Accesory Drive Belts - Budget Serpentine Belt Drive

This is the Kwik adapter system kit with seven flat aluminum brackets and all the fasteners you'll need to bolt the system to the engine. These pieces adapt the small-block brackets to the block and accessory boltholes in the big-block heads.

This is the Kwik adapter system kit with seven flat aluminum brackets and all the fastener

Big-Block Serpentine
As good as the small-block system is, we ran across a cool conversion kit that applies these same pieces for a big-block. We introduced you to Kwik Performance with our LS-series engine accessory drive story back in the May '09 issue ("LS Accessory Drive Swap Guide"). The Kwik folks also identified a need for an inexpensive big-block serpentine accessory drive and discovered that with seven simple aluminum brackets, it's possible to adapt the small-block serpentine beltdrive system to a big-block Chevy with kits for standard-deck and tall-deck Rat motors. It's really that simple. For the record, GM did build a big-block serpentine beltdrive system starting in the early '90s through model year 2000 in 3/4 and 1-ton trucks, Suburbans, and other large vehicles. It is possible to find this system, but you're more likely to find it in a truck-only boneyard-and you'll pay more for the privilege. GM Performance Parts also sells a complete serpentine beltdrive system for either standard- or tall-deck Rats with or without A/C.

All the previous parts we detailed for the small-block are used on the big-block with the exception of the water pump. In fact, Chevrolet interchangeability is so good that even the small-block serpentine water pump pulley can be used on the big-block. Kwik's brackets easily adapt the small-block system to the Rat, and the only other critical components you need are a big-block serpentine crank pulley and a different belt. We also found a cool aluminum crank pulley from March Pulleys that is only a few dollars more than the factory steel piece.