march performance is crap

[SafariWagon]

Complete junk, I agree. I had a set a few years ago on a 71' Chevelle. Claimed to be polished, they were not. They had a machine finish. The natural machine finish was excellent but you could see machining marks. Still false advertising in my opinion. I don't think they heat treat the components either. I would expect a fairly easy wear out on their products. They have a thick as hell clear powder coat and that's it. Besides at like $1400 for a serpentine set that's about half the value of most of our cars!

 

[slone56]

Click my bottom link of my signature for a pic of the installed stuff. I can't figure out how you guys put a pic in your signature, or in the body of a message.

 

[350_85cutty]

i have the march serpantine pulley kit for my sbc and it was kinda confusing all the kits that you can chose from for the diff kind of water pumps and power steering pumps etc., i had my mechanic put it in for me, he recommended getting the setup to me, he's done a couple motors up with their kits so he knew what to order, he did have to make some aluminum spacers and play around with it to get it to fit but it looks good and when you get it right, it's legit, i think it was money worth spent, i get compliments all the time, the clear powdercoat finish so you never have to polish them again just wipe clean, pretty much zero maintenance. hope you can figure it all out i know that feeling of just wanting to get things over and done with throw all the hassles and headaches away and just go for a cruise

heres a couple pics of mine

 

[slone56]

i got it all in, there wasn't any confussion on what to order, just ticked off that the R&D spent on these kits could have been done better by a bunch of monkeys.

I guess I have a hard time understanding that there is such a differance in blocks. This kit starts being built from the water pump holes, and move outward from there. As far as I know, all the water pump holes are in the same place on all blocks. All water pumps mount on the centerline of the block. So there must be some that pumps that mount higher than others? Don't think so, I have never heard of a LONGER timing chain, to accomodate this imaginary block.

The alternator belt deflection has no good excuse for being off. No matter what platform that you start building this kit, each componant should end up with the same measurement from the said platform. You can't tell me that on some blocks this kit will work just fine!?!? No, I am not buying it. I couldn't buy it if I wanted to, I have no money left, after paying for this overpriced stuff! :evil:

There web site and personal tech assist said there kits need 37" belts for both of these accesories. My sizes are 39" and 33.75" Not even close. The guy told me it must be the way my harmonic balancer mounts up LOL!!! Seriously, this is what he said to me. Doing the math, my crank must have a 2.6" offset. Explains why I can't get the timing marks to line up!

 

[slone56]

i have the march serpantine pulley kit for my sbc and it was kinda confusing all the kits that you can chose from for the diff kind of water pumps and power steering pumps etc., i had my mechanic put it in for me, he recommended getting the setup to me, he's done a couple motors up with their kits so he knew what to order, he did have to make some aluminum spacers and play around with it to get it to fit but it looks good and when you get it right, it's legit, i think it was money worth spent, i get compliments all the time, the clear powdercoat finish so you never have to polish them again just wipe clean, pretty much zero maintenance. hope you can figure it all out i know that feeling of just wanting to get things over and done with throw all the hassles and headaches away and just go for a cruise

heres a couple pics of mine

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/bowtie-1.jpg

Is your heater box modified? Or is that factory? I like it. Can you give me details. I want to remove my a/c box, and hook the heater back up. I think these cars came with heaters only right? All the after market plates that I see, remove both.

 

[SafariWagon]

I forgot to post this last time. I used these guys for my 68 Camaro with a BB Chevy. Cog belt system, very nice quality. To run accessories like Power steering and a/c they use a V-belt system behind the cog belt, so you have both. Looks very racy. Only draw back I can see is they only make them for SB and BB Chevy. I need Pontiac this time! 🙁 http://www.blackmountainprecision.com/

 

[350_85cutty]

yeah some did come with factory AC delete and just a heater box. I just cut the AC junk out and i was going to keep my heat, but i couldnt figure out how to get it to work, so I'm thinking of just taking it all out and just using that blockoff plate. heres a pic. Blake442 can tell you more as he's done a couple conversions before, it's alot more than what i did, you have to take out the dash and change the duct work and find the correct heater control w/o air controls and a couple other things to do it right........

 

[custom442]

Someone please explain how cog belts (for vehicles under about 800hp) and serpentines are better than v-belts. I get how they can look cool, but it's hurting performance over the same in cheap v-belt form. You run two v-belts off the crank, it's the same rotating mass/inertia as running a serpentine and better than a cog driven belt, less you're worried about the water pump belt flying off the pulley??

A whole nice looking v-belt system can be bought for under 80$ new, a lightweight or underdrive system can be had for under 150$

done with my rant :x

 

[dan2286]

Someone please explain how cog belts (for vehicles under about 800hp) and serpentines are better than v-belts. I get how they can look cool, but it's hurting performance over the same in cheap v-belt form. You run two v-belts off the crank, it's the same rotating mass/inertia as running a serpentine and better than a cog driven belt, less you're worried about the water pump belt flying off the pulley??

A whole nice looking v-belt system can be bought for under 80$ new, a lightweight or underdrive system can be had for under 150$

done with my rant :x

Serpentine belt systems are easier to work on and maintain. You only have one belt and it is automatically tensioned. No more taking off a bunch of belts just to get one of them changed. No need to adjust the tension every once and a while and you do not need to worry about getting the tension to tight or to loose.

I don't see why it would be more efficient though, it has the extra weight of idler pulleys and tensioners it has too spin, but it might not really make much of a difference.

If I had a choice, I would go with a serpentine set up just for the fact that it is cleaner looking and easier to work on. But since I have an Olds, the only kit available is March's one and that is garbage from what I hear. There are people making custom set ups that work good, so that is probably what I will try one day.

 

[custom442]

If I had a choice, I would go with a serpentine set up just for the fact that it is cleaner looking and easier to work on. But since I have an Olds, the only kit available is March's one and that is garbage from what I hear. There are people making custom set ups that work good, so that is probably what I will try one day.

That's what I mean... I could buy some nice aluminum or chrome pulleys and have a few v-belts and half the people at a car show wouldn't know the difference. I just don't understand I guess, it's so much money for nothin IMO