Belt - Upper Radiator Hose Contact

[WHYTLIE]

I recently installed an LQ4/4L80e into my son’s ‘86 El Camino. Speed Engineering 1 7/8” headers, Holley Blackheart 3” exhaust, Holley mother mounts and Holley trans crossmember.

I ended up using a LS Camaro water pump with Dirto Dingo (?) 3/4” spacers. Found an off the shelf Gates upper rad hose PN 22826 that worked with the Summit LS swap radiator (both pass side inlet/outlet). And had to custom build a lower rad hose with two 90° silicone couplers and an ICT Billet coupler. Also using a Holley Terminator Max.

Fast forward around 500 miles and I notice a damp spot under his car and realize the accessory belt is grooving into the top of the upper radiator hose.

I ended up swapping the stock 3.5” truck idler pulley for a 3”, and going with a shorter belt, but after a test drive I see it’s still making contact, even though there is about a 3/4” air gap between the hose and belt.

I have a Dirty Dingo truck idler pulley relocation kit on and and figure this may solve it, but I’m not thrilled with the wrap on the crank pulley.

Positive is the Dirty Dingo kit will reroute the belt so that in the future we don’t have to pull the upper rad hose to remove/replace the belt.

Your thoughts? Anyone run into this issue before? Solutions?

 

[383_StealthRam]

I'm not an LS swap expert, but post some pics and lets have a look...I'm sure guys here with LS swaps will likely chime in, and as the old adage goes...a picture paints a thousand words. 👍

 

[Texas82GP]

I'm wondering if the hose is sucking closed under heavy throttle, distorting it's shape and causing it to contact the belt. I'm wondering if a spring in the hose or perhaps if building a more rigid hose assembly using metal tubing and sections of rubber hose would solve the problem.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

Is it possible that the hose is bouncing while on the road or perhaps the hood is pushing it down?

 

[WHYTLIE]

Great advice, photos, duh. I can’t believe I overlooked that.

The belt is contacting the hose in the area of the hard pipe from the water pump, so I don’t believe the hose is swelling, or moving. Free revving the engine in park I can see the belt/tensioner move, and oddly one time the belt moved down towards the hose, but most often the tensioner would pull the belt up and away from the hose.

Like most LS swaps, this is a mishmash of parts.

‘02 F-body water pump With Dirty Dingo spacers, I believe it’s an F-body tensioner, smaller metal Dorman (I believe) PS pulley.

I did find an idler pulley that is a 3” diameter instead of the factory truck 3.5” diameter one and installed that with a 1” shorter belt and new upper rad hose. After about 10 miles of test drive and several WOT runs, it still appears to be contacting the hose, just slightly.

I think I’ll be installing the ICT Billet idler relocation kit to reroute the belt, if nothing else to allow for belt removal/replacement without having to remove the upper rad hose (for ease of maintenance or possible roadside failure repairs.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

Based on those pics I'd say you're on the right track with relocating the tensioner/ idler setup. A tensioner that moves a little is fine but it shouldn't allow that much movement, and that's the only way I see the belt wearing into the hose like that. If the spring isn't completely shot and remedied by a simple replacement then relocation seems logical to me.

 

[WHYTLIE]

The tensioner was a new AC Delco unit installed with the new AC Delco water pump. Tension seems good on it. Maybe a tensioner off another vehicle/engine would locate the pulley higher? Or maybe a larger pulley on the tensioner could help too.

I guess I’ll see once I get the idler relocation kit installed and hope the belt routing works out.

Sucks to “waste” money on things for a temporary setup, as the plan is to get the AC working on this car again, and I have the Holley pass side high mount AC kit in mind. That will again reroute everything and runs everything off one belt, unlike the factory truck, and I think F-Body dual belt setups.

Pic below with the white background is the ICT Billet idler relocation and new belt routing. Pic below with the plywood/shop background is an ICT Billet idler relocation kit that somebody routed the belt their own way for more “wrap” on several pulleys.

Gotta love these LS engines and playing adult Lego with them.

 

[WHYTLIE]

More to the saga. Installed the smaller idler pulley and a shorter belt. After several test drives, almost zero contact with the upper rad hose or hose clamp.

Then my son calls and said the belt is “shredded”. Luckily the ICT Billet idler relocation kit arrived (albeit a day late, thanks Amazon, seems to be occurring more and more frequently…).

Double lucky, found the “correct” belt in stock in town. Fixed it in about 10 minutes in his high school parking lot, and didn’t have to remove the upper rad hose either. But I did have to go back to the original/larger idler pulley.

Sucks that all this is “temporary” until we do a pass side high mount AC kit…

 

[Texas82GP]

More to the saga. Installed the smaller idler pulley and a shorter belt. After several test drives, almost zero contact with the upper rad hose or hose clamp.

Then my son calls and said the belt is “shredded”. Luckily the ICT Billet idler relocation kit arrived (albeit a day late, thanks Amazon, seems to be occurring more and more frequently…).

Double lucky, found the “correct” belt in stock in town. Fixed it in about 10 minutes in his high school parking lot, and didn’t have to remove the upper rad hose either. But I did have to go back to the original/larger idler pulley.

Sucks that all this is “temporary” until we do a pass side high mount AC kit…

No pics of relocated idler?