exposed belts
Turbo Mini Forums

with all these dohc conversions going on, i've been wondering about the reliability of running exposed cam belts? its not something i've come across before, but did occur that there appears to be more chance of damage from foriegn objects or deterioation due to salt spray etc?

thoughts welome

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

alot of rally cars over here run with no cambelt covers, i always wondered what a gravel chipping or whatever would do if eaten by the cam wheel (nothing too dramatic i expect) not heard of anyone having a probelm with it i.e snapping the belt or having it slip a tooth.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

I personally hate seeing stuff running with no cambelt covers, for things such as BMW K headed A series engines then fair enough as there are no standard covers, but anyone running a standard engine without the covers on wants their head reading IMO.

I was checking for a spark on my golf a couple of weeks ago,sparkplug was on the rocker cover till it slid off and went in the cam pulley.Soon fixed with a new set of plugs and cambelt !

Metro turbo weekend driver,Mini turbo in the making again!

water rots cam belts - but how many miles are you really going to do on the belt anyway?!

Not a major issue imo.

Alex

AlexF

I am going to try and fab a cover up for my k headed engine when i get it finished or a partial one at least. The only arguement i have heard against running one in a race car is weight (negligable i know) but as a famous supermarket says "Every little helps!"

A trip in gravel could shred a belt. Saw pics of a cossie that went in the gravel (very very briefly) on a track day and the belt was a real mess but managed to hang on.... just (luckily for the owner). Imo a cover is a real good idea.

a cover doesn't always mean protection, couple of years ago an almost new fanbelt (done about 1000 miles) shreaded but didn't snap, the bit that came off and managed to get caught in the cam belt, knocking the engine out by about 90 degrees. Got to say it was pretty expensive to sort one new head and 6 valves on one side and just 7 valves and a damaged piston on the other.

If your not going to have a "perfect" seal on the cover then make sure you have somewhere for stuff to escape out of!!!

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

Jimsters Cam backplate is extended forwards rather than hugging the head profile to make an easier job of fabricating and fitting a cover later.

I'm with Tom 100%

this is something that I have thought about and should be sorted for start of the season.

Team Racing