Belt drive on the street?
 

Anyone do this? Pros? Cons?

Obviously cost is a con, and it may be overkill for the street, so please leave those factors out of your answers. But could there be problem running one on the street?

Other than remote possibility of a "foreign object" getting caught up in it, I don't see any down side. Water won't hurt it. Dust/dirt accelerates wear, but how much and how long would you be exposing drive to excessive amounts?

I know a BBC friend that would not do it again. It's not worth the risk in my opinion. His snapped and trashed the heads n block with the collision. It was jesel set up too. You are exposing them to much longer duration than they are intended for in my opinion. His was rebuilt w a chain.

Car would only be driven on nice days and probably not very far. Hopefully see as much track time as it does street time. Wondering if a cover could be fabbed up to keep dirt/debris out. But as mysticmissle noted wondering about life when used on street.

This was just a thought as I started thinking about ways to reduce harmonics/vibration throughout an engine.

Been running my bop belt drive on street for two yrs now , I take it out and street race it at our two roads , drive out 45 min n back to garage . N some local cruise nights . Just keep back about 4 car lengths when driving behind people . You need to really watch the road . My car only comes out to race on our top ten fastest nj list . At #7 on list . Only Pontiac :)

I don't see an issue. These belts are made of the same material as timing belts and those last on some engines 90k+ miles.

Wade has told me that his belts are capable of running in oil.

When Mark was with B.O.P. they tested the 1st belt drive on his 64 GTO street car... Zero issues... a ton of new cars come with timing belts.. i wouldn't hesitate driving mine on the street... if you are afraid, put a Rollmaster timing chain set on it and don't worry about it... they wear out too though..

I do not see why some sort of cover could not be fabricated. You could make it out of 16 gauge or so steel. Just has to be enough of a cover to keep debris out. I say go for it if that is what you want.

Run it. No different than the belt drives on Harley's.

Brian

Only issue might be catching a foreign object in the belt and breaking the belt.

A simple flat belt guard of perforated metal material (with a couple of mounting legs in front of the belt drive would deflect almost any road debris that you would encounter and save the belt. It would allow cool air to the belt and you could still see the belt system at car shows.

Tom V.

I have close to 3000 miles on mine. I pulled it off not long ago and the belt looked great. Doesn't mean I'm not worried about something getting into the belt.

PMD overhead cam did it 44-41 years ago, with Rev capability

Yeah I understand a lot of 4 and 6 cylinders used them, but I've got more valve springs and probably more spring pressure than most of those. I'm betting that will add a little more stress on the belt.

We have a belt drive tucked under a Pontiac timing cover.

http://www.rmrestoration.com/restora...03-intake.html

Calvin Hill
Hill Performance
708-250-7420