Tensioner/Belt Problems with Vortech

[chaoscentral]

Ever since I blew up and had to replace my transmission with a built one back in May I've had belt/tensioner problems. First thing I did was replaced the tensioner when I got the car back from the transmission shop in May. The tensioner lasted 2 days when it snapped in half during a 3-4 shift.

So I put the OEM one back on and replaced the belt with a brand new one. Made sure all the pulleys lined up and everything.

Everything seemed to be working fine the past few months cut to yesterday and my tensioner pulley started squeaking out of nowhere on anything higher than idle. Figured maybe I just needed to regrease the tensioner pulley. No more than a few hours later I hit the gas a little in a 2-3 shift and snap goes the OEM tensioner.

At this point I'm contemplating selling the Vortech and going a different route. What are your guys' thoughts on what might be causing this. Belt tensions seems fine, theres no slack when tight and when I took the belt off to regrease the pulley there was enough slack when putting tension on the tensioner I could get the belt off the alternator no problem.

I don't want to have to keep replacing tensioners, and really don't want to spend $300+ on a Thumprrr.

Any suggestions? I tried searching came up with nothing.

 

[blownGTvert]

Surprised you are breaking tensioners with an auto at your boost level on a centri. For what it's worth I ran my Vortech V3 maxed at 16psi with a billet UPR tensioner. Also ran the same UPR with my Kenne Bell blower. Never an issue with the UPR. Good tensioner for $160.

 

[chaoscentral]

Surprised you are breaking tensioners with an auto at your boost level on a centri. For what it's worth I ran my Vortech V3 maxed at 16psi with a billet UPR tensioner. Also ran the same UPR with my Kenne Bell blower. Never an issue with the UPR. Good tensioner for $160.

Yea I mean it ran fine for almost a year, and shit just started happening. I have no idea why either.

 

[05moneypit]

Can you post pictures of the tensioner? I'm running a Novi and have been to 25lb of boost with a stock tensioner that has a reinforcement plate bolted to it and haven't had any trouble.

Your tensioner must be bottoming out against the stop to break it....at least that is what I would think.

 

[chaoscentral]

Yea I'll see if I can grab a pic later. It snapped the tensioner arm about a half inch away from where the bolt goes to bolt the pulley on it

 

[chaoscentral]

Here we go, this is where it snapped

 

[Taxman]

I had tensioner and belt issues with my Vortech and I switched to the Roush tensioner. That and a finding a mis-aligned pulley fixed my squeaking and slippage issues.

 

[chaoscentral]

Well I had another tensioner snap about a month ago. It was a little further up, but it still snapped. Getting kinda frustrated lol.

 

[Taxman]

Something else is going on. It's not the Vortech. Are your idler pulleys installed correctly in the bracket? Meaning they have the spacers there so they spin freely? I don't understand how it could be snapping tensioners if installed correctly. Mine was just a pulley squeak and belt slippage issue.

Did you do the install yourself?

 

[chaoscentral]

Something else is going on. It's not the Vortech. Are your idler pulleys installed correctly in the bracket? Meaning they have the spacers there so they spin freely? I don't understand how it could be snapping tensioners if installed correctly. Mine was just a pulley squeak and belt slippage issue.

Did you do the install yourself?

I had a friend do the install since he's done a few before. The pulleys look like they were installed correctly, and they all spun freely. I will say before the tensioner snapped there was some squeaking going on from the tensioner pulley, so I swapped out that pulley the next day, and it was only a few hours after that the tensioner snapped.

In the meantime I took the blower off completely, and put it back to stock until I figure out what I'm gonna do. Part of me wants to just sell the Vortech and go a different route like Nitrous or turbo, and the other is to just buy a new HD tensioner and go from there, but I couldn't do that for atleast another month. So for now I'm back to "stock" until I can figure this out.

 

[Taxman]

It's something else. It's not the tensioner itself. That's just a symptom of another problem.

 

[chaoscentral]

Well when I had the blower on I didn't see any of the pulleys not lining up, and like I said I've ran it since last April with no issues. Basically ever since I took it off the road back in May when I had to get my tranny replaced she just has been having so many issues. I don't think the tranny shop touched the blower, they wouldn't have to. I also replaced the belt in June and it was fine from the beginning of June until 2 days ago when it just failed with no real warning.

 

[Redrocket06]

Post up some pictures of the front of your motor and of the body of the broke tensioner, people on here have a good eye for things that may be not right. I run 15 psi on my V3 on the stock tensioner, no issues. I did have a miss alignment, my belt would jump only one rib on the blower pulley only. Turned out to be a spacer I lost that went between the alt and blower bracket.

 

[Taxman]

I'm betting you have a misaligned pulley that is putting pressure on the tensioner irregularly. I don't know shit but that's just a hunch.

 

[chaoscentral]

Post up some pictures of the front of your motor and of the body of the broke tensioner, people on here have a good eye for things that may be not right. I run 15 psi on my V3 on the stock tensioner, no issues. I did have a miss alignment, my belt would jump only one rib on the blower pulley only. Turned out to be a spacer I lost that went between the alt and blower bracket.

I'll have to find the broken tensioner arm. Right now though the blower is off so can't really take pictures of it now. :-/