Tried something new, short fan belt

[RedHeartbeat]

Well, curiosity got the best of me again. Considering how much HP the alternator, power steering and idler pulley theoretically consume I thought I'd try to rid myself of their hunger for HP. I bought a new belt that only runs around the crank pulley and the tensioner pulley. It still turns the water pump, too, but only by passing contact. So, I removed the stock LS1 f-body belt and installed the short belt. I made my 1/8 mile pass and actually added .4 seconds to my time. My only guess is that the battery voltage is lower than the alternator voltage, so the coils don't fire as hot and I lost power. I need me a 14-16 volt battery now, I assume. My battery only shows 11.4 volts when the engine is off and 14.2 when charging. I hoped that removing the parasitic loss would have helped but once again I didn't have the forethought about low voltages.

Any ideas?

[Tim Z]

well, what about some type of capacitor that would store energy for those passes down the track, ive seen them for car stereos, someone prob makes one for your app.

[RedHeartbeat]

A cap would be good for a short burst of energy but you still have to charge it before you can use it. I know the 6v battery crowd had an 8v battery you could run. I wonder if they make a true 14-16v battery available for us. I guess I could run a 6 and 8v battery in series to get the 14v. It might be tricky to charge though. I built a coil for my neighbor so he could use his 12v battery charger on his 8v battery. It envolved about 80 ft of 12 guage wire and OHMS law to dissapate enough energy to drop the voltage.

[GMCwantsLS1]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RedHeartbeat &#064; Jan 28 2006, 12&#58;12 AM) [snapback]42509[/snapback]</div>

I built a coil for my neighbor so he could use his 12v battery charger on his 8v battery. It envolved about 80 ft of 12 guage wire and OHMS law to dissapate enough energy to drop the voltage.
[/b]

I bet that made a nice heater, well I guess it would depend on how fast you charged the battery. A good magnet at any rate&#33;

[1slow01z71]

Thats wierd man I know of a bunch of people who have had no problem with the shortbelt method I was actually considering doing it. What kind of battery do you ahve on it maybe the battery has a dead cell in it

[RedHeartbeat]

Running a red top Optima battery FWIW.

[vv8]

I run the short belt and get .2 better in the 1/4, not sure what you did wrong but it should help. But every truck is diff.

Did you do a before and after run with the belt?

[NITROUS]

Just slam the juice through it Greg&#33; You got that kit sitting in the garage just waiting to get wet. Go ahead and try to get a full 2 seconds out of it.

[motoxlifer]

Any chance the track and air conditions had anything to do with it. Did you talk to anyone else to see if they were runnin off too? It rained up here last night so the humidity in the air and maybe the track sweating could cause your slower times.

[RedHeartbeat]

I ran about 20 runs that night, total. I spun off the line every time except for when I tried a 2nd gear launch. I am not sure what caused the loss of 2 full tenths. It was weird that it was my only time for such a high ET other than the 2nd gear launch. I have me some slicks to try next time. I only ran the one pass with the short belt so I may try it again next time with the slicks.