Anyone using the Vortech strut support?

[Manns50]

I just bought one off ebay fairly cheap because the bearings needed replaced.I've heard good things about them,just wondered what I might run into when installing.(clearance problems)

[regattacoupe]

LOL I almost bid on that.

[Manns50]

I'm glad you didn't...:) The price from Vortech for the bearings were $59 each,I'm going to find them at a better price before I get them from Vortech.

[qwikstang]

I'm glad you didn't...:) The price from Vortech for the bearings were $59 each,I'm going to find them at a better price before I get them from Vortech.

Good luck, they were 80-100 dollars everywhere I looked. So I bought them from vortech. They last pretty good as long as you dont over pre-load them. If the upper bearing went bad it will probably need the upper pilot as well.

[BLOWNBY]

I have one. Hopefully you have the 8" renegade crank pulley to mount the support to. It fits with minimal mods on the 8 rib setup. There is a pic in my gallery.

[Manns50]

Double click...sorry.

[Manns50]

BLOWNBY,I have the 35 mm cogs that I thought would work with it because of the hole around the perimeter but after spaeking to Vortech they said it would not.I'm thinking of making it work,but unsre about clearance issue's.I have a Lincoln Mark 8 fan.

[BLOWNBY]

Yeah you'll have clearance issues. I ran a 8 rib belt with mine. The 35 mm cogs are equivalant to a 10 rib belt. Plus I had 3.5" fan where as the mark 8 is like 4.5 or more thick. I am going to 10 rib this year and will be moving my inlet outlet positions on my radiator and going with SS lines plus need a 2.5" fan setup.

[stevieturbo]

Why does the 35mm cog be so wide ??

I had ASP machine my 50mm cogged pulley for grooves, and they were able to get 14 grooves on it ( ie a 14rib belt if it was available )
A 35mm wide pulley should be much less than that ???

[BLOWNBY]

Why does the 35mm cog be so wide ??

I had ASP machine my 50mm cogged pulley for grooves, and they were able to get 14 grooves on it ( ie a 14rib belt if it was available )
A 35mm wide pulley should be much less than that ???

Woops..
It is a 10 rib..my bad. The 50mm is the 14 rib.

If you look at an 8 rib it is 28mm wide. ie. 3.5mm per grove. so 10 rib = 35mm and 14 rib is just uner 50mm.

Too quick to post. Thanks
Either way he'll have clearance issues.

[Manns50]

I spoke to Rick Anderson about the cogs and he said he has been using them for years.He said the key to getting them to last is belt alignment and tension.I ask him if the 50mm are any better at lasting and he said "not really it's all in the belt alignment."

You think the 50 mm would last a little longer,which I'm sure it would,common sense.But I do value his opinion very much.I also talked to another guy that is running a YSI with a 50mm and he said the same thing,you can run them on the street without problems as long as they are aligned properly.

[BLOWNBY]

Sure it can be done. I just didn't want to chance breaking a belt and burning my bood or cracking it. Plus if you have regular rubber radiator hose you can break that as well. Plus if you rip the teeth off a 35mm onth street your SOL. At least a serp will slip and still be there.


There are pros and cons to all setups. If you are running the cogs on a YSi, I'd get the 50mm. But like he said it can work with 35mm.

[stevieturbo]

If you have room for a 50mm cog, then why not go for a 14 rib ? Even if belts are scarce, surely an 8+6 would work without too many problems ??

The prices ASP charged me to cut the crank, and make new blower pulleys was very good ( especially with our exchange rate to the UK £ )
I originally thought a cogged setup was the way to go. I havent even got mine running yet, and from what I can tell from various forums, they can have 1 benefit-no slip. But thats about it. It is mostly downsides and hassle.

Id go for the widest possible ribbed setup I can, and is what I have done.

[Manns50]

What did they charge you to have this done? You actually cut grooves in your cog pulley's? Were they steel or aluminum?

[stevieturbo]

What did they charge you to have this done? You actually cut grooves in your cog pulley's? Were they steel or aluminum?

My crank pulley was aluminium, 86T/34T 50mm cog. I bought a "KIT" from CAPA in Oz, and that "KIT" would not work. Either the belt was too short, or the pulley combo too large, and the belt simply would not fit. They offered me smaller pulleys, but what they offered would have spun the blower even harder. What they supplied was already too much, let alone offering something that went higher. I just realised cogged is a lot of hassle, and as mine is primarily a road car...simply not worth it. Most people said a very good 8-rib will handle 1000bhp. I wouldnt have a very good 8-rib as far as belt wrap is concerned. But now I have a pretty good 10 or 12 rib. Im happy now.

Cogged belts are available in very limited lengths which I only discovered afterwards. And what they provided me would never work, either for required boost, or belt lengths.
You can see my pics so far, and what my cogged problem was here. Click on the pic for next one, or go to the index.
http://gallery112848.fotopic.net/c332887_49.html
They couldnt offer me a sensbile solution either.

So, I had to sort a fix myself. Along came this forum, and ASP. They re-cut my crank 86T pulley with 14 ribs to give me a 8.25" for $95 and made me 2 new custom blower pulleys to suit, although these are just 12 rib, which were $85 each. One estimating 8-9psi, and the other about 13psi for my LS1

Now, to me that was an absolute bargain and solution to a major problem. In total, including shipping, they charged me about $300 including shipping back to the UK.

By comparison. It cost me, and I was ripped of by Royal Mail here, UK £45 just to ship the crank pulley to them. At todays rates, thats about US$83 !!!!!!!!!!!!! just for shipping one 8lb pulley. DHL quoted me more than double that price !!!!!!!!!!!!

For what ASP charged, there is nowhere in the UK that could even do that kind of work, let alone for that price. It was about a 4-5 week turnaround, but that included about 2-3 weeks shipping either way from the UK to US, and then back again.