Whipple belt issue

[gqneon]

So I'm running my stage 2 Whipple kit now for about a month and 1200 miles. The other day I smelled a whiff of coolant and being a really proactive person I went home and got to sniffing around under the hood. I found where the 3 hoses come together near the upper neck I had a leak at the joining T and resolved it by tightening a clamp. I then worked through all the other connections and made sure I hadn't had anything shift or loosen up with heat cycling or vibration.

But in checking the belt, I noticed it seemed like it was showing a lot of wear on the non-ribbed side and that the idler pulleys all have a sticky soft rubber build up on them from the belt. This is the Gates RPM belt that Whipple sent with the kit, and I have my tensioner set correctly so it has plenty of working range with this belt.

And it got me thinking some more - I noticed a few times recently that after WOT and coming off the gas I would get a belt chirp for a split second. It didn't do this at first.

So this is my pair o' hypothesis...es....

1. Under hood temps got so high idling that the heat negatively impacted the belt life causing it to wear/melt.

2. The leak at the T-fitting could have been spritzing a bit of engine coolant out onto the belt near that idler and coating the belt unbeknownst to me while driving.

My (self) argument to #1 is that if it were THAT damn hot, it would impact other hoses, fittings, plastic, etc - which it doesn't seem to do.

My unknown on #2 is "will coolant deteriorate a belt prematurely?"

I think #2 is the most likely culprit - and it's my own fault - my BEST GUESS without your input is that coolant got on the belt and when the belt was stressed (WOT) it started slipping and transferring off to the idler pulleys.

What do you guys think? This belt looks like it could have 40k miles on it in my opinion, although it's only got 1200.

I ordered a new belt (and a 3.625 pulley - because traction's overrated anyway) from Whipple and contacted Michael there to see what he thought about the belt, too and sent him these pics. He mentioned that the pulley looks discolored which is indicative of high heat - but it might just be the light since it was iPhone + direct sunlight.

Thoughts?

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[markmurfie]

That looks like an unhappy belt. Coolant will deteriorate a belt over time. I would say that small leak, which could have easily gotten on the belt, was the issue. At 1200 miles, which is about what I have on my belt and pulleys, belt and pulleys should still look new. I think if the under hood heat got high enough to damage the belt a lot more plastic/ rubber would also suffer. Direct friction heat from the belt slipping could have prematurely worn the belt. Usually the slip happens on one of the ribbed drive pulleys not the smooth ones, unless a bearing seized up. That's simple to check for, take the belt off and check the pulleys ease of rotation. A coolant leak probably didn't cause a bearing failure as they are sealed well. You fixed the leak, put the new belt and pulley on and listen for any squealing/ chirping and check its condition every so often. I bet you will be fine from here.

 

[gqneon]

That's what I feel, also. The amount was basically seepage/slow drip but I noticed if I moved the loose connection at all while the engine was hot it would spritz a little out towards the belts. And cleaning up after that I noted I had a little spray on the alternator way down below it so I'm really hoping that's it. I went out tonight and removed the hood liner to cut a few underhood degrees out anyhow (plus the Mustang logo hidden under there is kind of cool).

What a dumb problem to have had - I'm always so cautious about not overtightening worm drive clamps I guess I undertightened that one.

Self inflicted pains lol :frusty:

**EDIT UPDATE** - I have the hood liner removed and got stuck idling in a drive through waiting on some milkshakes with the kiddos and it got up to 171 IAT (pre-compressor anyway) and 225 CHT. On an 80* day. Of course that was AC on since it was like 15 minutes. I guess that's just the peak since there aren't any fans. A minute or two of driving normal speed and it was back to 10F over ambient. It's probably nothing to worry about, I'll just keep an eye on it. I wish it vented better under there though, geez that's just too hot.

 

[gqneon]

So, I ordered a new belt out of pocket from Whipple and a new pulley (3.625) and Michael (from Whipple) tossed a spare new belt in under warranty and upgraded my shipping for me.

That's pretty cool. I always keep an "oh sh** kit" in the trunk with some tools to replace a shredded belt and fight the old one out of the engine bay (from my ProCharger days when my 8-rib would last between 500-2000 miles, depending on its mood.)

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