Serpentine belt routing while eliminating AC

If this were the factory routing:

And you want to remove AC would you go to the right of the idler pulley or eliminate that pully also and go from the crank straight to the water pump?

I'd leave the idler as it likely isn't hurting anything. Unless the available belt choices are "too short" and "not long enough", then I'd see if eliminating it makes the too short belt work.

On that note, you can find different diameter idlers, too.

In any event, I would not go to the other side of the idler, you'd be losing a lot of belt wrap. Also, the diagram isn't the engine, there may be brackets or protrusions or stuff in the way.

I'd try straight down if you have a clear path, if the idler is there you'll rub it a bit on the left which is good.

Leaving the idler and running the belt on the left side of it is going to give best contact to the crank pulley, so I'd go that way. Sometimes there will be a belt listed for this, even if it never came without a compressor.

Does said vehicle have a non-AC option? The belt length should give you an idea of how it's supposed to run.

It's an Infiniti so no non AC options I know of. I'll try measuring the suggested routing and see what we can come up with. Thanks guys.

I hate when I'm searching for something and find someone else that looked for the same thing but no final answer.

2002 Infiniti Q45 VK45DE Serpentine Belt AC delete

We used a 5060510 belt without the idler pulley.

The reason we didn't use the idler was cleaner look and less weight for a Challenge car.  The same belt should work fine with the idler pulley.  You also could use a 5060505 belt and maybe a 5060500 belt.  We choose the 5060510 because it was the cheapest of the choices. The routing was the same as factory except going straight up from the crank to the water pump. 

No AC should disqualify you from the aristocrat class. 

Not like it worked last year Sir.