I want to completely remove my belt

[ccryder]

This why car mfg's are taking these parasitic devices off the belt and powering them with electricity. OEM's have been trying to go to 42v for the reason.

[07aveoSVM]

Thanks guys, sounds like it's not worth it. If it will only give me 3 or 4 hours and will take just as long to charge, it will be too much hassle. Maybe I'll just start with the power steering and see how that goes.

I'm confused about a few things. I'm getting the impression that underdrive pulley's either hurt your mileage (by bending the belt) or do not make any noticeable improvement. I thought underdrive pulleys were promoted to improve both horsepower and efficiency? I thought the smaller, lighter pulley was supposed to have less angular mass and therefore use less energy to rotate. At the same time, it is supposed to give the crankshaft more leverage over the other belt components which should reduce the resistance seen by the engine. Is this not true?

Also, I don't understand why I won't save anything by running the belt only part time. I thought that the alternator always put drag on the engine even when the battery was fully charged. I figured that by running the alternator only when the battery needed charging, I wouldn't be wasting that drag the rest of the time.

What are suspenders?

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by 07aveoSVM

What are suspenders?

I think that was just a joke (therefore the "rolled-eyes" icon). But I hope someone can answer the question about parasitic draw on the motor simply by keeping the alternator belt attached at all. Wouldn't the greatest gain be had from removal of the belt, not simply shutting off the alternator? Wouldn't that require manual removal (a pain) or some sort of clutch mechanism?

[Ryland]

The main idea as I understand it of an under-drive pulley is when you are pretending that you own a race car and you have put so many after market parts on that it no longer idles at a reasonable speed and you drive with high revs you install an under drive pulley because the engine is always spinning faster, but it is true that the larger the pulley the less energy is wasted bending the belt and the looser you can have the belt as well because it's making more contact with the pulley.

Originally Posted by 07aveoSVM

I'm confused about a few things. I'm getting the impression that underdrive pulley's either hurt your mileage (by bending the belt) or do not make any noticeable improvement. I thought underdrive pulleys were promoted to improve both horsepower and efficiency? I thought the smaller, lighter pulley was supposed to have less angular mass and therefore use less energy to rotate. At the same time, it is supposed to give the crankshaft more leverage over the other belt components which should reduce the resistance seen by the engine. Is this not true?

[King cody]

Hey Guys,

I have a 1.9l diesel on a mini VW pickup and have been looking to delete the alt, build a sloping bed cover a la Phil Knox, and integrate a solar panel into the bed cover, add a deep cell battery, and LED lighting. Since the diesel doesn't have an ignition system but relies on compression only for detonation, is this an option to delete the alt completely and feed all electrical requirements from the solar panel. which would sit outside all day to recharge the deep cell? I rarely drive nights anyway. Seems I've seen a 10% increase in mpg from deleting the alt, plus adding the sloping bed back to the tailgate, and then adding a second structure off the tailgate for the second low pressure area there would add another 10-15%. Doable?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by King cody

Hey Guys,

I have a 1.9l diesel on a mini VW pickup and have been looking to delete the alt, build a sloping bed cover a la Phil Knox, and integrate a solar panel into the bed cover, add a deep cell battery, and LED lighting. Since the diesel doesn't have an ignition system but relies on compression only for detonation, is this an option to delete the alt completely and feed all electrical requirements from the solar panel. which would sit outside all day to recharge the deep cell? I rarely drive nights anyway. Seems I've seen a 10% increase in mpg from deleting the alt, plus adding the sloping bed back to the tailgate, and then adding a second structure off the tailgate for the second low pressure area there would add another 10-15%. Doable?

My advice is to leave the alternator in place and figure out how to switch it on and off. The pulley has so little drag as to have an unmeasurable effect on MPG. I doubt the truck would run without electricity since the "ignition" that your key controls will kill it when turned off. My truck uses an electric fuel pump, so it needs a good electricity source at all times.

I'm ashamed to say that I don't know how most diesels turn off when the key is turned off. I assume some sort of solenoid opens a fuel valve when on, and then closes the valve when turned off.

[Baltothewolf]

What is the best deep cycle battery to get anyway? Like for an insight.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My advice is to leave the alternator in place and figure out how to switch it on and off. The pulley has so little drag as to have an unmeasurable effect on MPG. I doubt the truck would run without electricity since the "ignition" that your key controls will kill it when turned off. My truck uses an electric fuel pump, so it needs a good electricity source at all times. ....

I agree. My car is on such a switch. And I have an Odyssey deep cycle battery (excellent). The beauty of the switch is twofold: when I need more range I can just turn the alt on and (2) whenever I am breaking I can turn the alt on and have a crude kind of regenerative breaking system. I have an onboard charger and plugin at night. But I imagine you could use solar panels, though it will be hard to generate enough power quickly enough in the time you have that you are not driving around.

[spacemanspif]

I always thought that the diesel injectors were electronically controlled and turning the key back stopped them from firing, thus, stopping the engine. Even on old ones there must have been some kind of timing device to control the injectors, otherwise they'd be shooting fuel in all the time...

I like the solar panel bed cover idea. Pair it with multiple deep cycle batteries mounted in the bed and you would have quite a long range between charges from grid power. Don't forget that you still need a belt to turn the waterpump!

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My advice is to leave the alternator in place and figure out how to switch it on and off. The pulley has so little drag as to have an unmeasurable effect on MPG. I doubt the truck would run without electricity since the "ignition" that your key controls will kill it when turned off. My truck uses an electric fuel pump, so it needs a good electricity source at all times.

Didn't Darin test this? IRC he found a 5% gain by switching the alt off, but another 5% (10% total) with the belt removed in his Metro. I suspect a larger engine won't see as much benefit.