Belt Tension[Why does my belt keep snapping]
 

So first post here and disclaimer this is what I found researching and looking around i don't claim to have it 100%] but figured id see if i could help some folks out.I recently supercharged my BRZ with a kraftwerks c30 and some other goodies to back it up. I bought a used kit and my belt already had some mileage on it and sure enough my belt went wanted to be as dialed in as possible so did some digging . Below are some checks i've read and consolidated.

[To start out]
Press pulley in with your hand until belt is taunt in all locations hand tighten the tensioning bolt then give it another 1/4-3/4 turn. This should put you close maybe a little loose as a starting point

[Gates App]
Place your finger on the belt right in the cutout at the Y bracket on the SC bracket. Then "twang" the belt with your finger consistently 4-5 times and aim for 50-60Hz

[KW Support-CJ]
LARGE shout as Kraftwerks customer support is amazing to work with. CJ knows his stuff and will work with you. Everything I needed i got right away shipped the day requested. CJ also helped me by giving me the rough guide below [ note nothing offical here and wont work for everyone] refreshing to say the least.

[New belt]17mm from the back of the tensioning bolt to the SC plate
[After belt gets streched out a bit] (maybe .5-2 month just check your tension every once in a while when its new) tighten down to between 15-13mm depending on situation. Found that when i used all these methods these rough measurements provided looked to be spot on.

[Belt Twist]
This one was my Favorite grab belt at same location as gates app move your hand slightly towards the drivers side (middle of longest portion of belt) and twist the belt 90 Degrees. If you can twist it to 90 your good if not too tight if it goes past 90 to loose. It seems strange but give it a shot.

All four of these and my SC sounds amazing quite but still present seems to be no tension issues so far. Hope i could help

2 yrs on the same belt sent by KW with revised pulleys - set it once back then and never touched again.

I used the belt twist method to tension the belt.

I hope this hasn't been asked before.

I am likely moving into this kit and I'm at 70k miles and just want to know about the clutch. I got a stock clutch that is fine as far as I know with gentle driving 90% of the time with the occasional drift day. So I am worried about having to replace the clutch after I put the sc on or will I be okay for a bit? I know a lot depends on how I drive, I just want to ask if the added power will accelerate the clutch going out.

Thanks for any input!

you'll be fine, especially if you're running pump and don't abuse your clutch

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Picking up my kit from 86Speed in the next few days. im going with a tune from Delicious tuning as well. Does anyone know how much boost I should be safe with running completely stock everywhere else (clutch, internals, injectors, etc)? Question #2: am I okay running without an oil cooler if im just DD around town? I am getting the Skunk 2 Radiator with it and was wondering if that would suffice for your everyday spirited driving. TIA

Do not get the skunk 2 radiator. If it's the one with the built in oil cooler, it will require a lot of cutting and custom work. I don't use an oil cooler on mine and I just take it out in the summer for cruises and blasting around lakes up here.

Everything else you should be fine. I think the boost is supposed to be around 9 psi? Been a while since I've looked

im not sure if it is or not. 86Speed just said it came with the kit as a freebie. Im not one to complain about free stuff lol. Ill have to look into that a bit more. Thanks for the heads up

I believe its just the regular radiator without the built in oil cooler. The one with the oil cooler looks quite a bit thicker. is that what your reffering to with cutting?

Yeah the one with the oil cooler.

The non-oil cooler one I have no personal experience with nor have I seen any threads on.

Technically speaking no boost is safe since this motor wasn't made from the factory with it... but that's just being the devil's advocate. In terms of the stock block, I don't think it's about the amount of boost and what's safe, it's how long you can run it. I've seen full blown motorsports thread and they stress/torture tested their oem block and made 700+whp with who knows what amount of psi... over 1,000 dyno runs too so who knows. Just make sure your tune is precise and accurate. I have a moto-east tune, 2 years on my c38 kit with some mild track usage. I'm still using the oem radiator. Highly unnecessary to install the radiator you're getting for free. Just more work and little gain from it. I'd sell it to make money if it were me. No need for an oil cooler either if it's just a daily. I've seen temps at the track before my oil cooler and i was over 300 degrees... not good so yes definitely if you see an track at all. For the amount of boost to give you a perspective of "how much boost is safe" I'm running around 12-14psi with e85, larger injectors, and a fuel pump which are necessary at higher boost levels and the fuel being used.

Thank you very much for the detailed response! I have full faith in the guys at delicious to give me a good tune. Im just hoping i dont come to regret getting this kit. There are a ton of people on here that bash the hell out of it. :(

The belt is the biggest issue in my opinion. Once you get past that part and figure it out it really isn't as bad people make it out to be.

What requirements are needed for this install? Like Injectors, fuel pump, etc

Just finished all 290 pages of this thread. Picked up a BRZ with the C30 kit, had latest pulleys and new belt installed yesterday when I bought the car. Has anyone made a video of setting belt tension? Would be super helpful if someone were to do so!

Thanks

There are no requirements.

Read through the thread or search as it's been answered numerous times. If you plan on c30 with no high boost pulley then you'll be fine stock everything. The clutch will probably eventually go.

Anything else like high boost pulley, c38, e85, etc. You will need a fuel pump, bigger injectors, and a clutch.

Use the half belt twist method. There's a little cutout on the bottom of your supercharger plate that you can't fit your thumb through. Try grabbing the SC belt and twist it half way. With your right hand, put your thumb on first and put your pointer finger on the back of the belt push up on your thumb and pull down with your pointer finger until the belt twists half way.

c38 does NOT require fuel bigger injectors and/or bigger pump.

clutch - replace after (and if) the OEM goes while you still own the car. If I recall correctly I have not read threads when people street driving their cars with centrifugal SSs had to replace their stock clutch because it died. Most folks replace theirs because of suggestion like above (opinions, which are based on what?) or suggestions from shops/tuners (there's the ones making money off of you).

