Dangers of driving with no belt?!?

[Sic96]

So when I recently went to the track, I broke my serpentine belt on my final run.. I did not trailer it and the track was closing, so I had to drive it. I live about 35-40 min. from the track, and made it about 25 minutes till the car died. I then towed it home with my truck. The batt. was junk anyway, so I put a new Red top in her today. Now, the car just cranks and cranks. It fired once but died instantly and has just cranked since. What did I do to this thing?!?
I noticed the belt did some damage to some wires but didn't cut through any of them(IAT sensor wires).
But yeah, what can happen if you do this?

[OIF1VET]

The belt drives your waterpump also... Did you happen to notice what your temp went to?

[ryanwarby01]

The belt drives your waterpump also... Did you happen to notice what your temp went to?

Not on an LT1, so he sould be okay there.

[OIF1VET]

Not on an LT1, so he sould be okay there.

Oops, failure to pay attention.

[98blackbeauty]

As you drove you were running on the battery, and as voltage dropped you could have damaged the tune in the pcm or fried the opti, or any thing else electrical. Any friends with simular car, I would swap pcm's to start isolating thing out.

[OIF1VET]

As you drove you were running on the battery, and as voltage dropped you could have damaged the tune in the pcm or fried the opti, or any thing else electrical. Any friends with simular car, I would swap pcm's to start isolating thing out.

Not to thread jack, but is there a difference between lt1 and ls1 pcm's? I've been told by many people that my tune could not be effected by lack of power..

[meissen]

Are you sure the belt didn't damage anything else? Like the temperature sensor in the waterpump?

[Sic96]

The belt drives your waterpump also... Did you happen to notice what your temp went to?

No it doesnt

[Sic96]

Are you sure the belt didn't damage anything else? Like the temperature sensor in the waterpump?

Not that I can tell. It's getting fuel, so it's not the pump. Opti is a possibility, though I hope that's not it. It's starting to fire now but only for a split second then dies. It's smoking from the engine once it dies, and smells rich. I guess I should test that opti, and go fro there. Just to double check, does any one know for sure if driving without the belt can fry the Opti? If it can't then good, but if it can, then I'm going to start there

[meissen]

Double check that water pump sensor - I'm not saying it's the water pump, I'd be triple checking the wiring for the sensor because it's right above the belt. If that temperature sensor gets effed up, your car will run extremely rich. If it runs for a second and then dies and the exhaust smells like fuel, it's probably flooding the engine which would fit with the temp sensor being screwed up.





If the belt shredding was enough to mess up the IAT sensor's wiring which is on top of the intake elbow, wouldn't be surprised if it screwed up the temp sensor.

[Sic96]

Yes Brian, those are the exact wires that were messed up. It shredded the coax right off the wire, so now they're bare.. and were touching until I found it. They said this same thing on LTXtech, that the PCM is probably telling the car it's really cold due to a messed up sensor/wires, which is why it's flooding out or at least running rich. I will check/replace that sensor and wires tomorrow. Thank you very much, hopefully this is it!

[meissen]

Ah yeah - that's the waterpump's ECT, not IAT. The IAT is on the side of the intake elbow. Yup if the ECT (Electronic Coolant Temp) sensor gets effed up, it will definitely act as you described.

[nascarnate326]

Not on an LT1, so he sould be okay there.

Wait, we found something that the LT1 is clearly better than the LS1 at?

YES!!!!!

[98blackbeauty]

Something to think about! if serp. belt shreaded at the track, you probably have a weak to bad tensioner. We see this on the dyno at work, thats why Kateck designed and builds and sells a fixed position belt tensioner. Unfortunatly they only make these for LSX series engines. Happens at high RPM.

[Sic96]

Something to think about! if serp. belt shreaded at the track, you probably have a weak to bad tensioner. We see this on the dyno at work, thats why Kateck designed and builds and sells a fixed position belt tensioner. Unfortunatly they only make these for LSX series engines. Happens at high RPM.

Well this is the second time in two years this has happened, so I bet you're right. The first time was right when i bought the car while sitting in the driveway. I'm sure there is a fixed one for the LT's as well, though I've never seen one. I bought a "poly" belt this time, waaay better, a lot thicker and much more rigid than the stocker was. I'll have to get that ECT tomorrow, work is non-stop right now. working from 12am-12pm, then sleeping from noon to 8 really hurts the "me" time lol