Engine Pullies

[cmegga]

Need a little help finding the right pullies. I am wanting to upgrade to the billet pullies. I found a few moderatly priced out of the Jegs cat. The problem I am having is selecting which pullies. I have an 81, I need a 3 grove crank and 2 grove water pump.

All the ones Im finding show 67 and earlier for short water pump engines. And 68-85 setup for long water pump applications. Well I have a 81 with a short water pump. What pullies would I go with ??

Any advise would be apreachiated also any feed back on a brand that I might want to be look at and where to find it.

 

[cmegga]

????

really 18 views no ideas?? i cant believe this hasnt been addressed before.

 

[RalleyRed]

Make that 19 and no idea's.

I am interested in finding out the answer too.

One thought is to call Jeg's and ask'em, I'm sure they want to sell you the set-up and would be happy to answer any and all questions you have.

Rick

 

[Stingray72]

Well, since nobody seems to know for sure, I'll take a stab at an answer.

I believe that most or all C3s used short water pumps. As I understand it, this is something pretty much unique to Corvettes, like the mechanical tach drive, but I could be wrong.

I agree with RallyRed. Just call them. I'm sure they can tell you what to get.

 

[Scott81]

Need a little help finding the right pullies. I am wanting to upgrade to the billet pullies. I found a few moderatly priced out of the Jegs cat. The problem I am having is selecting which pullies. I have an 81, I need a 3 grove crank and 2 grove water pump. Any advise would be apreachiated also any feed back on a brand that I might want to be look at and where to find it.

I'm using the March pulleys made for the 71-82 Corvette, 3 groove crank, 2 groove water pump and alternator with cap. I had to get an alternator fan and power steering pulley from Street & Performance. The March pulleys are underdrive so take note. I also bought billet brackets for the ALT and A/C, however the AC bracket will not work with the compressors on an 81 (fat stubby type R4), the bracket works with the Sanden compressor so you would have to change that and have some lines made.

I have a picture of all this while test fitting if you want me to post it. The only problems I had were finding the right belt for the ALT/PS, you have to take an old belt, cut it, place it on the pulleys and mark where it meets then measure the length and tell the dope at the auto parts store what length you need. The PS pump has a press on type pulley, IT SUCKS! If I ever have to replace my PS I'm getting an earlier pump with a screw on pulley. I was looking at my friends 67 which has that type and it's really not any different from the 81 pump.

Finding correct stock size pulleys for our application is not an easy task. And NOBODY, repeat, NOBODY makes a billet power steering bracket.....they wouldn't even make one if I sent them a stock bracket, so unless you can make one yourself you're out of luck with that.

 

[JohnZ]

The March pulleys look great, but the under-drive ratio they provide sucks - you will have charging system and cooling problems. The claims about "more horsepower with under-drive pulleys" is hogwash - you'd need NASA-grade instrumentation on a dyno to tell the difference. Functionally, the best setup is the one that came on the car.

 

[Evolution1980]

March Underdrive

I have the March Underdrive Pulleys on my car as well (1980, ZZ4). I don't know the P/N off the top of my head, but I can find it if you want it. I bought them from Summit Racing. They look great and I've had no cooling problems with my car, even just burbling around town at low RPMs (which is when they are the least effective for your cooling system.)

I also did a little trick on mine. My main pulley was a 3-groove and the water pump a 2-groove. With a little looking around, I was able to put 2 belts to the water pump. Why? Here's why...

On the original setup I had when I put in the ZZ4 engine, I only had one belt going to the water pump. Well, as I unfortunately found out, going from sustained high RPMs to super hard breaking caused the belts to spin right off the pulleys. (And yes, they are the correct belts and pulleys. Just a case of physics doing their thing.) So with the March Pulley setup I was able to run two belts to the water pump. I call it insurance from having to drive without a water pump again! The only tricky part was that you have to install the pulley and belt at the same time, as there's no way to release the tension on the engine and water pump pulley. if you want a picture of that, I can up it to my pictures site.

 

[1979toy]

All C3's use a short water pump that is unique to the Corvette. The shaft in the pump is 3/4 inch diameter verses 5/8ths on a standard short pump. That is also the reason that you can not use a billet or chrome replacement pulley. Those pulleys are made for the 5/8ths shaft and you would have to ream them out for use on a Corvette pump. You will find that it's much harder than it looks to ream one out without offsetting or oversizing it.
Hope this information helps.

 

[Evolution1980]

March makes an underdrive pulley set especially for the C3's (and other model Corvette's as well.) No mods of any sort were needed.

If my pics aren't appearing in my post above, you can go to...

http://photos.yahoo.com/thethingsido

...from there, click on the ENGINE link and there are some pics of the pulleys on my car.

 

[cmegga]

evolution ?

What color is that blue and who makes its ?? That is an outstanding color. I like the stripes as well.

 

[Evolution1980]

Check your email cmegga...

 

[Evolution1980]

Getting back to the pulleys...

Both Corvette Central and Ecklers have the billet pulley setup that you need. Ecklers also has the correct March Underdrive set that you might want. The billet March Underdrive pulleys from Ecklers are listed at $259 (but if ya find 'em cheaper, they'll beat the price by 1%....ooohhh-ahhh...)

 

[Chris N]

I just got my 3 groove aluminum crank pulley from Jegs; for small block chevy w long WP.('76 Suburban) All 3 grooves are the same dia, but the stocker had two sizes. Since two belts go around the WP pulley I can't use it; one would slip.
Watch out for this problem.
I guess I'd need a new WP pulley with equal dia grooves also.
Any advise folks?
Chris N :confused

 

[Scott81]

Chris,

Try Street & Performance they make all kinds of pulley setups. Their web site isn't a million dollar project but they have some very nice shiny parts! I got a set of billet brackets and PS pulley from them.

On another note, I have the March underdrive pulley set on my new 383, while we were getting it running I had no charging problems, didn't run it long enough to test out the temp though.