[DeTomaso] advice on seats

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/18/13 5 26 10, kirby.schrader at gmail.com writes:


> Which idler would be my question... I assume we're talking about the 
> water pump belt?
> 
>>>Yup!
> 
> >He put a flat idler on mine which pushes the belt the wrong way (inwards) 
> and the belt goes south real fast.
>  Especially a 'cogged' V belt. They don't like that. 
> 
>>>That is bizarre!   

> >I knew that from my hick country farm boy days, but I tried it anyway 
> just for the hell of it and to prove a point.
> Yes, I know... you can probably do it and get away with it if the bend in 
> the belt is minimal, but in this case it's not.
> 
> It didn't work...
> Lots of little pieces of belt coming off and the belt coming apart.
> 
>>>I have the proper bolt-on idler setup (which Dennis gets from IPSCO I 
presume).   See it here:


> 
> >I ended up having to put the 'V' pulley idler type on which pushes the 
> belt outwards.
> 
>>>A much better idea.

I have a mix of Kirk Evans and PPC/IPSCO parts in my setup, and they don't 
always play well together.

Overall, I think Kirk's flat firewall kit is superior, because he provides 
an extremely stout replacement front engine cover, made of genuine steel, 
sound- and heat-proofed.   By contrast, Dennis uses a relatively flimsy 
fiberglass cover, which would do absolutely no good in the event of an engine 
fire, or an alternator fan/pulley explosion (as you yourself experienced at 
Pocono, remember!?)

The problem with Kirk's cover is that it is unnecessarily narrow, as it 
isn't built to accomodate the idler setup.   I initially ran it with the 
PPC-supplied belt, which is slightly longer.   That left precious little clearance 
between the idler pulley and the inside of the metal cover.   I found when 
driving on a twisty road, after I had installed my new engine with new 
rubber motor mounts, that the engine would lean slightly in corners and the 
pulley would kiss the inside of the cover, making an annoying sound.   What I 
didn't realize was that it was also destroying the belt, and we wound up stuck 
on the side of the road in the middle of the night in the rain as a result.

The ultimate solution was to run the original, shorter belt, which seems 
rather tight on the non-pulley setup, but as seen in the photo above, can 
stretch to accomodate the pulley if it is placed in the furthest-in position 
(which coincidentally affords the most clearance to the engine cover).   In 
retrospect, it's quite probable that this pulley isn't really necessary, 
because the belt has 180 degrees of coverage on the crank and water pump pulleys 
which provides for a LOT of traction.   But I didn't want to take any 
chances....
> 
> >As for the 'flat firewall kit' (which is a misnomer since it isn't really 
> flat),... 
> 
>>>Well, it's flat behind the seat, which is the important part.

> >I have the passenger Recaro modified as per Mr. Drew's description so I 
> don't find any value in that kit.
>  Quite a bit of money and it really accomplished nothing in my case.
> 
> >>>Surely it accomplished *something*.   While your modified seat offered 
> more clearance than a stock seat, for sure it couldn't be moved nearly as 
> far to the rear with the stock engine cover in place, as it can now?
> 
Mike

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