after maybe 3000 miles if that ? new gatorback showing half a hole . this a tensioner going south? who sells a really good tensioner? or is oem the best? 95000 miles on this one .

 

half a whole with a gatorback seems to be pretty good. if you want a full whole showing go with the napa/gates belt...its shorter.

and its been discussed before that tensioners are non-wearing parts. they either work, or they dont...no in between. I put a gatorback on mine...have 1/4 of a whole showing right after install.

 

okay cool just paranoid thx .

 

The Gatorback belts are rubbish; they stretch like taffy and slip a bunch. Use OEM for stock pulley, JCW belt for JCW pulley, and NAPA 060535 for 15% pulley. Case closed. You need one full hole on the tensioner plunger to get good power delivery to the supercharger.

Change your tensioner [with OEM] every 30k miles, the damper blows out and will destroy your crank pulley.

This info should be tattoed under the bonnet of every R53!

 

id really like to know why a full hole is a positive. the holes arent there for measurement purpose, they are there to lock the spring while working on the belt. seems to me as long as the belt is tight and not slipping, then there shouldnt be a problem

im installing a napa belt this weekend. im going to be comparing it to the new gatorback i have...see which one gives me more boost.

and instead of replacing a $100 tensioner every 30k. just buy a $20 stopper and let it fail on its own. mines still going strong after 60k.

 

I hate to flaunt my ignorance, but this sounds like something I should know about. Would anyone care to explain what y'all are talking about for a novice? Thanks...

 

Mine has no hole..does that mean my belt is slipping? Im using the gates K060535 got my 17% pulley...

 

I had NAPA and it also went half hole after maybe 3 months. I think they all do stretch a bit.

 

not a good sign. how old is the belt? btw, most here use the 535 on 15% pulleys

 

yeah im a novice too.. and im sitting here craning my neck sideways trying to figure it out.. and im thinking this is something i need to know about.. im getting ready to put a damper on.. and my 15% pulley.. so any help out there?

 

a non-tech answer: the tensioner "hole" that people are referring to meastures belt tension. more hole = more tension. a relatively new oem belt is okay for the 15% pulley, but the napa 535 is tighter, making slipping unlikely. if your belt breaks the tensioner can collide with the supercharger = bad. a tensioner stop prevents this. i prefer the detroit tuned version

hope that helps!

 

Actually, it can collide with the harmonic damper/crank pulley, not the supercharger.

FWIW i have a gates 535 belt on a 15% and only have half a hole showing after a couple of months.

 

Thanks for the comment, the belt is about 4 months old now (approx 5000 km). I got the belt from outmotoring they told me the 535 is for the 17% pulley..hmmmm...

so in this case, which belt is for the 17% pulley then?

 

technically, they are correct! alta recommends the same. i always call jan at rmw with questions of this sort....but i bet it's findable by searching this forum

minimacpr, you are correct...i was trying to be non-technical

info on the dt tensioner stop http://www.detroittuned.com/shop/?productID=397

 

My '02 crank pulley sheared off since it's a POS. When I had it replaced with the '05 crank pulley, with a new tensioner and a NAPA535 belt, it showed only half a hole after 2 months. No slipping, still 15psi showing on the boost gauge. I would just replace your belt every year and inspect every so often for damage.

 

texas speed works stop works great . no worries .

 

Full hole showing on a napa belt with 15/2 and close to 10,000 miles

 

The holes everyone is talking about are on the tensioner. If you look at the tensioner spring, there is a metal tab that runs through it and pokes out the end of the spring. For whatever reason, people say it is good to have at least half a hole showing when your belt is installed. This isnt what the holes are for. They are there to help with belt removal. But someone along the way decided to make an unofficial guideline to use the hole to determine belt condition, and now instead of a guideline it has seemed to evolve in to a golden rule.

Truth is, how much of the hole is visible, will vary by a good bit. whether u use factory, jcw, gatborback, or gates/napa...each belt is a different length and will show varying amounts of the hole. Also, right after install. you will have a lot showing, but right after the first drive, you will immediately notice less hole showing.

As I said above, i just put on a new gatorback belt. You can barely tell a hole is there, so i have maybe 16th of a hole showing, yet im boosting between 15-16 psi. I hope to install napa tomorrow, and see if that boost will improve since it is a shorter belt.

oh, i have a DT tensioner stop if anyone is interested...im too lazy to post it in the marketplace. pm me

 

that is the correct belt, unfortunately its not the "best" but its the closest you can get since the best isnt made..(you can try the next smallest belt made, but it may be too small). Therefore, you will always have less hole showing than people with 15% pulleys, simply because your tensioner has to tighten up just a little more to compensate for the slightly smaller pulley...thus pulling the tab further into the spring and hiding more of the hole.

 

Thanks for that...Im also showing looooads of Boost..so I guess I done have to worry ; )

 

I had a 15% Alta pulley installed in '03 with the stock belt, as both the pulley maker and the installer said the stock belt was OK. 30,000 miles later, I had another stock belt installed by a dealer, and was told the tensioner was near/at the end of its travel. I went to the pulley-maker's website, and they still say the stock belt is OK. I called the guy who did the install, and he said he's still using stock belts on 15% installs. I can't see any hole visible above the spring, but it's not bottomed, with about 1/4" of the metal strip protruding. Do I "need" a shorter belt?

 

Yes it's a good idea. Considering the miles on your MINI, get a NAPA 060535 along with a new belt tensioner and new OEM or Kingsborne spark plug wires with JCW [or Brisk DR12YS] spark plugs for preventative maintenance. After installation and initial stretching you should see one full hole on the belt tensioner indicator.

The stock belt works with a 15% pulley but you get slippage [and thus inconsistent power] as the belt ages.

 

thx

 

i have an alta v2 15% pully with napa belt alta sent with it in the kit. its been installed a few weeks with no problems, now im getting lots of squealing after i start and untill the car has warmed up then the squeel goes away. as far as holes go, i have been checking it every now and then and from what ive seen is i have little to no hole at all at times

 

Sounds like the pulley did not get aligned correctly. I had this same issue.