five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The water pump on my LS1/T56 from a 2000 Camaro SS decided to start leaking this past week (probably the original factory pump). In the process of replacing it Monday evening, I discovered the idler pulley bearing was pretty rough. Went to Advance Auto, figured I might as well replace the tensioner pulley while I was at it. Well, they had the tensioner pulley, but not the idler pulley. It was getting close to closing time, but I headed to O'Reilly to see what they could do rather than order it right then from Advance.

They pulled up the application, had the pulley (Gates p/n 38006), so I bought it and headed home. The tensioner fit fine, but the idler was too deep from the outer surface to the bearing, and the depressed washer they have under the bolt head was hitting the outer face of the pulley. If I left the washer off, the pulley was too close to the engine and the edge of the belt would be over the front edge of the pulley. By this time, all of the parts stores were closed, so I put both the new and old pulleys in the car, along with the washers & bolt, and waited until today.

Going back to O'Reilly after work, I thought perhaps I got a "bad" part or mismarked package. They got another of the same p/n and it was the same thing (although a completely different package). Looking closer at the two, the bearing from the old pulley was wider than the new one, making its faces closer to the front and back edges of the pulley. We looked at several different pulleys off the shelf (truck, Vette, etc., applications), couldn't find one they had that matched. From the photos in the Gates paper book, there was one that looked possible, Gates 38041 - looked it up on the computer and on the shelf, they didn't have it. Looked up the application for the p/n, though, and it came up "2001 Camaro 5.7". Hmmm. There was one at the "bigger" store about 10 miles away, so I headed there.

Along the way, I stopped back at Advance (since it is much closer to home), asked them to look up the 2001 application, they showed the same p/n for both years (and the p/n they listed would have to come from out of state). Next closest was Pep Boys, they didn't have it either. So I made the drive to the O'Reilly store that was supposed to have it.

They looked up the 2001 application, pulled the 38041 pulley from the shelf, and it was the right part.

Weird...

This engine was supposed to be from a 2000 Camaro SS. The VIN (which I can't put my finger on right now) backed that up. However, it had 241 heads on it, which supposedly didn't start until 2001. It did, however, have an LS1 intake on it.

The other car, with the 2000 Z28 LS1/4L60E, had 853 heads on it (like 2000's are supposed to have), and the idler pulley is different from either the 38006 or 38041. The washers on either side are different from the SS LS1/T56, but the bearing does look like the wide type rather than the narrower one of the 38006.

Not sure what to make of all of this. I would assume the alternator bracket, to which this idler pulley bolts, would also have to be different between the pulleys in order for the belt to align properly. So, I guess the bottom line is, "If you're not sure of the source of the f-body accessories for your LSx swap, make sure the idler pulley properly lines up with everything else, especially if you pick up a new idler pulley in the process."

BlueMagicSS

That's kinda weird, but FYI 241's came on 2000's I know for a fact mine has them and a few other 2000's I've worked on do too

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Yes, it seems many 2000's got the 241 heads. Apparently an early cut-in.

1ADan

iTrader: (4)

i had a similar issue recently with my idler, thought the previous owner just bought the wrong one (since it was never installed and pieced together). ended up having 2 washers that just perfectly spaced out pulley to stop the interference with teh rest of the alt bracket.

88 350 tpi formula

iTrader: (9)

its the books. just like trying to find the slave for the 2002 camaro

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I agree the listings could be messed up. But, I have two different style pulleys on my two LS1's of the same model year.