Thread: Gear drive with a blower

Tweet

I need a little advice. I have a 350 with Dart heads and a mild street cam with a Jessell noisy gear drive, Now I just added the 8-71 Blower from BDS. Will it be entirely to noisy with both the gear drive and the blower? Nows the time to remove the gear drive before I install the assembly. I don't mind the noise if its a real head turner.

Dump the gear drive. The blower whine is there for a reason. The gear noise is there because it isn't the best way to drive a cam.

jessel sells belt drives only ??but this really dont mean much .who ever made it dump the gear drive

I forgot the brand of gear drive but it is now for sale. I got it from Summit. Thanks guys for the advice. Anyone want one thats never been run? $25.00 plus a few bucks to ship it and its theirs.

I use a Donovan gear drive in mine with no noise at all. If it is set up correctly and is of good quality there is no problem,

summit i think it is a dual idler gear drive any gear drive is great for breaking valve springs

That would be bassed on the old Pete Jackson gear drive. The way they transmit harmonics and vibration from the crackshaft to the cam and valvetrain is unreal.

all gear drives are a bad idea... why do you think professional racers run chain drives still.... no matter the quality, you're still adding harmonics to the rolling assembly.... its like running a motor without it being balanced... it'll run, might even womp hard.... but its gonna wear out fast.... i went thru 2 cranks with my mustang before i researched the problem more, kept spinning bearings, i line honed, took it to machine shops for second opinions, and then finally i got the right guy that asked me if i was running a gear drive

yes the best way to go is a belt. a gear drive is sure way to add harmonic.

Never mind the noise and the harmonics, they usually don't last long enough for those to be a problem!

I'm going to have to chime in to this one.

Loose the gear drive.

I was stoked when my box from summit showed up, and beneather the cam, lifters, headbolts, blah blah was a box with a Summit Gear Drive in it. When I first started the car, I was absolutely stoked like the kid I am.
"Woo! Listen to that whine!". Little did I realize I was also hearing the idler popping around in the timing cover,
and couldn't listen for abnormailites in my engine any further.

2 weeks later I realized a few things:

1) My valve timing was now off, and I had lost a substantial amount of power
2) The geardrive was like stamping a gigantic "Poser" sticker on the side of my Nova. I don't know who I'm paraphrasing off these boards here, but a gear drive is pretending to have a supercharger, mostly found on a stock low-compression motor. You have a blower, don't need to pretend you have one as well
3) The noise freaking sucks. My car sounded like the USS Ronald Reagan. No matter where I went, I got exasperated looks from everyone, and laughs from the people will real superchargers. Dont waste your time if you're going for a cool factor.

All in all, fun for a day, but ass in the long run. Mechanically, and aesthetically.

Originally Posted by Roy@RoysAuto

I forgot the brand of gear drive but it is now for sale. I got it from Summit. Thanks guys for the advice. Anyone want one thats never been run? $25.00 plus a few bucks to ship it and its theirs.

I'll take it. Give me your name and address in a Pm or email to donshotrod@hotmail.com, and I'll send you the correct amount plus shipping in a money order.

I know all the negatives about them, but I love the whine.


I'm serious about the offer.

Don

PS: I just remembered my stupid email blocks some emails, send me a PM.

I put a noisy Pete Jackson in my 65' Fleetside, and to be quite honest it's not that loud. Sounds more like a power steering pump going bad. I'm suspecting that it's not installed with the proper clearances even though I did everything step-by-step per instructions. I even did the clearance check between the idler and the timing cover with clay. Any ideas as to why mine isn't that loud?
I also didn't know about the listed "negatives" about gear drives transferring harmonics and vibrations to the valve train. Makes perfectly good sense now that I think about it. Only bad thing I've ever heard is the idler gears coming appart.