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Serpentine or Individual Belts ? |
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| No matter how Old School you go of course there are still items that need to be driven
by belts and pulleys,ie:water pump, alternator,power steering, a/c, and there are a lot of variations, and Chevy,
in all its wisdom, used all of them with the Astro, sometimes all of them at
once. Astro had V-belts and serpentine belts ,on some of the older models,both V belts and serpentine on the same engine, the newer ones use just one belt, a long, unwieldy, frustrating,hard to position, Serpentine belt that runs everything. I wanted to use indivdual belts,I hated the idea of depending on one belt for all my accessories, all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. I also dreamed of having a matched set of March billet underdrive V Belt pulleys, too, haha, dream on. I searched high and low but nowhere could I find replacements for ALL of my pulleys in a V-Belt, the serpentine is a wide belt whereas V belts ride in a narrow channel so of course a pulley change was in order,so, in frustration, I asked for advice, Could I use the original Astro serpentine setup, and if so, could I expect any problems?. Mistake Two:Following More Bad Advice: I was told no problem, a serpentine belt setup would work on my 350, that the right and left V-6 castings used to secure the accessories would fit my heads. Wrong. The older style Chevy engines ( like the brand new one I bought) do not have enough bolt holes on the right ( passenger ) side head for the late model serpentine setup, The mount on that side takes three bolts, the older head has ONE bolt hole. Imagine the excitement and drama as I drilled into my brand new cast head to create bolt holes I was told not to worry about.And tapping them for threads was a treat, too. I did it, and sweated all the while, but my advice to you is get the newer used engine if you are going used ( 87-95) or buy the newer engine with the newer heads if going new. Its about 600 bucks more but well worth it in my opinion, had I known I would have gone that way. Plus, you get roller lifters and cam, better heads and a boost of about 60 HP over the older 350. The GM part number for it is .#12486041. Anyhow, the engine ( and I) survived the drilling, I used the original Astro castings and bolts and it has worked pretty well since . Good news was,the left ( driver's side) head was no problem, I even kept my a/c and had enough bolt holes , so go figure. Another note:Chevy 350's run clockwise, if you use the older engine buy a clockwise rotation water pump if using the original individual pulley setup. For the serpentine setup, make damn sure you get a newer water pump that runs counterclockwise,the serpentine setup reverses the clockwise direction of the engine by the time it reaches the water pump. I was sold the wrong pump ,and guess what? They look the same from the outside and you can't tell which is which until your temp guage needle bounces off the pin.And its a lot easier removing/installing a water pump with the engine out of the van then in, my skinless knuckles will attest to that. |
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