Swapping early 90s truck serpentine front drive system to G body?

[HAFROD]

Went to my local u pull it yard and there are a lot of early 90s Chevy trucks there. I noticed the front serpentine drive system would be a cool upgrade but lots of mods needed. Has anyone done it? Is it more trouble than its worth? I would love the single wide belt configuration. My car is a 78 Cutlass aero that WAS a Chevy 305/manual 4 speed but now I have a rebuilt mid 70s 350 Chevy. Would love to know the mods needed with part numbers to pull this off. My car does have factory AC. The new AC hoses and electrical hook ups are what would have me stumped the most but the power steering looks like another can of worms. Anyone?

 

[Toby Arnot]

Greetings,

I have done this swap on my '70 C-10/350Crate. I love the simplicity of the serpentine belt. The PO of the truck had installed an aftermarket A/C and the multiple V-Belts were almost impossible to align properly. Do the swap, you won't regret it. The mounting brackets will work even though some heads don't have all the mounting holes. No Problem. Use the ones you have . Pretty straight up. Must use a reverse-rotation water pump. I use '90 Chevy Truck as a reference. These trucks used R-12 in a GM Type R4 (round) compressor. If your Cutlass has the same type you can use the existing compressor. If you have an external regulated alternator, hook-ups should be pretty standard. I was able to use the '90 truck P/S pump by switching out the relief valve and hose from the old pump. low pressure hose is just that, 3/8 hose and screw clamps. Hopefully some others here can elaborate.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Bad thing about S belts are the belt tensioners which are the weak link that wears out first and usually takes the belt with them. Those things can also slip and snap back hard, have a nasty scar on one of my fingers from working on a S belt tensioner that snapped back on me.

Another disadvantage of S belts is if it snaps you instantly lose multiple critical functions at once.

 

[pontiacgp]

I have that set up in my GP. It works great and never had a problem with the tensioner and keep a spare belt in the trunk just in case. The great thing about it is with a wrench to pull back the tensioner it takes a minute or two to get the belt on and there is no adjustment to make.

 

[ssn696]

I think the truck system is similar to the F-body system - the AC compressor is on the passenger side, so you'll need to be creative mixing and matching hoses and the condenser. My strategy is to use a '91 Caprice AC setup - just have not bought the parts to try out just yet. Let us know if you have an attack of brilliance...R&D stands for Rip-off and Duplicate...

 

[pontiacgp]

I think the buicks have the compressor on the passenger side

 

[HAFROD]

If the water pump is reverse rotation then I probably need the trucks clutch fan too? I'm assuming backwards water pump equals opposite blade pitch on fan from my original

 

[Toby Arnot]

If the water pump is reverse rotation then I probably need the trucks clutch fan too? I'm assuming backwards water pump equals opposite blade pitch on fan from my original

Yes, you will need the correct clutch fan for reverse-rotation. The fan blade itself come in several diameters.

 

[ssn696]

To fit the G-body, you need a reverse-rotation fan. The blades are pitched the opposite way. Look for one in a 90s truck or Caprice. Five blades. I did find an 8-blade reverse rotation fan in what must have been a big block pickup.

 

[Lindsay]

I pulled the serpentine system from a '94 C2500 p/u with a 5.7L and those brackets are identical to ones on 1998-2004 4.3L S-10's.
I owned a '98 S-10 and can verify the brackets are identical. You'll need a CS130 alternator that replaces your CS144 unit and an adapter plug that connects your Olds alternator harness to the CS130 alt. You can get the adapter from NAPA and the CS130 plug differs according to the alternator you are using.
Overall, it's definitely worth the swap.