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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

billet tensioner necessary for 800bhp?


msupra1

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When the Supra was getting tuned last year, the crank pulley cracked and that also the stock cast tensioner snapped into two pieces.

 

So I replaced those with an ATI (TITAN) dampener and a new factory tensioner.

 

Its been just fine making 600whp for the past year.

 

 

Now with the new tune and setup I am expecting about 700whp which is 800 at the crank.

 

Considering I just put in a new tensioner should it be fine to run for this kind of power? or would a billet tensioner be recommended?

 

 

I just spent a lot over my anticipated budget with the last phase of mods so trying not to spend on things that not absolutely necessary!

 

cheers

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In short is it nessessary, probably not. However, given your previous experience coupled with the outlay on your power upgrades I would most definately consider it a component of modifying the car.

 

I'm running around 600 bhp on mine and I have upgraded to a billet tensioner bracket. Small price to pay vs the consequences of it failing on a spirited drive.

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Correct, the harmonics from the cam lobes opening valves at slow RPM are passed into the belt drive, and can perhaps cause a bit of tensioner movement. I fail to see how BHP level has any effect on belt strain, or tensioner strain. At more than stock RPM levles there could be some harmonics generated in the belt, and on sudden gear changes. the gear change issue is why manual TT's have a damper on the auxiliary belt. I suffered harmonics on the long PAS belt of my RB26DETT engine and fitted an idler pulley running on the long none tension side of the belt. It cured the belt turning inside out and coming off immediately. A race engine would not use an auto belt tensioner on the cam belt in the first place, and would thus rule that playing silly devils out from the get go. I'd be more interested in why the tensioner arm was braking, and would first investigate if was RPM related.

 

 

As an aside the addition of more radical profile cams on VVTi's often results in a rattling noise at idle. this is caused by the extra pulsation of the different cam profile exciting the VVTi mechanism. It disappears as soon as you put a few RPM on the engine and the cams turn fast enough for the pulsation frequency to change to a higher level.

 

 

Anyway, belt driven cams are an abortion in the first place, they only came into vogue as they are cheap and quiet :)

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Belt driven cams are an abortion in the first place, but that aside I see no correlation between BHP and cam belt or tensioner load. RPM harmonics related, possibly. Sudden throttle closure issues, possibly.

 

VVti mechanisms often rattle at idle when more radical profile cams are used, but it disappears once a few RPM are used.

 

No proper race engine would use an auto tensioner in the first place, if I was doing a serious 2JZ I would replace the tensioner with a threaded rod and manually adjust it in a fixed and stable manner. In fact, thinking about it I may offer one. Tensioner cartridge issues are more likely the cause of tensioner ARM issues than the tensioner arm itself. Hmmm...

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Thanks for all the input, I'm most likely going to get the billet bracket.

 

To be more exact here is the history with my crank pulley issue.

 

When BPU, the crank pulley rubber seal broke into pieces when doing a slight drift around a turn.

 

I replaced that with a used Aristo pulley that a friend had laying around.

 

 

I was running 460whp on that pulley no problems. Then on the dyno session the timing belt was wobbling so they refused to continue tuning it. Took it back to the shop which is when we found the rubber seal in the crank pulley cracked, as well as the tensioner bracket completely snapped.

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