Whipple belt tension and adjuster

[pro 5.0]

I know all about belt and idler problems I had one setup that I spent nearly 2k on replacing parts from belts to billet idlers to tensioners it sucks when you have problems like that. In the end I mounted a camera in the engine compartment and I was shocked to see what was happening under there when that motor was at rpm, the belt was physically leaving the surface of some of the idlers on the gear changes. The new Whipple belt routing is a plus over the old set up as the belt is much shorter and that is always a good thing to have in the drive system, hopefully this new billet tensioner will cure these issues that some are having and we can enjoy our cars once again. I however will always keep a spare belt and the required tools to change it in my trunk cause you never know what your gonna get lol.

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[pro 5.0]

Are you running the Whipple tune what makes you think you cooked the cats ?

 

[Roh92cp]

I was surprised as well to see what sort of stresses the belt and tensioners go through under full load and when shifting gears. On my old kenne bell fox on the Dyno my an 8 rib belt at 89" would stretch soo much under a pull that it would bottom out the tensioner. I would not have though this was happening or that the belt would stretch that much under load. Lots of forces going on under the hood as Pro 5.0 discovered with his video.

 

[sigintel]

Are you running the Whipple tune what makes you think you cooked the cats ?

Drive hard and get exhaust hot and Exhaust sounds raspy with a rattle that sounds like its in the cats.
Whipple March 2016 tune. Havent updated to most recent.

 

[pro 5.0]

Drive hard and get exhaust hot and Exhaust sounds raspy with a rattle that sounds like its in the cats.
Whipple March 2016 tune. Havent updated to most recent.

That sucks I usually don't run cats with forced induction but these cars just stink too much when you remove them, not to mention the exhaust gets pretty loud depending on what mufflers you have. The Whipple tune is set up for factory exhaust I wonder why you are having problems with the cats as the factory ones should be better quality than aftermarket.

 

[Bbarfoot14]

Did the new belt setup and billet tensioner solve all issues? I just ordered the stage 1 kit. Thanks

 

[Roh92cp]

Did the new belt setup and billet tensioner solve all issues? I just ordered the stage 1 kit. Thanks

For me and 99 percent of the people who had the issue. For the ones the remain to have issue likely had something else going on.

 

[lx347cd]

So i just installed my 3.75 pulley and this is where my tensioner is at. Is this correct?
Im guessing it showing at 25 mark means its 75% in its travel?

 

[Bbarfoot14]

So i just installed my 3.75 pulley and this is where my tensioner is at. Is this correct?
Im guessing it showing at 25 mark means its 75% in its travel?

Oh that’s cool, the older kits don’t have those numeric measures so we just use clock positions lol

 

[sigintel]

Belt break on lift throttle transient?
Or WOT mid to top of pull?

Whipple description was always confusing to me cause Im dumb and it seemed ambiguous if percent travel is measured from full open/loaded/expanded or full closed/unloaded/contracted.
Like “70% travel” is like wtf.. measured from closed or open?
I broke my first belt pretty quickly too back on the 2015.

Alternatively, just observe what the tensioner is doing:

Remove Neg battery cable.
Remove belt.
Note or mark where fully closed unloaded is.
Now use socket wrench, cheater bar, whatever, to load tensioner and mark or note how far it can go to opposite stop.
Remount belt and just aim for middle of range with engine off.
Get a helper.

Helper Starts car. You observe where in range tensioner ends up at idle.
Now blip throttle to 3k (WOT and immediate sidestep to 0% throttle) and note how far tensioner swings in range.
Try using slow motion mode w iphone or similar to help capture range and tensioner bouncing around.
Continue 4k, 5k, 6k, 7k, rev limiter.
At any time if you are nearing tensioner travel limit during ACCEL, stop, pull bat neg, change tensioner setup so that tension is maintained during belt stretch on accel.
Once you get to redline, consider leaving 8-15% reserve travel available before hitting full open stop for long term belt stretch, hot belt summer traffic, etc.

 

[lx347cd]

Whipple got back to me yesterday and told me this: "you want the tensioner open about 75-80% from all the way closed. So you have 75-80% that the tensioner can travel to keep tension on the belt. Closed would be the resting position of the tensioner as if it didnt have a belt installed. Open is when you open the tensioner to install the belt". So the pic I have attached above seems correct.

 

[sigintel]

Have someone rev engine working up to redline after engine is fully hot(CHT>190 10min).
Make sure tensioner doesnt hit stop while taking up slack on the rev to 7k rpm.
Done

 

[involutions]

So i just installed my 3.75 pulley and this is where my tensioner is at. Is this correct?
Im guessing it showing at 25 mark means its 75% in its travel?

Did this ever get answered? Mine looks like that too. The tensioner arm is pointing almost straight up. Whipple told me to ignore the markings on the tensioner. I was worried the tensioner pulley would hit the nearest idler pulley. Haven't started the car yet.

 

[Bbarfoot14]

Whipple got back to me yesterday and told me this: "you want the tensioner open about 75-80% from all the way closed. So you have 75-80% that the tensioner can travel to keep tension on the belt. Closed would be the resting position of the tensioner as if it didnt have a belt installed. Open is when you open the tensioner to install the belt". So the pic I have attached above seems correct.

The way you describe would make it seem as the picture is incorrect. No belt would have the tensioner sitting almost level or at 9 o clock position. Max load has if nearly facing upward at the 11-12o clock position. In theory if you wanted to leave it so you have 80% of the motion left... it would be slightly above the first description at 9 o clock

 

[Angrey]

I really struggled through this myself. Whipple's terminology (and others) is incredibly confusing. To make matters worse, the index marking on the tensioner is nonsensical and gibberish, it doesn't seem to correspond to anything (at least anything useful).

Here's the deal.

If you call the tensioner at rest (no force applied to it and what I refer to as OPEN, but let's just call it fully EXTENDED to eliminate confusion), at rest and fully EXTENDED to be 0% of it's available travel. You want the tensioner to be set at about 80% of compression travel (meaning if you compress it 20% more it hits it's stop).

The reason for this is as the load on the belt increases with rpm and supercharger resistance, the belt stretches. As the belt stretches under load, you want the tensioner to continue to apply tension against it as it continues to extend. If you put the tensioner at 100% compressed, it's up against it's stop and you run the risk of snapping a belt. If you put the tensioner at 0% compressed, it can not provide tension any longer if the belt stretches, this results in the belt "walking" or jumping off.

Ideally, you would take these settings AFTER the belt is fully warmed (it'll elongate slightly when warm, so you're setting may be slightly more in the travel direction (less compressed).

Watch the very end of this video (5:17 mark) to observe the phenomenon at issue. As the blower climbs in rpm (and more and more load is applied to the belt) it stretches and you need most of the tensioners movement (extension) to keep good solid tension on the belt.

Concept One Shop Talk Episode 2: Supercharge Pulley System Tensioner - YouTube

I hope this helps anyone searching the forums or scratching their heads. Disregard the markings on the tensioner itself. I don't know what spectrum savant came up with them, but they're useless and only confuse the issue.

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