V-belt to Serpentine

[SquirrelCrusher]

I am trying to bring my 1980 Camaro out of the dark ages a little bit and wanted to go from the old bulky v-belts to a serpentine belt.

I bought the brackets and accessories off the internet and earlier this week went about removing all the V-belt stuff.

When I went to see what else I needed to move, I ran into a slight problem. My old SBC heads are missing a hole to bolt the serpentine brackets to.

Crappy cell phone pictures, but the passenger side head only have 1 mounting hole on it and the bracket needs 2 holes.


Anyone know of a way to correct this issue. Would I be better off just getting new heads or buying an aftermarket belt setup that doesn't bolt to the heads?

[mattawajeep]

Any reason you want to get rid of the v-belts? They're still pretty easy to find, and it's not that hard to simply carry a spare.

You adding AC or something?

[White trash]

You adding AC or something?

It already has ac although it was equipped with one of the biggest piece of crap compressors known to man.

Serpentine belts stay put at higher rpm while V belts like to jump off any time you go above 5k rpm unless you have deep groove pulleys and a bit of luck.

[SquirrelCrusher]

I just want to clean up the engine a bit. V belts setup has bulky brackets everywhere. Not visually appealing. The AC compressor is HUGE and seized up. So I figured I could swap to the serpentine belt to make it look a bit cleaner and get the smaller ac compressor.

I am also going to put a TPI intake on it and got the tpi serpentine brackets to go with it.

[SquirrelCrusher]

Anyone know if that I can just bolt it on with 1 bolt on the head instead for 2? The bracket uses 2 bolts on the head and 2 bolts at the bottom on the engine. So will 3 bolts hold it together?

Because that would be the easiest and cheapest "fix."

[SquirrelCrusher]

March Performance "Economy" belt system is $1573. Don't think I will go with that option.

[Lurch]

Anyone know if that I can just bolt it on with 1 bolt on the head instead for 2? The bracket uses 2 bolts on the head and 2 bolts at the bottom on the engine. So will 3 bolts hold it together?

Because that would be the easiest and cheapest "fix."

You can give it a try. I think it should hold ok.
Whatcha doing with all the old a/c brackets? I have been looking for some so I can work on getting a/c in the chevelle.

[SquirrelCrusher]

I was planning on letting then sit outside my garage for a few years before getting tired of looking at them and tossing them into the trash. So you are welcome to them once I get this stuff put back together and working.


A guy in Benton City rebuilds heads and sells them at PAW for $175 a side. That is another option to get some cheap heads.

I want to get my car back together for Dayton days. So I would prefer not swapping heads. If I can avoid it for now.

[SquirrelCrusher]

I bolted the brackets on today. They seem to not have any play so tomorrow I will work on getting the accesories all mounted and a new water pump put on. Hopefully this will get my back on the road for All Wheels Weekend and maybe a couple other car shows this summer.

Drilling and tapping wont work, checked an extra head I have and it woud hit an intake bolt within about 1/4in from the front.

[SquirrelCrusher]

Hopefully this weekend I will get the car running again. The brackets are bolted on and seem pretty sturdy. 3/4 bolts on the passenger side and 4/5 on the drivers side.


Anyone know of a show that can make new A/C lines from scratch?

[Lurch]

I think napa in Pasco can. Not positive tho