So, after many years I finally installed my serpentine kit. Naturally nothing went as planed because...Riviera. This was the third attempt. I had to recreate the mounting plates for the brackets and then spend time measuring and relocating a pulley so that I did not have to spend $$$$s to buy a custom or odd length belt. I still have AC compressor wiring to complete and AC plumbing to install but the car is road worthy again. This is complete opinion at this point but I believe the engine cranks easier for starting, idles smoother and revs quicker. (This was not the reason I did this conversion). I did it because of simplicity and accessibility of the engine. Nevertheless, the improvement of engine motoring just seems very noticeable. But who knows. I am contemplating on actually measuring the forces required to turn a vbelt pulley under tension as compared to the micro V (serpetine belt) pulley under tension. I have materials to build a rig and two alternators that have the same pulley diameter but different style belt application.
Okay, my off the cuff experiment was not necessarily conclusive. I lifted a 50lb weight at a set rate as humanly possible. I got a work out because I repeated it several times between the serp and the vbelt pulleys (interchanging multiple times). I do want to drive the belt at a set rate to get more conclusive measurements. In driving the pulleys I want to measure the electrical power required to turn each at a set revolution. As far as the current set up, I measured 52 to 54 lbs to pull the Vbelt over the pulley at 90 degrees. Regarding the serp belt I was more likely to get 52 to 53 lbs to pull at 90 degrees. Now again this is still subjective regarding kinetic friction since I technically did not control the rate. The numbers observed are when the system is in motion. But, I did notice it does take more effort to get the vbelt to start turning. So, at a minimum it is my opinion that the vbelt system was making it harder for the starer to crank the engine.
