Ok, so about a month ago I noticed a lot of black dust-like shavings all over my engine, esp. near the serp. belts. Found out belts can shredd. So, feeling pressed for time and not wanting to mess with it I took the car into the shop. They replaced the rear serp. belt and put on a new bottom idler pulley. So, I come bacj from WCBF, I pop my hood, and holy smokes! I thought I paid to have that fixed already?! So, I call up the shop and got the car in today. Today they used a laser to make sure they were aligned. They were. So, they put on a new */c belt, a napa one instead of the gator back that I had on it already. They said that the NAPA belt has a deeper grove and hence won't be torn up by the groves on the pulleys. Personnaly, I don't really buy this, but we'll see.

Anyone have any ideas?! I'm really fed up with having to clean all this crap off everything in the engine bay.

Here are some pics:

If you look closely, you can see some rubber towards the top of this pulley. Look at ALL THAT RUBBER on the hose clamp!!!!!


New */c belt. It ALREADY looks like it is freying on the edges....


Look at all the rubber dust crap underneathe the */c nose!


The alternator belt seems to be in good condition.


The "old" gatorback belt. See the wear spot on the side?


Now dosen't the edge of the old belt and the new one they just put on look the same? The both look like they have freyed a bit.

Could just be belt slip caused by the smaller pulley.
There isn't much wrap on that pulley.

Where did you get the pulley? Possibly bad tolerancing on the machining of the pulley. :?
My bet is belt slippage. Try some belt dressing spray and maybe a larger idler pulley.

BTW I forgot all my gel ice packs in your garage fridge. Use them if you want to cool your jets.

I know the belt slips sometimes, but not very often, if at all. It was nearly eliminated once I put on the gatorback belt. I did get the oversized idler pulley when I went to the smaller */c pulley.

Which pulley are you talking about? The */c? I purchased it from pulley boys. I'll put some belt dreswsing on there tommarow, see if it helps.

lol, i'll ship up the ice packs later this month if you don't need them right away...

I'd check for excessive 'weepage' from your water pump... I went through 2 belts before I figured that one out.

Just my .02 cents worth.

what do you mean by "weepage"? :?

BTW, nice avatar

when mine was doing that exact thing...it was my idler going bad...

check the idler pulley mine did the same after i switched to a smaller pulley at the belt, put an oversized idler pulley on and good to go

well, which one? I had the idler pulley on the alternator belt just replaced. are you talking about the */c belt idler pulley?

I'm refering to the weep hole in the water pump that 'weeps' a small amount of coolant every so ofter. Mine deteriated my gelts until they broke... twice. I finally caught on and changed the leaking water pump.

BTW, I see you borrowed the same Avitar I did...

yes