Serpentine belt recommendations?
 

Tonight I realized all belts are not equal. I went to the local checkers today and bought a replacement Serpentine belt for my '93 Beretta GTZ. I got the more expensive Dayco Poly-Cog belt that they had which has the "cross-cuts" in it. Anyway, I start the car up and take it out for a test drive.

BTW: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER buy a Les Schwab battery if you are in the NW USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They REFUSE to hold a charge if they've ever been drained down. I've had to get 4 replacements for this POS battery in the last year!!

Anyway, back to the belts. I take the car out for a test drive and slowly let the revs get up. The engine was doing fine at 5,000 rpm (I built it to handle 7500+). I then start to hear a belt shredding underneath the hood... The guages were reading fine so I thought maybe it was part of the old belt that shredded a few days earlier (the old one was OLD). Anyway, next light, I take off pretty quick and the belt gave way... COMPLETELY. This was a BRAND NEW BELT. My pulleys are perfectly aligned and there was nothing that really would have caused this....

Is there any particular belt to stay away from? I am going with a complete serpentine setup on my '87 IROC when I do the engine swap later on and would HATE to have this happen when on the road. Luckily, my GTZ's water pump is driven by the timing chain! WHEW! :)

I'm pretty sure that was just a fluke thing. Those belts have been fine for me for the few years they've been making them.

Yeah, I've never had one go out on me.. Well, except that engine fire I had on my old car, the belt didn't hold up to that... :lol:

gates makes the best "easily available" belt.


dayco is about the cheapest one you can buy. both in price and quality.

for a stock 3rdgen, the dayco should be fine anyway.. as long as you replace it when you should.

for anything that really stresses the belt, like a supercharger or high RPM, then you want to get gates or goodyear..

What retail chains carry Gates? I think I might need one for my Beretta GTZ since its a high revver.

advance/shucks/kragen/parts america (all the same company)
autozone
napa
umm, pretty much everywhere...

often theres more then one on the computer and they pick one for you... just specificly pick out the gates one.

btw, they arnt superbelts or anything.... just high quality belts.


when i worked the parts counter, i never ever got a gates returned (except for when the person got the wrong size).

dayco break every once in awhile...

Advance Auto Parts stock Dayco belts (the cheapo Drive-rite and the Poly-Cog)... You can get a gates belt at an O'Reillys..

they also stock gates.

they just dont usually hand them to you first... the daycos are usually easier to sell...


guess where i worked as a 2nd job....... :lala:

well, maybe they do where you live.. I work at one here in Kansas, and none of the kansas city/lawrence stores stock anything but Dayco...

I checked the Gates website and the nearest parts place that sells their belts is about 75 miles away! :confused:

Trust me, living in Idaho SUCKS!

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I'm TOTALLY all about the GOODYEAR Gatorback Poly-V's...when it comes to belts. After having to replace two on my old engine within MAYBE 4 months time...i got sick of my belt, treked out to AutoZone, got a list, and paid the extra few bucks for it. It's been running fine ever since....how do i know?...Cus it's still there after countless burn outs.

Belts and other engine "must haves" are something you usually want to spend that extra few bucks on for the quality.
-G

ive got a Goodyear gatorback on mine too... ive wrapped it up to over 5500 rpm and its perfect... they are spectacular belts..

I have gatorbacks on my LG4. Very happy with them as well!!