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Well, it's all finished! I now have a new, smaller belt in place of my old belt, and have successfully cut the A/C out of the loop in terms of pulleys and belt routing. Please check out the following pic before you read the next section, for clarification:
http://members.rogers.com/anish.ghosh/misc/Belts.bmp
Okay! So as you can see, I had anticipated some interference between the A/C pulley and the new belt route. To my surprise, there is no iterference. The new belt slid right in place. There are two nuts that secure the alternator in place, both running parallel to the crankshaft (think!!) and then the adjuster. You MUST loosen the two alternator bolts before the alternator will move. You then start undoing that adjuster bolt (long one perpendicular to the crank) until you can get the old belt off. If, while you are undoing it, the adjuster bolt starts to undo but the alternator does not move, tap it on the head with a hammer (the bolt, NOT the alternator) This will get the alternator moving and allows you to get the old belt off. The new belt is a regular serpentine belt (21mm). The belt I put on was 960mm long, but it was a little too long. I would suggest to the rest of you, to go with something in the vacinity of 850-900mm. Right now I am at the upper end of my adjustment area, so tightening it isn't going to happen. I tightened the belt to the point where I can no longer turn the middle area over 90 degrees. It is still a little looser than I would like but It'll have to do until later this week. I will be picking one up as CarQuest and I will update this post on Saturday maybe if I get around to doing it.
As for performance, I didn't notice much in the way of performance because of the fact that I was VERY concerned about the belt being too loose, as I didn't have a tensioner. However, I commute to work daily and I have seen a LARGE increase in gas mileage. I have attained almost 400kms at half-tank (V6, wow!) which is at least 50kms more than normal. That would be about 15% better, right Math boys?? Seems to be anyway. That's at about 3000rpm, and I really haven't pushed it too far. I have dyno time booked for Saturday at 2pm, so I can let you know what my baseline numbers are, but I have no numbers before that. I'll use these numbers for now, and compare them to when I get my ignition system and y-pipe. That should give us a little bit more idea of it's worth. Anyway, post questions below!
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DS
1992 V6 3VZ-FE Camry, 5 speed!
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!! Are these belts you speak of readily avail. through any mechanic or custom ordered?
Linear Mode
