Serpentine Belt vs V belt

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  • racert22
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2012
    • 795

    #1

    Serpentine Belt vs V belt

    Considerin buyin a serpentine pulley setup.. anybody know if its worth havin.. n is they any gain in motor performance over the v-belt setup??
  • FlatTire
    Senior Member
    • Jul 2007
    • 560

    #2
    Yes there are differences in power loss between v-belts and serpentine belts. Your serpentine belts perform better because they have a thinner cross section which results in better flexibility/conformance which results in less friction which means less heat build up and less slippage making the serpentine belt more efficient and consuming less hp.

    You always want a v-belt with cogs. They don't slip as much and generate less power loss(1%-2% less than a non-cogged version). Also serpentines don't need pulleys that are as big as v-belt setups do. This will save on bearing/shaft seal wear like you see on water pumps.

    The ultimate is your gilmer/HTD synchronous belts. They don't slip so you don't have any of the negative effects as you do with a v-belt/serpentine in regards to slippage.

    I've seen a test that compared several v-belts to gilmer/HTD belts. The efficiencies of a gilmer/htd are several percent greater than the classic v-belts. Your horsepower loss will be about 3 times less with a gilmer/htd belt.
    We are talking about hp loss of less than 1hp so the differences are small but there are differences. If I was building the ultimate crate engine I would look for every advantage I could get.

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    • powerslide
      Senior Member
      • May 2007
      • 2696

      #3
      Idler or no idler on the serpentine setup?

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      • powerslide
        Senior Member
        • May 2007
        • 2696

        #4
        And i'm curious if the HTD/Gilmer setup is more better why do we not see it on any of the dirt late model teams motors?

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