Anyone heard of this with idlers??

[SonicBlueFTW]

I was hanging at a car show type deal and over heard somone saying that idlers will "blow up your car" something with the tension is so great on the pulley that the belt pulls the crank some way where it will wear out the bottom end faster. anyone heard of this. i never have but ya never know....

 

[Black2003Cobra]

Sure haven't heard of that. But I do know that some have toasted the stock pulleys from too much belt tension. Maybe that's what the guy meant.

 

[swlacobra]

could be car show :bs: . i've heard lots of it over the years

 

[jk03cobra]

I think what they meant was that many people have had their stock idlers "explode". That is why most people switch to aftermarket ones when they swap upper pullies. Aftermarket are much better quality and don't break. The flying pieces of the stock ones can cause a lot of damage under the hood when they do fail. Do a search on here and you will find pics of some that failed.

Check out the seventh post down in this thread. You'll get the basic idea. Not good.
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240272&highlight=idler+exploded

 

[foreprecision]

The load on the crank pulley is transferred to the block on the Cobras. (there is a support system) I think some aftermarket crank pulleys eliminate this support. (?)

With motors that do not have the aforementioned support... One of my friends said he had excessive front crank bearing wear on his supercharged LT1. But he knew that because the engine was already out of the car for new pistons/etc. and he was looking for wear in that spot anyways.

...don't think it will blow up your motor though...