Ive been working with a belt manufacturer recently for producing a specialized timing belt for the D24 that in theory would last the life of the engine. Its a steel wire reinforced that uses stainless steel wire instead of the kevlar over rubber design with a transmissive power rating of 10 horsepower over 6 complete teeth, tensile strength of 2600 pounds across the belt. The designed application of the belt is for aircraft and critical power applications with a design max temp over 300F and speeds to 3200 FPM, hystrisis loss is about 2-6% total at this speed. The D24 stock belt is designed for 650 pounds tensile and 2-3 horsepower over 6 complete teeth with a hystrisis loss of 3.5% at 800 foot/min. Its design max temp is 375F and service life on average of 2500 hours at 200 foot/min. (ref Gates powerflex timing belt)

Now the reason I bring this up is because it would be considered a speciality belt being I spec'd the stainless over nylon tooth with reinforced toe and heels for the teeth and comes with a relativly high price of $32.00 unit in a production of 10 units to be considered a prototype production. If anyone has a D24 diesel and is intrested in one or a couple of these belts I would give the green light for the production and we could have a long lasting timing belt available to us that in the long run would be cheaper than the stock rubber belts and would have a much longer service life. Im not saying it would be a lifetime belt but it would offer peace of mind to know its not going to just shed its teeth or break without notice.

If you guys are intrested drop a reply and if enough show intrest I will give the green light and spring for the production and you can pay me back, Im not out to make a profit here I just want to get a good timing belt being I now have 4 of these D24s with 2 that are apart on the bench awaiting bearings and rings.

Do let me know if you're intrested, there is no rush as I dont expect to have all the design details worked out for a little while yet, Im still working out the details of the running surfaces and clearances for the cog teeth so they dont wear the drive cogs out too fast. Looks like the only real drawback is it will be a slightly noisier belt in that it uses the stranded stainless spine as its called and with that comes a slightly more aggressive tooth hit against the driven cog teeth as they meet going around. At our running speeds it should sound like a middle pitched soft gear whine that may or may not get noticed.

I wonder if I could go into business distributing high end timing belts, might be an off the shelf item if we get enough people intrested.

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