I should have said stated you would eventually*. The fuel injectors and fuel pump were in the duty cycle of 90% plus at WOT. In the best interest of not having a fuel pump/fuel injector fail you it would be a good idea. But yea, I should have made that more clear and stated you would eventually need it.

Thanks pgrandberg11

I had no idea Kraftwerks provided a BOV for this kit. Does anyone on here run it? would you recommend it?

If you are talking about the one that is provided with the kit, yes you would need to run it. It dissolves boost pressure when you are street driving and not on WOT. The bypass valve will shut close when at WOT to allow the psi to climb. If you didn't have this installed, you would have a huge hole in your hot side intercooler piping and you would never be able to build boost as all the pressure would shoot out the hole from the rubber molded hose. You can run this recirc or vent to atmosphere.

I was referring to the one that was shown on 86speeds website. I saw the Kraftwerks one and a Turbosmart one. I just assumed they were upgrades or different sounding BOVs.

oh ok, yea I just took a look at this one:

http://www.86speed.com/performance/k...blowoff-valve/


http://www.86speed.com/new-products/...blowoff-valve/ (this one comes with the kit)

I don't think I'd recommend the large BOV since it states that it should be used in applications with 18+ psi. If you're not running enough boost, you'll never be able to completely close the valve. I'd just stick the standard one. The standard one is actually pretty loud in my opinion especially if you let off after hitting redline...

ahhhh ok. I was under the impression that the "standerd one" you linked didn't already come with the kit. Im waiting for my setup to come in the mail this week which is why I wasn't sure. You tha man for answering so many questions here!

sweet! enjoy the boost once you get it all set up!

I just wanted to give a shout out and huge thanks to CJ @KraftWerks

As I was looking to purchase a car with an SC in it, he was extremely helpful answering all of my questions, and went above and beyond in helping us sort a few things out in an unbelievably tight timeline. I don't expect companies to provide this level of customer service anymore. Well done!

I'm really hoping they release a DIY video regarding belt tension, seems like it would alleviate a lot of the stress around this system.

It really doesn't get any simpler than this explanation from pgranberg11.

"Use the half belt twist method. There's a little cutout on the bottom of your supercharger plate that you can't fit your thumb through. Try grabbing the SC belt and twist it half way. With your right hand, put your thumb on first and put your pointer finger on the back of the belt push up on your thumb and pull down with your pointer finger until the belt twists half way."

The stress regarding this system will be there for a while until more owners testify to having no problems than when the system first came out. I was hesitant to purchase this system, too, but the price and how "clean"/ OEM the setup looks won me over. We'll see how reliable this kit is in the long run. I did purchase a spare belt just in case. The other SC I considered for this was the Cosworth kit, but I didn't want to spend that kind of money since I have my car getting a V8 swap. Two car projects running simultaneously puts a hurting on the budget.

Just bought this kit!! Coming in by the end of this week and installing next Monday. So excited! Any tips on installing the oil reservoir?

I would definitely back that statement. HIGHLY recommend buying extra belts. It's a supercharger and belts will break. Yea it's nice that you can still drive without a belt on the sc (I've done that from Gingerman raceway in Michigan all the way back to chicago on the same tune and was fine, probably don't recommend doing that however..) here's the link that I use to get a belt, it's typically the cheapest:

https://www.mrosupply.com/synchronou..._gates-rubber/

In regards to stress, I believe people tend to make it a lot more worse than it really easy. Honestly, the biggest pain in the ass with this kit was figuring out the belt and the oil cooler setup up (if you plan on tracking, not necessary if you don't). But once you figure out the belt, the kit is nice to drive.

It would help if you have two people. have one person in the car and prime the sc while someone else pays attention to the oil level in the reservoir. don't let the reservoir ever go empty, but don't overfill it either. I don't know how you would do it with one person otherwise.

good luck and enjoy the boost!

Sounds good. Going to install at my shop with the mechanic I work with. But for the placement of the reservoir where did people install them? Ive seen people with it in the front in the middle by the bumper. Any reason why it would benefit from being located there instead of being by the battery?

I tried to mount it near the battery location that the instructions told me to, but the directions were vague and I think I was missing a bracket or two. I did get as far as removing the battery and trimming the plastic tray it sits in in order for the SC oil reservoir to fit. However, after thinking to myself this is a dumb place to put it and then looking at some pictures online from others' installs "the front in the middle by the bumper" location made more sense. Also, it reduces the length of hoses that have to route in between the SC, oil cooler, and reservoir. So, no. There is no benefit from mounting it near the battery from my experience.

I used my 18V Ryobi air pump to "blow"/ prime the oil through the system. Worked like a champ.

Yup that's what I'm planning to do, here's a good video for illustration:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeyqWWKE7b8"]Kraftwerks. Priming Oil System - YouTube[/ame]

I've seen both places. I put mine by the battery since that's what the instructions stated. But I do notice some people put them in the front by the bumper. So I suppose whatever is easier for you.

Is this system gravity fed? Just wondering as if it's mounted too low it might cause flow issues?

Not sure to be honest, I just followed the instructions stated. this was also taken from the rotrex handbook:

"The oil lines and the oil system components (filter, canister and cooler)
must be placed below or level with the supercharger shaft"

and

"To prevent oil leaks it is of utmost importance that the oil cooler, oil
filter and the oil canister with its cap are placed below or level with
the supercharger shaft."

Ah so it's opposite of what I'm thinking :)

is there any kind of guide for regular maintenance for this kit?? Like how often belts should be changed, fluid intervals, etc?