So im looking to bypass my AC (cant afforrd to fix at the moment) but cant find the right size belt to do it with. Does anyone happen to know what car came with a 3800 engine that didnt come with AC so I can go to autozone or a similar store to buy the properly sized belt? TIA

 

To the best of my knowledge, the is NO car with a 3800 V6, and no A/C from the factory.

 

http://zzperformance.com/grand_prix/...=558&catid=111

You can always go the way of the AC Delete

 

I could've swore there was some parts store that sold an idler/bypass pulley that bolted up. I can't remember though- best bet may just be to order one online.

 

What's wrong that you HAVE to delete it? Can't you just leave the current belt on, it would just turn the pulley on the A/C but shouldn't harm anything.

 

Yeah I dont know why people delete the A/C compressor when it doesnt work. If you dont turn it on, the clutch wont engage and it wont spin the compressor. I would just leave it alone and save up to have it fixed.

 

Putting 800 bucks in parts in labor into a $3000 car makes no business sense. If the car had less than 9 years and 170k miles on it I probably would sink some cash into it. However as that is not the case, I was looking for a cheap/fast, but safe, alternative to it. The AC unit is making a hell of a racket. When idling you hear metalic whirring and it whines like a SOB when you drive it. Had a mechanic take a quick look at it and confirmed that its definitely the AC unit. I was hoping not to do the delete (autozone sells the pulley so its readily available) because I dont have the time/tools/experience (I do a ton of work on cars, but have never tried to remove such a unit in a compact engine compartment and have no idea where to start) to root around my engine compartment trying to install the pulley. Plus if I buy the belt+pulley itll be about $70-80 when all is said and done, compared to $15 for just a new non-ac belt (assuming one exists) which is why I am asking the question.

 

Dorman makes the A/c bypass pulley. I can't come up with a 3800 without a/c, but to figure out a belt, just run a string the route you want to run the belt come up with the length you need in inches. This easily translates to the part number your want. Although I don't know if simply bypassing the pulley will work as this may cause another pulley to be improperly "driven".

 

Ill have to try the string method, I was just looking up on autozone.com and saw that they have measurements for the length.

As for the effect of shortening the belt my mechanical engineering side tells me this: By removing a non-drive pulley (i.e, anything other than the crank) and shortening the belt youre still not changing the speed of the engine or the speed at which the belt operates. You are effectively doing nothing to the engine except removing an isolated component. If you change the size of a drive pulley, without compensating with a differently sized belt, you would change the speed of the belt. Unless there is something I am overlooking (assuming that the rotational friction of the AC is relatively negligible, which I have no reason to assume otherwise) removing the AC compressor and shortening the belt should have no adverse effect.

 

This is true, however, by bypass the a/c pulley completely the belt will likely rub the idler in 2 spots - which means it won't work. The belt can't turn and it will throw it. It also can result in changing the amount of friction the belt gets across any one pulley. For example, the belt may make kess contact with the water pump and cause the belt to slip on the w/p. I don't think that is the issue here, but it could be something like that. Belt speed has nothing to do with it. Either way, the string routing method will give you your answer. If the string crosses on your routing it will not work.