Here are some pics and details on the serpentine conversion I am putting the finishing touches on.

The car started out with a typical Archie setup running an electric water pump and due to the use of a milodon 12000 gear drive (protrudes from the block an extra 1/4") the passenger frame rail was already notched when it came to me. The only downside to the serpentine setup on an Archie kit is it requires a frame notch, but since this car already had one there really wasn't any reason to not go with a serpentine setup.

The plan was to retain as many original components of the Archie kit, while incorportating the serpentine belt, balancer, pulleys and spring loaded tensioner.

The new balancer is a 87+ GM FWD 2.5 balancer. It is a compact 6 rib balancer that slides right on the SBC crankshaft with a short crank seal flange and no extra material on the face. Here is a pic comparing an Archie V-Belt balancer on the left, the 87+ FWD 2.5 balancer in the middle and the 3.1 FWD balancer (the one I have used in the past) on the right:





As you can see the 87+ 2.5 FWD balancer is very similar in overall width as the Archie balancer, but it is thick for its entire diameter vs. the stepped profile of the Archie balancer. This is why a small notch will be required to use it.
The 87+ 2.5L FWD balancer is readily available under the following part #’s:
Dorman 594-027, Autozone price $70.99
Pioneer DA-151, Autozone price $45.99

The Archie alternator bracket is modified to accept the tensioner (autozone part # 305232) and the pulley swapped out for a 6 rib version. The lower idler pulley mounts in an existing hole in the Archie bracket and just needs the proper shim/stand to space it properly. The spacers at the upper left are needed between the head and Archie bracket to properly line up the pulleys.


The Archie AC bracket needs the proper sized shims to line up the pulley on the AC compressor and the bottom bolt hole needs counter bored (or counter sunk) so the bolt head will clear the belt path:




The pulleys on the AC clutch and Alternator will need to be converted to the 6 rib style. For the AC compressor, I used the stock V6 fiero compressor and swapped over the clutch setup from the same application as the balancer, but you could use the 88 4 cyl AC compressor or some latermodel one with the serpentine clutch already installed.

Here are a few overall pictures of the assembly:






You will need to locate TDC and make a timing mark and notch the balancer in some manner. I used an existing hole and a 5/16" bolt that I ground a point on the end and bent it to be very close to the balancer. I uses a cut off wheel to notch the balancer and then painted the pointer and notch white to make them more visible:


I also fabricated 2 additional brackets/braces to support the back side of the alternator and AC compressor to ensure they will not deflect under WOT loads:





The original frame notch was much larger than needed, so I went ahead and cleaned up the notched area to better match what was needed. This notch is 1/4" deeper into the frame rail due to the use of a gear drive, and I left enough room to pass the serpentine belt between the frame and the balancer to allow a belt change w/o needing to rock the cradle back to slide the belt on:

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 08-17-2011).]