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Best I could get mine to with a Gates belt with 500 miles and reaming the tensioner holes to just shy of 8 mm was 7.1-7.5 (changed a bit depending on engine position).
So mine is in 8 to 9mm range. Due to the other thread I had the car off the Rd for the week.
I removed the passenger belt cover and the belt shows no sign of wear.
This is at approx. 1500miles.
Standard gates belt. Porken Black.
86.5 manual. No previous head work.
I had cleaned and left my lower rollers in place and I deemed them as good.
My gears are all original and showing minimal to no wear at true 100k miles.
On the strength of the rollers being in, the belt condition, I put the car back on the Rd last night and for the summer. I will reassess in the fall.
I am on this forum every hour of every day and I may need to put it down for a bit and get some seat time.
Ps. I wish I didn't put on that old Porsche belt that was lying around in the trunk
Best I could get mine to with a Gates belt with 500 miles and reaming the tensioner holes to just shy of 8 mm was 7.1-7.5 (changed a bit depending on engine position).
Figured that, but to get there I had to drill my tensioner mounting holes from 6 mm to almost 8 mm and push it all the way up. Without mods it was out of range.
Different engines have a different tolerance stack.
FWIW, the tensioner/damper bolt holes are cast in a cone shape. The top is around 6mm, the bottom 8mm. So you just evened it out.
I am grabbing a new Gates belt just to verify there isn't an issue with mine. I will also be making some sleeves to make sure the tensioner isn't relying on bolt friction to stay in place. I will post pics when I'm done.
I think that the water pump pulley must also be measured to figure this into the mix,
the smaller the diameter of the pulley the longer the PKR tensioner will extend.
I have seen many different pulleys on waterpumps,
not just plating but completely different styles of pulley so that could lead to the fact that the original system would not be bothered by a small change in pulley diameter
Ken this could easily explain the differences your seeing on fitment of the your tensioner
Put on a new Gates belt and the best I can get is 7.1 with the holes drilled from 6 to 8 mm and the t/d pushed up as far as it will go. I tried a shim to try and pick up some of the slop in the hole but it wouldn't stay in position. So I torqued to spec and applied loctite to the bolts and a bit between the t/d and the bracket and will hope it stays in position.
Here is my setup:
New Gates belt
Recoated cam gears
New steel oil pump gear
Crank gear at 71.5 mm
Ed's pump
Stock heads
If I hadn't drilled the t/d my initial install would have been 9.1 mm.
Ken: I seriously think you should check the black brackets to make sure something hasn't gone askew. My measurements are identical to the one in the other thread that jumped.