[66coupe289]

I like this look, just have a rookie question. Is that enough wrap on the water pump pulley?

The multi rib belt has more contact area per inch of belt vs a V belt, so contact area could be equivalent. Consider a true serpentine system, the flat back of the belt drives the waterpump, so having the grooved side drive it would reduce the amount of wrap needed.

 

[66coupe289]

Part of the 'big deal' about a serpentine setup is that you get more wrap around the pulleys compared to a normal "v-belt" routing. If you use a multi-rib flat belt with the old routing, you don't gain a thing. In fact, the V-belts 'grab' the pulleys because of the way they bunch up when you bend them sharply, allowing them to hang onto the pulleys better than a serpentine type belt in the same configuration.

The factory serpentine belt setup routes the belts through pulleys in a way that makes more of the flat belt touch the pulleys, getting more grip with less resistance. They last longer, and steal a little less power, plus your alternator won't squeal anymore.

So bottom line here: Yes, you can route a serpentine belt that way, using serpentine pulleys. But it's not the best idea. If you have an upgraded alternator, to make it not squeal, you'd have to run a lot of tension, and that may cause premature wear on your water pump and alternator.

A serpentine belt typically has 6-8 small V grooves that similarly would "bunch up" when bended.

When I went to a high output alternator I had to go from single to dual V belts to stop the squeal. Perhaps avoiding squeal is why CVF uses an 8 rib belt vs a more typical 6 rib.

 

[66coupe289]

CVF also has a line of 6 rib pulleys and belts sold under the "Spartan" label on their ebay page. kip

Had they had that when I bought my double V, I may have gone that route. I did not like the idea of harder to find, and more $, 8 groove belts.

 

[66coupe289]

When a flat belt is on a flat surface, anything besides 'flat' (and that includes grooves and bunching) actually reduces the amount of surface area in contact with the pulleys, thus reducing surface area and friction.

When a V-Belt is in a deep "V" groove pulley, and it expands sideways as it 'wrinkles' from wrapping tightly around a curve, that forces it harder against the sides of the V of the pulley, and greatly increases grip.

The flat back of a serpentine against the flat water pump pulley actually has more friction than the 'ribbed' side against a flat pulley.

However, if the pulley is grooved, and has ribs that match the ribs on the serpentine belt, that increases surface area and friction too.

I have never seen a grooved side of a multi-rib belt ride on a smooth pulley. Look at the pulleys on a serpentine setup, They all have grooves to match the belt except for the ones that ride on the back of the belt.

The contact area of a typical V belt is slightly more than 5/16" on each side of the belt, so 5/8" total. An automotive multigroove belt is atleast that before adding in the extra area afforded by the grooves.

 

[66coupe289]

If it is only the alternator squeal of a 3G alternator you're trying to solve, then you can also change the voltage regulator to the time delay "white" voltage regulator.
Time delay voltage regulator on eBay

Does that work every time you rev your engine? What starts the 10 second delay?

 

[66coupe289]

There's a wire from the alternator that goes to a switched source. When you start your engine, the alternator gets a signal from that wire to start charging. I get the squeal when I start my engine, but not when it's up and running. When I've kicked up the RPM's to pass or get on the freeway, or just to see how things are running when I punch it, I don't get a squeal from the alternator, or I'm just not hearing it.

Okay. With my high output alternator, I would get a squeal with a single V belt when rev'ing. I even had under drive pulleys. Thus, the alternator delay would not have solved a problem like mine. I cured it with dual V belts. Some go the multi-rib belt option.

 

[66coupe289]

Forgive me if I missed this somewhere in the posts, but I am running a 130 amp 3G with a single deep V groove HIPO/Boss pulley and it has never squealed. Cheaper than switching to serpentine or multi ribbed.

I expect that would work as it is significantly larger in diameter than a standard pulley so there is more contact area.