EA/EB/ED Serpentine belt conversion
From Boosted Tech
So I threw a serpentine belt setup on my car yesterday, and I thought I would take some photos and do a little writeup on the parts required, problems encountered etc to help others when they decide to do it.
I got all my parts from an EF engine:
I didn't end up using the metal bracing brackets, as some of them mount on the original exhaust (which I don't have obviously)
The benefits of a serpentine belt setup are:
Bigger alternator - 110A instead of 75A.
Simpler - Only one belt with an automatic tensioner, no adjustment/maintenence required.
More durable - 6 rib belt > pathetic 3 rib jobbie which runs the alternator and water pump on EA/D.
Looks - Increase the sexualness of a pre-EF engine bay by approximately 2000%*
NOTE: You must run thermofans with this setup.
- actual results may vary
Downsides:
Cost - pretty much none of the parts from the 3 belt setup are used on the serpentine one.
If the belt breaks you're stuffed - though the chance of that is much smaller than with 3-belt.
You must run thermofans with this setup.
Parts required:
-XH ute tensioner - part number is EHC-6B209-A and they are very expensive new!
You can see in the picture below the difference between the EF tensioner and the XH one - the XH is on the right. You will notice the top pulley arm is 'kinked' to provide clearance from the belt to the tensioner when the compressor is mounted in the lower EA/D/XH position.
-EF/L/AU Power steer pump. Alternately you can just buy the pulley and fit that to your existing power steer pump, but you must either have the special removing/installing tools or take it to a workshop to have it fitted. (any ford or holden dealer should be able to manage it)
-EF/L/AU Power steer pump brackets.
-EF/L/AU Alternator and bracket.
-EF/L/AU Water pump - It's possible to use a second hand one, but not advised, as it is very hard to get a decent seal in between the 'shim' and the pump once it has been removed from the original engine. I reused the EF pump I had because the intermediate gasket was still in good nick - I just carefully and painstakingly applied a layer of UltraBlue between the shim and gasket and used a new gasket between the pump and block...it's not leaking...yet...
-EF/L AC compressor. (AU is different and won't fit your AC pipes)
-EF/L/AU Crankshaft pulley.
-Lots of bolts - take everything you can from the motor you are getting the stuff from - one thing I noticed when doing this was there are a lot of very similar headed bolts, with varying lengths, so occasionally I would be putting a bolt in and it would bottom out before it was actually tight, so I had to remove that bolt and then a couple of others like it to find one that was a little shorter and also interchangable with the bolt that was too long.
(make sure you take note of which bolts came from where to help you when refitting)
-If you are keen, you can also fit an EF timing cover. I couldn't be bothered dropping the sump etc to replace mine, so I had to grind part of the alternator bracket and timing cover so they fit together nicely. The timing marks on the EF balancer are in a different place to the EB one so you will have to make sure your timing is spot on before pulling the car apart, then checking it again when you are done and marking the correct place on the balancer.
-You will also need a harmonic balancer puller of the 3 bolt variety (the ones with the 'fingers' will just destroy the old balancer and are useless for this application) and a lot of tools.
-Fresh coolant - Even if your coolant is only a few months old, its a good idea to replace it as there most likely would have been old sludge buildup etc that has been loosened by the few months of use with the new coolant.
-Either an EB/EF radiator hose adaptor and bottom radiator hose from an EF, or an entire EF radiator side tank and EF hose. I went for the adaptor setup because its a hell of a lot easier. An exhaust or machine shop should be able to knock this up for you for under $50. Make sure it is made of stainless steel so it wont rust, and try and get them to put a lip on the ends to help stop the hose coming off.
- 2 extra hose clamps to suit the smaller EF hose
- 1 Power steering pump o-ring for the back of the pump
-XH drive belt (AU and EF are shorter and won't fit)
How to go about it:
- Go to a workshop and get them to recover all of the gas from your AC system.
-Remove the thermofans and radiator (and airbox, throttle body ducting etc if you have it) to give yourself some space.
-Remove the negative battery terminal so you can't short anything out.
(make sure you take note of which bolts came from where to help you when refitting)
-Loosen the 4 bolts on the water pump pulley then remove all of the drive belts.
-Remove the power steer pump and the bracket it attaches to.
-Remove the alternator and the bracket it attaches to.
-Remove the tensioner brackets for the AC compressor and the power steer pump. The bottom bolt is a Torx head, I think it's a T3- pr T35, I can't remember exactly.
-Remove the water pump pulley and the AC compressor, but leave the AC compressor bracket bolted to the block.
