Any interest in SOHC dia. T3 belt shape I-shaft gears?

[daver]

Have been thinking about doing this for myself for a while, but would anybody else be interested in having a I shaft gear made up for the T3 motors that would be the same diameter as a standard SOHC gear, but have the correct T3 belt tooth profile? This would mean that any T3 owner could swap in this gear, leave out the OEM idler pulley and run the I shaft/oil pump at standard SOHC revolutions.

The other option would be of course to have adjustable cam gears made for the T3 that have the standard SOHC round tooth belt profile, but that would probably only appeal to individuals running non-factory ignition system T3's.

Any interest?

[turbovanman²]

Yes, this has been tossed around. I was supposed to have some made but the guy fell off the planet.

When running the larger sprocket, you have to leave out the idler bolt or cut it down flush with the power steering bracket, the timing belt now goes directly over that bolt. Not sure how this will work long term, guess time will tell.

[LowSL2]

I'm interested. What kind of price range are we looking at here?

[2.216VTurbo]

Wait daver, are you building Masi motors or Lotus motors? Seen your posts in both places You can tell from my sig line why I'm in both places

[powermaxx]

I was going to make one out of a TIII and TII I-sprocket. BUt I'd rather buy one ready to go.

How soon are you planning on this?

[daver]

Just gathering interest right now guys, I did email Fidanza, waiting to hear back.. if I don't by early next week I'll call in and inquire.

If they're not interested then we can look elsewhere to have these manufactured. If Fidanza would do it I assume the cost and required minimum would be about the same as required for the custom Masi gears. If we go elsewhere than probably anything is possible depending on cost. Considering there's a few thousand more T3 owners out there than Masi owners hopefully it'll be easier to hit the minimum.

Alan & all: DaveR is Dave Robinson, I have the Masi motor (and lots of $$ tied up in parts for that build sitting around) as well as Cliff's old Spirit R/T '02', so I'll be building a few 16v motors in the near future.

[2.216VTurbo]

Just gathering interest right now guys, I did email Fidanza, waiting to hear back.. if I don't by early next week I'll call in and inquire.

If they're not interested then we can look elsewhere to have these manufactured. If Fidanza would do it I assume the cost and required minimum would be about the same as required for the custom Masi gears. If we go elsewhere than probably anything is possible depending on cost. Considering there's a few thousand more T3 owners out there than Masi owners hopefully it'll be easier to hit the minimum.

Alan & all: DaveR is Dave Robinson, I have the Masi motor (and lots of $$ tied up in parts for that build sitting around) as well as Cliff's old Spirit R/T '02', so I'll be building a few 16v motors in the near future.

Now see, if you had set up your screen name as DaveR, I would have gotten it Nice to hear from you again

[iTurbo]

I would definately be interested in this...I'm building a 2.5L TIII that will run on a distributor and modified SMEC.

Wouldn't the sprocket need to be wider to accomodate the TIII timing belt?

[turbovanman²]

I would definately be interested in this...I'm building a 2.5L TIII that will run on a distributor and modified SMEC.

Wouldn't the sprocket need to be wider to accomodate the TIII timing belt?

Yes!!!!!!!!!

[Lotashelbys]

I was gonna build one of these using a TIII intake cam gear outer section and an 8valve I-shaft center. Keep us updated if this goes through as I will need several(if they arent a million dollars each). We also need to either come up with a tensioner that will work or have one made as well. The stock tensioner is just a touch too big OD to work with the 8valve I-shaft gear and the stock TIII belt.

[daver]

Just an update:

haven't heard back from Fidanza. No surprise. In the past I've had to call them or get direct contact info for a engineer specifically to get any information.

Looks like there is only one way to do this project right:

Identify a slightly smaller tensioner which will work with a SOHC diameter I-shaft pulley to achieve proper belt tension with the OEM T3 belt. The new I-shaft sprocket would be made standard SOHC diameter, correct T3 belt tooth profile, and slightly wider than a SOHC pulley to accommodate the wider T3 OEM belt.

This would source an available and inexpensive replacement tensioner, eliminate the NS1 idler pulley, and also allow people to use a distributor in the stock SOHC location if desired.

Anyway I have identified 3 potential timing belt tensioners from similar era Mopars which might work, so I'll hopefully be able to pick those up and mock up a test setup this weekend.

[zin]

Looks like there is only one way to do this project right:

Identify a slightly smaller tensioner which will work with a SOHC diameter I-shaft pulley to achieve proper belt tension with the OEM T3 belt. The new I-shaft sprocket would be made standard SOHC diameter, correct T3 belt tooth profile, and slightly wider than a SOHC pulley to accommodate the wider T3 OEM belt.

How about making the I shaft gear a bit smaller than the SOHC piece? I haven't had a TIII apart yet (talk to me later today ), but it seems to me that if we are going to have a part made, we could adapt it to fit and allow us to keep the OE tensioner. Yeah, the I shaft would spin a little faster than a SOHC, but unless it negates the benefit, it might be a better way to go.

BTW, because I'm a bit of a newb to the TIII, I'm assuming that the point of this is to slow the pump down, would it also help by allowing lower belt tension? I expect that either (or both) would go a long way to improve longevity of our engines.

Well, I'm off to pull the I shaft and oil pump, can you guess what happened?...

Mike

[turbovanman²]

^^^ that won't work if your using a dist ala my setup.

The power steering mod I did isn't quite right, my pump bracket is buzzing so I need to figure out how to use that last bolt.

[daver]

Just wanted to let everybody know I haven't forgotten about this project, still waiting for my belt tension gauge to show up.

Need to be able to test belt tension with any potential tensioner candidates.

If we can come up with a suitable tensioner replacement then we'll go ahead with design and production of the replacement I shaft pulley.

[turbovanman²]

Just wanted to let everybody know I haven't forgotten about this project, still waiting for my belt tension gauge to show up.

Need to be able to test belt tension with any potential tensioner candidates.

If we can come up with a suitable tensioner replacement then we'll go ahead with design and production of the replacement I shaft pulley.

Why do you need a tensioner replacement? you delete the idler setup and its ok.

I don't need one anymore, moving the distributor over to the head.

[powermaxx]

I'm still interested. I'm about to mod some sprockets to do this. So it needs to be in the next month or two.

[iTurbo]

I have some ideas for a tensioner replacement but haven't tried anything yet.