[Classix_Lover]

Hmm, this is pretty weird what happened. My waterpump pulley wobbles very slightly but nothing too drastic but still something to be concerned about replacing. I took it off a while back to examine it and spun the shaft of the waterpump and it was spinning nice and straight so signs pointed to out of wack pulley. Looked at the back of the pulley and it had a lil made in taiwan sticker, placed it on a level surface and it wobbled slightly so I ordered a new waterpump pulley, same size and everything off of summit. Got it last night and went to replace the pulley this morning, put it on, had a little clearence issue and made a small spacer between the hub and the pulley to give it the proper clearences. Tightened all the bolts up, spun it freely without the belt on(v-belt setup) and it was looking pretty good. Cranked it over and heard this nasty grind and immediately shut it off. I was hoping it would be the belt slipping but I knew it had to be a pulley problem. Took the belt off and spun the pulley freely and what the hell, it became out of wack like the other pulley is!! The grinding noise was the pulley coming in contact verrrry slightly with the crank pulley and scraped some chrome off. From the old pulley, it alraedy had these scrapes on the edges of it from coming in contact with the crank pulley so this had already happened before I purchased the car. This is very odd and I don't know if this happens to be a quality issue with the pulley since it was only 23 bucks (tryin to save money from those 50 dollar aluminum milled ones). Ok, the measurement for the outside diameter of the pulley is 6 3/8", 2 notches for v-belt setup, steel with a cheezy chrome job. I'm probably going to try and find a slightly smaller pulley but last time I was trying to match up the old pulley for like 2 hrs, I didn't come across slightly smaller pulleys for a big block setup with a short style waterpump. They did have some smaller one's for a small block but I don't know what the difference is between the pulleys. So the 2 questions I have is what do you think about this whole situation and is there a difference between a big block and small block pulley besides the outside diameters being different? Thanks guys for readin through this.

[Bumpstick]

Just to ask but are you sure the water pump is not on its way out...? Or do you have a problem with the crank pulley...?


This is a BBC correct...? With a short pump...?

[Classix_Lover]

Water pump is new(moroso), shaft spins freely and doesn't wobble, crank pulley doesn't wobble, short pump, and yea it's a 454 bbc.

[Bumpstick]

Well needless to say you do have a wobble in one of the pulleys or shafts otherwise they would not make contact...? Also the bolt patterns of SBC`s and BBC`s are the same (crank/WP) but the main difference is the spacing... Might consider getting an under drive pulley for the crank which will basicly solve your problem of contact between the pulleys... (if I understand the issue correctly...?)

[Classix_Lover]

Just a thought, I'm only running one belt going from the crank, water pump, to alternator pulley so would this cause some wobbling issues with the water pump pulley? The hole in the pulley for the shaft to stick through is just under 1/8" thick and I'm not sure if only using one belt would cause a strange tension on only one part of the pulley. I don't think it would matter since there are 4 bolts holding it down but right now I'm just shooting for other options besides spending 100 bucks on another crank pulley/waterpump pulley if it isn't necessary.

[Classix_Lover]

Thanks for your help bump since no one else seems to have any other suggestions.. BUT one more thing to add. The pulley diameter measurements on the 454 are: 6 3/8" waterpump(6.375"), 7 5/8" crank(7.625") barely even a 1/16" clearence in between them. Found trans dapt's aluminum pulleys on summit for about 100 bucks for both of them. The measurements on these are both at 6.6" for the waterpump and crank pulleys which should provide more than adequate clearence in between them(a little under an inch)and will solve the grinding problem howeverrrr, I am concerned now about how this will affect my cooling. I've heard that it's best if you underdrive the waterpump pulley about 20% relative to the crank pulley. It will overheat in traffic during the summer mostly because I don't have enough flow from my crappy e-fans from cheap-bay (get what you pay for , fixin that problem during the summer though when I'm driving another car to college) But anyway, if I go with this pulley setup with equal diameters, will that affect my cooling in any way?

[Bumpstick]

Well seems to me if you go equal in diameter pulleys then it should not make any difference (basicly a 1 to 1 ratio then)...? I run underdrive serpentine pulleys on my BBC and have no problems but of course I am running a very nice Griffin alum radiator as well...? I have 2 perma-cool fans that do a good job too... Also what you have found sounds like it will solve your problem and most likely look good too...

[Classix_Lover]

Ha yea, machined aluminum always looks nice and 100 bucks ain't terrible for 2 pulleys. The reason it could be wobbling now that I think about it is because the pulleys are probably still touching but not grinding each other anymore and they're just following the notches they grinded into each other previously. I do have a decent griffon radiator but the core is so dang small(fin area is only 15x25, total radiator area is 19x26) that I can't upgrade to a good production electric fan off of a mark 8 (almost 19" in diameter)so I'll have to buy one with a larger core to allow me to mount it properly and pull mucho cfms with that beast of a fan . Thanks for your help bump, I knew I could count on you!! Lol

[Classix_Lover]

Mk, time for an update! Replaced the other pulleys with the nice aluminum ones that came in friday annnnd after 4 trips to Oriellys trying to get the perfect belt match since they're obviously smaller and finally got it. My alternator runs into the valve covers whenever you loosen it to get the belt off so I only had about an inch of play sooo had to pull the covers off just to get that dang belt on . Ripped a lil chunk off but just siliconed it together, popped it back on, waited for it to dry after a couple hours, fired it up annnnd.... BOOM!! lol I'm just messin around no boom this time. Pulleys run absolutely perfectly They look very nice too and noooo more wobbling problem anymore and now I have about an inch of clearence in between them. Took it around for a test drive, came back home and noticed a funny smell. Checked the valve covers, nope no oil leaking. I heard a weird gurgling noise and traced it to antifreeze bubbling out of the intake gasket. Intake was fairly new so just retightened all the bolts around it and that should do the trick. Thanks mucho for help.

[Bumpstick]

Good glad to hear you solved the issue... What is this 454 in...?

[Classix_Lover]

64 el camino