gear drive

[dnalbach]

Anyone know of anyone that's ever done a gear drive on a 60*v6 or any company that sells em? I have a friend that is interested in doing this to his, he says he did a gear drive mod on a v8 years ago.

[1988GTU]

Talking about the Pete Jackson setup?
Like This ?

[bszopi]

No one currently makes one, although there is a guy who I got some dimensions from GM for so that he could work on designing a set. Not sure what progress he has made on them.

[dnalbach]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Who is Pete Jackson?

Bszopi, would you be able to post the dimensions you have?

[AaronGTR]

Yeah, no one makes them yet. We've all talked about it and it seems we all want them. Whoever gets it done first is gonna have a lot of demand right off the bat. I know I'd be in for buying one.

[torq455]

wasn't there intrest in a belt drive as well? does anyone make that?

[sharkey]

id much rather have a belt drive. nice thing about a belt drive is easy timing changes are very easy and the belt doesnt transfer the harmonics from the crank to the cam, and ultimatly into the entire valve train.

[rickykline]

i think that would be a nice mod for the 3400 but gear drives are usually really noisy... belt sounds more like the way to go

[CNCguy]

FWIW.... Most articles that I have read don't recomend gear drives on engines with knock sensors because the sensors detect the gear noise as knock.

[AaronGTR]

Interesting. Hadn't heard that before, but it makes sense. So anyone know where we could get a belt drive made?... or if there's even room for one in our front cover? I'd imagine a belt drive would have to be a bit wider to be as strong as a chain drive. Maybe we'd better off with a larger, wider chain drive instead? Opinions?

[CNCguy]

Interesting. Hadn't heard that before, but it makes sense. So anyone know where we could get a belt drive made?... or if there's even room for one in our front cover? I'd imagine a belt drive would have to be a bit wider to be as strong as a chain drive. Maybe we'd better off with a larger, wider chain drive instead? Opinions?

I had considered trying to do something with the timing chain set-up but didn't see much of a demand for it. And with my time being limited for new products, I just tossed it to the side for now. As you said, TC cover clearance is the issue and a belt would most likely have to be considerably wider to handle the load.

[Joseph Upson]

I ran the PJ gears on a 383 stroker TPI engine for years. I heard about the potential for interference with the knock sensor but I don't think I ever experienced it having run against and beat a ~96 cobra on NOS, while they were in the engine.

There is a standard cut and an extra noisy cut for the mock blower whine, maybe that's where the real potential for trouble comes in. I liked the way they sounded in my car and installed them for integrity and resistance to wear over the years. Not sure I would care for them in my Fiero given how close they would be to the cockpit and on an interference engine a belt is out of the question for me.

[dnalbach]

I was under the impression that the whole point of a gear drive is to reduce the loss of horsepower and torque transference from the crank. Wouldn't a belt drive increase the loss and result in even less HP at the wheels than a chain?

[AaronGTR]

I was under the impression that the whole point of a gear drive is to reduce the loss of horsepower and torque transference from the crank. Wouldn't a belt drive increase the loss and result in even less HP at the wheels than a chain?

This has nothing to do with driving the wheels. We are talking about the chain that turns the camshaft from the crank. The chains are prone to stretching over time and eventually breaking. A gear or belt drive would be stronger.


Now that I think about it I'm not so sure a gear drive would cause problems with the knock sensor. After all the knock sensor looks for a specific frequency of vibrations to indicate detonation in the cylinders, so just having more gear noise wouldn't set it off. It would only happen if the gears where making noise in the correct frequency and depend on how much it was tranferred into the block thru the cam and crank. It's probably one of those things where there's no way to know unless someone makes one and tries it.

[sprucegagt]

I was under the impression that the whole point of a gear drive is to reduce the loss of horsepower and torque transference from the crank. Wouldn't a belt drive increase the loss and result in even less HP at the wheels than a chain?

Belt drives have been used in professional racing for years. It's the preferred method over a chain or gear drive.

Also you can get belts that are pre-stretched. So when they are installed you won't have any drift in your timing. Plus you can get them made for "wet" applications.