picture of my belt set up, then a picture of the belts themselves.

[IMG]local://upfiles/5543/B660CF6F15394907BCBD509C25AEDAA4.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/5543/46EC1057FF99433F8E71E41126AAC1CB.jpg[/IMG]

 

The only problem I see there Nick is that by removing the second belt you may throw the crank off balance. This cars are designed to run with all of their accessories now days. As opposed to the engine in Pats mirada the accessories were add ons to the engine. It might not cause any problems, or perhaps nothing a re-timing could not fix.

Joe

 

hmm never thought of that variable. how much does a re-timing cost

 

A simple timing adjustment is not much. Actually its included in the price of a tune up. But if the timing is changed, you could run into reliability issues, which could require significant work. My advice is to leave it alone. Plus when you trade it in(do it in the winter!) if the belt is gone that will tip off the used car clown, and give you less for the trade.

Joe

 

umm..joe and nicko...i dont know about that balance issue, because I am sure that some of the intrepids came without AC. but i dont know if removing everything would really give you that much of a kick.

 

on my bros rx-7 he removed everything that has to do with the a/c. and got rid of the clutch fan. now i know for a fact that if you take off the clurch fan and run electric thats more hp at least on a 7 it is. we dynoed it before and after he gained 8 hp. im not so sure its going to give you more hp but i do think that the motor will run with way-less stress to it and it will probably run a lil bit cooler. my 2 cents

 

what gen RX-7? if it was a third, thats a 255 factroy hp engine? so you had about a 3% gain in power. i agree 100% that the clutch fan and AC crap will help, but i think that nickos car already has electric fans, so it would only be the effect of ditching the compressor.

 

Every trep built came with air. So the crank is balanced to have two drive belts. I did say it may do nothing abnormal. I was just letting him know the possibilities. The possible gain would be minute at best, so once again I say leave it alone.

Joe

 

wow..i would have figured that at least some of them came without AC..interesting..

 

You will free up some horsepower, lose some weight and the engine will rev up slightly quicker and easier, but you will also develope a problem by doing this. In the older cars you could do this without any problems what so ever, but not in the vehicles made for the past decade or so. Modern vehicles have their defroster using the A/C compressor to dry and clear the windows of humidity, fog, frost and ice. With the A/C disabled or removed the defroster will only blow cold air that doesn't remove or dry off the windows. Your heater will be fine, but your defrosters will be useless.