[Land-speed] Cam Belt-Drives

[Kirkwood]

Mayf's timely question has raised another issue. If one was to believe
advertising you would think that a belt drive was a magic excelsior to
dampen all the bad harmonics coupled to the cam. Not being an engineer it
sounded like a plausible solution. However, as a technocrat suspicious of
unsubstantiated advertising, I am always looking for good data proving the
supposition. I am still neutral about belt drive claims. Testing and
engineering analysis to prove belt-drive claims is non-trivial and
expensive. In Experimental Aviation a belt-drive-prop-reduction-unit has
always claimed, among other things, to be beneficial due to its dampening
characteristics.  So, in absence of good data, it is refreshing to see an
interesting article that appears to debunk the status quo. 

http://www.eaa.org/experimenter/articles/2009-10_beltdrive.asp

 

Knowledge is horsepower. Too much is a good thing :-)