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Looking at these. How much gain can one expect? $146 isn't too bad for a decent gain.

I've also heard Unorthodox makes some pullies. Are they better than AEM's? Are they easy to install or do you have to take it somewhere? I also noticed they make different colors... how much can you see them?

Thanks,

IronFist

 
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well the pulley is bigger so it makes less revolutions so about 3 HP mabybe. gains are hard to predict by themselves cuz so many things factor into it than just adding a pulley. it depends on your other mods, how you run the car, ya know.

 
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You might gain a few ponies..5..6, 146 is pricey. GBC has them for 129 shipped
AEM Power at GBC
Unothodox at GBC

You might even be able to find them cheaper than that...Lift your hood and you will see the pullies on the right. Not very noticible but if your looking you can see them.
good luck

 
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well we only have one PULLEY. you have more than one pulley?

 
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Cool, thanks for the link.

How difficult are they to install?

IronFist

 
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not really hard. not as easy as installing an intake tho. [IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]

 
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AEM pulley DIY.....WARNING- may not be exact...taken from install on a D16. this will give you an idea of how to do it tho.


The AEM pulleys are made of 6061-billet aluminum with T6 hardness. They are made with stock-style ribbed belt grooves so that they remain 100% compatible with the factory crank vibration damper and reduce accessory drive speeds by 35%. Note that the AEM pulleys don't include the main crank pulley – other brands of underdrive pulleys include a crank pulley that is made of solid aluminum. While high quality, we've heard reports of racers experiencing increased main and connecting rod bearing wear. AEM works around this by simply retaining the factory damper and making their pulleys larger than stock instead of smaller.

Installation begins simply enough by removing the front engine splashguard. Note the pool of power steering fluid in ours – an indicator that we tried to take a shortcut and leave the splashguard in. So, take it from us, the splashguard comes out first. It's held in by three 10-mm bolts in the front and secured with seven 10-mm hex head plastic body rivets at the sides and rear.

While the pump is still in the car and the belt tight, it's a good idea to get a wrench on the nut that holds the stock pulley to the pump and crack it loose. We found that a sudden jerk to the wrench will loosen the nut without rotating the engine. If your particular pump is giving you a hard time, there are holes in the pump pulley to facilitate a pulley holder. Honda recommends part number 07725-0030000 or 07725-0010101, but we used a plain old chain Vice Grip in times of need.

We also found it easiest to remove the power steering pump from the vehicle in order to remove the old pulley and install the new one. Begin by removing the two hoses attached to the pump; the high-pressure hose is held to the pump by two 10-mm bolts and the low-pressure return line is held by a hose clamp. You'll lose most of your power steering fluid once the return line is disconnected so put a drain pan under the car. After the fluid lines are disconnected, remove the pump by removing the 12-mm lower adjuster bolt, then the upper 12-mm pivot bolt and the pump will slip right out of the engine bay.

To get to the alternator, you'll need to first remove the air conditioner compressor belt (if your vehicle is so equipped). To do this, loosen the 14-mm nut that secures the a/c belt tension idler pulley, then loosen the 10-mm bolt that holds the belt tight. The alternator is held in place by a 12-mm adjuster nut and a 12-mm pivot bolt. Once those are out of the way, remove the alternator from underneath the vehicle.

Since the alternator pulley nut wasn't accessible like the power steering pump pulley, we used a chain Vice Grip tool to secure the pulley while we wrenched off the nut. You can see that the AEM alternator pulley is quite a bit larger than the stocker.

Installing the new pulleys is a simple matter of slipping them over the drive shaft and installing the nut finger-tight. Both the power steering and alternator pulleys fit up like stock, with no pressing/hammering or excessive force needed.

n order to secure the new pulley without scratching or damaging it while torquing on the nut, we cut the old belts and wrapped it around the pulley before putting the chain Vice Grip over it. It's ok to cut your old belts because the AEM pulleys come with new, longer belts.

Tighten the power steering pump pulley nut to 24 ft-lbs (33 N-m) and the alternator pulley nut to 83 ft-lbs (115 N-m).

