug's comments on this too...I know he runs a Serpentine, and all the applications I've seen them on are Hot engines

N.

Post by **calooker** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:44 pm

Ways to prevent a fan from blowing up is to get all the tabs CO2 welded and then ballanced, this helps keep the fan together, another is too have a smaller (power) pulley, which is not recommended for daily drivers. I have seen of a blown fan not a pretty sight, many broken parts, cut the fan housing open and that was with a stock belt.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:20 pm

...so I've got a new fan going into mine...who do you recommend do that, and rough cost?

Smaller pulleys are a moronic idea and destroy engines.

Post by **calooker** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:32 pm

4agebug has a smaller dia (power) pulley

Post by **Bugger** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:41 pm

I use that convig on the t4 upright turbo and do not set the belt dat sy O traan for the purpose of slippage between gear changes the Fan has a lot more momentum and takes a lot longer to slow down than your Enjin from even 4500rpm and this is where you heve for racing the same evect as what the Blow off valve does for the turbo
Now you do not have to waste critical Hp to get the fan up to spinning speed again

That is my 2 cents Racing wise but street wise you want cooling so the belt can not be to loose you will change belts every week

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:42 pm

From all the report I've read of smaller pulleys, guysnd up with all sorts of issues...all leading to damaged engines due to the higher rev rate.

Likewise for it's larger cousin.

It was enough to put me off of them, as all that I read was negative, but that's me.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:46 pm

*lol*

Pierre...layman's speak please.

From that deduce that it's a good idea as it assists with the cooling, provides quicker pulls into gear while keeping the engine performing at maximum, and you will do better with tension on the 'belt?

...or am I way off here?

Thanks, N.

Post by **Bugger** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:59 pm

John and myself had experimented alot wit this when we were running the Flag buggy
and with basically no slip on normal reving was the best for slippage between gear changes

we had the tooth belts before on Brian Birds 2.4 and this is were we learned this
between changes we striped the teeth of the belt and started to experiment with the wider belts

Coz under serious power the fanbelts used to come off or twisted
By buggy made 275Hp and 600nm of torqu on the wheels at 2 different Dynos
Nitro Performance and Alex Strydom`s so belting was a problem spinning the fan up

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:14 pm

Mhmmm...so the conclusion is, wide, ie: Serpentines, are best for big power.

...and they look badass.

Post by **Bugger** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:45 pm

Also for cooling
Remember with the wider belt the pulling force is distrubuted and you do not have to tighten the thing that it cant even turn

It all depends on the ratio of your pullys
Johns buggy kept on blowing alties
We found some wiring issues the other day sorted it and gave him a old altie 1 pin and he has been driving without blowing the altie with the pully ratio we got and he revs it 6500rpm like snap your finger