6.0-928S

Hi All,
As just about everyone else, I had my doubts about the stock 32V tensioner setup so I have come up with a solution that I'm satisfied with. To me it had to fulfill two requirements (besides serving it's primary purpose).
1. It had to provide for the air pump mount.
2. It had to keep the warning light system.
I used the original housing. Removed the steel liner sleeve. Bored out the housing slightly.
I used a Volvo tensioner. It's like a small oil dampened coil over shock. I had to shave the eyelets off the ends. Remove the inner dimple from the spring mounting sleeve on the original pushrod housing.
I assembled it on my motor & brought it up to tension & it was very stable. Of course I have to drive it but I don't expect any problems (but then one never does, right?) They're aren't many moving parts. Pretty simple design.
Here's some pics,
Hammer

ZEUS+

Sounds ingenious yet simple and effective. Cant wait to see.

Mike Frye

Simple is COOL!

How long have you been running with this setup?

Was there any change in the belt tension after initial install? How frequently do you check it and is there any difference in the tension hot vs. cold?

PorKen

Clever!

JEC_31

Wow - elegant solution! Mucho kudos to you, Hammer.

Can't wait to see how it performs under load - and your motor should provide plenty of that.

leperboy

Very interesting. I assume you use no oil and the old tensioner is just used as housing.

As the spring compress, is there any chance of it binding on the inside walls of the tensioner housing? It's hard to tell from the picture how big the discs at either end of the spring are. I assume they are snug in the bore, so how close is the spring to the bore?

Thanks,
Matt

sharkmeister85

Seems so obvious, makes me wonder what the catch is. Do you still need to fill it with oil? I'd love to not have the oil leaking out all over the engine anymore.
Glenn

heinrich

Mike Frye said it ... simple is cool. And I love the work you did. Put together a little kit maybe?

6.0-928S

I left .075" clearance around the outside of the spring 'stack'.
The tensioner is like a small coil over. It has an oil damper inside. It is self enclosed. I cut one open to see how it works before finalising this setup.
Hammer

heinrich

Looking at it, I wonder if the spring will wear the inside of the housing, and how much axial stabilisation is there, since the very rigid set of washers is missing?

SteveG

As the others have mentioned, you do not say what tensioner problem you were seeking to solve. It would seem you replaced the oil w/a dampening spring, Porsche could have used a simple spring, but chose the oil/washer route for a reason, but we know they sometimes over-engineer. If no oil in there why the attention to the bore, boot, etc. I'm also interested in how it tests over time. It would seem you would need to pay close attention to the cam gear teeth wear and cam bearings as this set up may not, as Jim says, DE-tension adequately. Thanks for doing this.

AO

Wow! Very cool, simple, and elegant. And this cost you all of how much? Hardest part for us would be to get the housing machined to fit the tensioner in. But I like it.

6.0-928S

Thanks Andy,
I machined the inside of the housing myself so that was free. But I could have used a die grinder with a porting bit just as easily. I machined it because I'm crazy that way. It's just that the spring tower was wider than the opening. You don't need the side walls of the housing for support. The tensioner has a cast central sleeve for the piston to move up & down in so there is NO axial play (for you Heinrich). The tensioner lists for $110. I got two for $70.00 each. One to cut open for the prototype & one to use for the final assembly.
Hammer

Vilhuer

Does Volvo damper contract when it heats up?

T_MaX

Nice job Hammer!