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| Joined: | 05-01-2005 |
| Location: | Minneapolis, Minnesota USA |
| Posts: | 575 |
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The blue belt is from Gates Racing, a specialty division of Gates Rubber. Their part number T104RB. It's available from any Gates Rubber distributor, including NAPA, O'Reilly, and RockAuto.com.
The blue belts are the latest materials technology, including HNBR rubber (Hydrogenated acryloNitrile Butadiene Rubber). The black trapezoidal tooth belts are HCR rubber, which is ancient mid-1960's technology.
Simply due to superior materials, the blue belts should be the best available (short of converting to the round-tooth belt), and run longer between replacements. However, Lotus is not doing development/ testing work on a 45+ year old engine, and Gates won't make recommendations for other company's engines. As a result, there's no formal recommendation for miles/ months between changes, but you can think of 'using the best'as an insurance policy against failure. It costs more at about US$65-75.
Blue round-tooth belts have been around for years, but the Gates factory that had the tooling for the trapezoidal tooth belts was not configured to run the new HNBR rubber. Apparently that has changed recently, and the blue trapezoidal belt is now available.
Blue is just the trademark of Gates Racing, and it has nothing to do with the belt's materials or construction.
Regards,
Tim Engel
Last edited on 11-11-2016 11:48 pm by Esprit2