Unorthodox Racing SS Pulley Kit..meh?

[almightyfargoth]

ok guys so I'm basically looking for all three pulleys, the entire kit.

after doing a bit of research I've come to the conclusion if I did want to replace them all, this kit is a fairly good choice.

I did happen to find them over at Andy's Autosports, but I don't know...what do you think about that price or their rep?

http://www.andysautosport.com/honda...ormance/engine/pulley_kits/unorthodox_racing/

also if you wanted to know, my main reason for even wanting to replace them besides the slight bling and supposed power gains, is I need to replace the stock ones regardless because the very bottom one got rusted to hell over the last year after my engine splash shield got literally ripped off a year ago in the blizzard we had here.

so it's had to suffer like a year of rain, salt, crap on the road. It's developed a loud noise after startup (a loud chirp that follows a rhythm), especially on rainy days which is when I imagine water has gotten on the belt. I have replaced the belts within this year with brand new ones and I'm telling you it's that actual pulley making the noise. I've taken it by my friend's garage and we've taken it off and cleaned it and put it back on and tightened it, and adjusted the belt as well, but I'm honestly just fed up and I want the damn noise to go away.

thus, shiny new pulley kit....asap.

and I do have a new shield waiting to be installed, it's in my basement.

I'm half asking you guys if you know of perhaps a better price than even Andy's is offering, your input on having a similar kit on your car, and anything else relevant?

and yeah, I just poured through our own threads on this...not exactly heavy reading on the subject. A number of people either giving thumbs up or thumbs down or simply leaving important questions unanswered.

also I'm sure when "our" Andy sees this he will concur about this kit being nice, since he was interested in one a while back..I think?

 

[almightyfargoth]

rawr that's the bastard right there...

notice no shield as well.

in fact, when the heck did I take this..those are old tires and a mugen lip

 

[fastflyinaccord]

I wouldn't buy from Andy's. I have had two bad experiences with them. Do you want underdrive or just the stock diameter pulleys?


ygpm btw

 

[almightyfargoth]

pm returned

and since pulleys are honestly not my forte...what's the difference again?

like I need kind of a mechanic's lesson in this I guess.

 

[fastflyinaccord]

The underdrive pulleys have a smaller diameter which means it takes less effort to make one revolution, therefore freeing up some power from the crank. The stock diameter are the same size that we have on the car but lighter, still freeing up a bit of hp.

The only knock against the underdrive pulleys is that if you run a sub and a bunch of electronics in your car, then they may not function properly because the alternator won't put out enough power for them

 

[almightyfargoth]

well I do have a sub in the trunk, but that's the only extra electrical device on the car.

no built in nav, dvd, head unit, anything.

and I would actually want the aftermarket underdrive ones, not just lighter oem ones.

 

[akoutmos]

I've always read that replacing the crank pulley with a solid piece aluminum one was a bad idea. The reason being that the pulley itself has anti-vibration mechanisms inside of it. It pretty much dampens the vibration caused by the engine. By replacing that with a solid aluminum piece you're pretty much gonna shorten the life of the bearings and internals.

ATI has a lightened crank pulleys that have harmonic dampening capabilities:
http://www.atiracing.com/products/dampers/charts/damhonda.htm

Here is a good read on dampeners and how they work:
http://www.atiracing.com/products/dampers/101/index.htm

 

[Deviousjet]

There are tons of speculation. It's like saying that if you go with a different oil it may all go to hell. I had an aluminum crank pulley on for 50k miles and never even one issue with the motor. Traded the car in after that so I couldn't say that it for sure would go 100k miles with the pulley but yes the myth of cars completely coming apart or the crank screwing up because of the dampening is just that a myth. I personally have friends with the kit on their civic's etc and have been running that way for the 5 years i've known them and they have yet to have an issue.

 

[WHEEELMAN]

U/R stopped selling the True Underdrive pulley kits for our engines. I kinda doubt Andysautosport has those kits anymore, but you could call and verify.


U/R's underdrive pulleys were something like 12% smaller diameter and less weight. The REAL gains come from the decreased weight.

XLR8 sells the stock diameter lightweight pulley, and U/R is the company who makes them for XLR8. U/R does not make the underdrive pulleys for our cars anymore.


** As far as shortening the life of the internals, I'm on the side of the fence that says it's negligible. Some folks, say yes it does affect and they wont use them. I ran the U/R kit on my J30A1 for 6 years, not 1 problem. Used them for the J35 build also, no problems.

 

[akoutmos]

There are tons of speculation. It's like saying that if you go with a different oil it may all go to hell. I had an aluminum crank pulley on for 50k miles and never even one issue with the motor. Traded the car in after that so I couldn't say that it for sure would go 100k miles with the pulley but yes the myth of cars completely coming apart or the crank screwing up because of the dampening is just that a myth. I personally have friends with the kit on their civic's etc and have been running that way for the 5 years i've known them and they have yet to have an issue.

It also has a lot to do with how much power is being created by the motor. A stock civic motor is not going to induce as much crank twist and vibration as a boosted civic motor. I suppose it really depends on your application, but i would not go as far as to say that it is a myth.