-Remove the water pump. (more water will probably leak out when you remove the pump)
-Clean the face the water pump bolts to really well, use a razor blade and fine sandpaper, then thinners/brakeclean and a rag to make sure it is perfectly clean and flat.
-Put the car in gear (manual) and the handbrake on to stop the crank turning, and loosen the crank bolt, remove it all the way then put in in about 5 turns by hand so the balancer puller has something to push off. Good luck auto owners - maybe you could convert to manual to make this easier :D.
-Fit the balancer puller and pull the crank pulley off. Make sure you stop when it gets hard, as the pulley will have hit the crank bolt. Remove the puller and crank bolt, and gently lever the balancer the rest of the way off.
-Wipe the area around the balancer seal to ensure no junk gets in there and wipe off the end of the crank and the inside of the balancer.
-Apply a thin film of engine oil to the outside of the balancer where the seal runs on it and apply a thin film of UltraBlue on the inside to stop any leaks.
-Align the keyway on the new balancer with the keyway on the crank and tap it on enough to ensure it is going on correctly and get the crank bolt in a couple of turns (at least 3) before you start winding the balancer on with the crank bolt.
-Wind the balancer on with the crank bolt and do it up fairly tight, somewhere around 70Nm should be ok.
-Put a thin layer of Permatex No3 or UltraBlue on the water pump gasket and fit the water pump. Fit all 4 bolts, as there are no brackets that need to be attached to the pump.
-Next is the alternator bracket - this needs to be ground down to fit the EA/D timing cover, as there is a brace cast into the timing case which fouls on the alternator bracket, you will need to trial fit the bracket a few times to make sure you have ground off enough.
Use a file to take off a little of the timing cover where the bolt hole is...its a horrible mess down there on my car - the following pic was taken AFTER I cleaned it up a bit!
This is the bracket fitted to the car - the balancer is the thing at the bottomw of the pic.
Make sure when you put the bracket against the block and the front 10mm bolt in, that the two faces sit flush. If they don't sit flush you haven't ground enough off.
-Fit the alternator and attach the wiring. The EB plug on my car went straight into the EF alternator I had, I hope the rest of you are as lucky.
-Get your old (or use a new one) EA/D bottom radiator hose and the new EF one. The EF one obviously has to go to the water pump and the EB one to the radiator.
Measure carefully and cut the hoses in the same spot. you will need to use side-cutters to cut the spring inside - make sure you keep the spring in both sections of the hose, it stops the hose from sucking in when the car is running.
-Join the two hoses together using the adaptor, making sure you join them in the correct orientation so there is no stress on the hose when it is fitted to the car. I used two hose clamps on the smaller section just because I had them spare.
-Fit the AC compressor. I had some problems getting bolts the correct length here. I think I ended up using one from the EB setup and two from the EF one, though one of the EF ones was about 5mm too long, so I had to put 4 washers underneath it to ensure it went tight before it bottomed out.
Its also a good idea to use new AC o-rings, but if yours aren't compression-set then you can re-use them. Make sure you keep them clean and don't let any engine oil, grease or thinners or anything on them.
-Now fit the tensioner. It has 3 long bolts that go deep into the block, so use the longest ones you can but again, ensure they are getting tight against the tensioner before they bottom out in the block.
-Fit the power steer pump bracket. The front of the bracket has 3 sliding mounts in it, I found it was easiest to tap them flush with the back of the bracket with a hammer, then put the bolts in the side of the block/head first, start the front bolts to align everything, do the side ones up tight and then do the front ones up tight.
-Fit the power steer pump, using a new o-ring for the high pressure line and fill with fluid.
-Fit the drive belt as shown:
-Refit the radiator, hoses etc and thermofans and fill the car with new coolant.
-Refit the intake piping, airbox etc, make sure the car is out of gear and start it, check the power steer pump oil level when the car is running and top up if necessary, also make sure you keep an eye on the coolant level.
-Check for leaks and anything loose and go for a test drive.
-Get a workshop to refill your AC system.
-Hopefully smile at a job well done :D
Other stuff
One good reason to keep your coolant fresh - my old water pump is around 50,000km old IIRC, and still looks practically new :)
Prior to fitting the serpentine setup the system voltage of the car was wildly variable - 14v with everything off, down to 11.5v with both fuel pumps, thermos, headlights, and stereo on (even quietly) throw some windscreen wipers and an indicator into the mix and the thing nearly stopped! Now I can have everything running and it still only drops to 13.8v, from a no-load 14.5v.
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THIS WAS SOOOO WORTH THE EFFORT!
HTH :)