VN-VS 5Litre V8 Belt issues

[VX L67 Getrag]

Howdy all,

Just wondering if there's an easy way to stop belts jumping off on the early V8's under high RPM?

The P/steering belt is a PITA to adjust at the best of time with big plate on complete pump housing you need to move to adjust.
Both P/steering & alternator seem to jump under high RPM but not loose enough to squeal or make any noise any other time, guessing there probably is a gilmer system but that would be a bit pricey for this customer I'm guessing. Just thinking there might be better belt or adjusting system that could be used?

Any advice or idea's welcome

[Gareth]

I've done a couple of VT V8 pulley conversions on earlier commodores for the same problem, they seem to work fine for high output engines.

Its very important to check pulley alignment too

[HQ355]

As above make sure belts are aligned and this may sound strange but belt brand contributes as well. On my old motor I tried everything to get it to stop throwing belts and another mate was having the same problem, one day he swapped his belts and got them from another supplier and got another brand. It hasn't thrown a belt since, I removed the bos..h ones from mine and it never did it again. I use gates belts on my motor atm and havnt had a problem

[Holden202T]

just out of interest what sort of RPM's do you need to go over for this to be an issue ? I've never heard of it before on a 5ltr, but im not surprised, some of the belts are along way from the crank.

I've seen quite a few people in speedway put contraptions on the motor to stop the belt flapping around, mostly on falcon 6's though.

[Gareth]

Its not all about the high RPM, its more how fast the engine accelerates...

Like you said 202, the belts travel a long way from the crank.

[immortality]

I thought sudden changes in engine speed are also a major contributing factor.

[ralcool]

And, Don't bother with the twin water pump pulley setup on the VS series 2... supposedly to fix the issue.

It was always a pain to get the tension of two different length belts to synchronize.

One goes around crank - alt - w/pump
Other around the crank - p/steer - w/pump

After a while the pulleys wear, and the thing chews through belts like nothing you've seen.

[VX L67 Getrag]

Thanks for the replies guys, I never actually had the issue when tuning it so not sure how high in the rev range it's happening or what gear/speed.

I know there is a racing series of belts too, but not sure if there any better then stock for flexing or what!

[VK_3800]

They are rarely a problem with the V belt, sounds like something isn't right. As already mentioned definitely check the pulley alignment (missing parts from/incorrect/bent power steer bracket is common) but if I had to guess I would say ralcool probably has it right about the worn (or maybe damaged) pulleys - this is something that could be masked by a different/new belt.

[vlt304]

limiter bashing will throw belts easy on the 5L