After reinstalling the power steering pump and alternator, don't forget to refill your power steering fluid reservoir. Honda vehicles require special power steering fluid; we prefer genuine Honda but you can also find this fluid at most parts stores with a Honda-specific label on it.

 
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Save your money for something else.
It really doesn't come into play until about 92 mph.

 
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yeh, i'd say just buy something like a short shifter or regrind your cam.

 
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Save your money for something else.
It really doesn't come into play until about 92 mph.[hr][/QUOTE]

Really? Everyone else says they could feel a difference. I don't think they were talking about when they're over 92mph. Why do you say the 92mph thing?

Thanks,

IronFist

 
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I belive they do something to the effect of reducing the power your accessories "rob" (not sure what term to use there) when they are on. Something like that.

 
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They do something. I had them instaled after my HP headre and downpipe and the car felt kinda sluggish in the higher rpms then I got the pulleys and my car got more responsive faster acceleration in the whole rpm range. Id say get them

 
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i'd say get the unorthodox Ultra Street Set Lightened Underdrive Pulley Sets.

 
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i have these give u a better throttle response

 
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Altenator Pulley, Power Steering Pulley, Crank Pulley...You might only have one pulley if you took out your AC and PS, then you would only have a Crank Pulley, but everyone else has more than one pulley

 
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true, ture, ya got me on a technicality. sp?

 
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i can get the ur ultra ss kit for 260 shipped letme know if anyone wants one they are all brand new in the box which includes crank, alt, p/s pullies. niceviet99@hotmail.com

 
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How is that different/better than the AEM kit? It's almost twice as much.

Thanks,

IronFist

 
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Unorthodox comes with three pullies (alt, p/s, and crank). AEM only comes with alt & p/s.

 
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How much do you think it would be to have someone install it?

 
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Sorry, I'm still relatively new to cars. Will that give me more gains? Or is changing those other pullies just for looks?

Thanks,

IronFist

 
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The crank pulley is supposed to be the one that provides the most increase in horsepower. This only comes with the Unorthodox set. However, AEM doesn't recommend replacing the crank pulley for the following reason:

'Vehicle manufacturers have thoroughly investigated the use of torsional vibration dampeners and conclude that their use significantly reduces NVH (noise, vibration and harshness). Furthermore, manufacturer and independent research shows that torsional vibration dampeners are critical to engine life where long-term use is intended. Removing the torsional vibration dampener from an engine can be highly detrimental to its long-term operation! '

Although, in light of that, some people have said that our cars don't have torsional vibration dampeners. I can't tell which is correct, but several people have went with the Unorthodox set and didn't seem to have any problems. I have the AEM ones just to be on the safe side. Not sure what kind of increase in power I saw, but they definitely increase the throttle response and acceleration.

 
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zetaR, that was an awesome answer. Thanks.

Now the big question is, has anyone dynoed their car before and after with either of the pulley kits? Hehehe.

IronFist

 
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Actully the engine really isn't going to put out any more power. If you have a lighter crankshaft pulley, that might be a fractional HP gain, but what happens is, by chaging the ratio of that pulley in relation to the driven accessory pulleys, it takes somewhat less engine power to drive those accessories. Ever notice how your car loses some power when the A/C kicks in? Sometimes if you want to go faster, you turn off the A/C for a little while?

So if you discount the change in weight of the crankshaft pulley (the drive pulley) then you can change the drive ratio for the alternator, A/C, PS, etc by just changing their pulleys and leaving the crank pulley alone.

Some of these things, again, don't make all that much difference unless you are doing other mods, that all go together to make some real gains. Pulleys may not make much difference on a daily driver, but on an all out race car it's something that adds up with the other mods to get max gains. This is whre you are looking for every little thing that can help give you the edge. However, we all know that a car set up with a full race engine, doesn't drive very well on the street.

Also on a street car, you are underdriving your alternator, so if you have a high power stereo, and driving at night, with other electrical accessories, the battery may not stay fully charged. This is one of those cases where to gain one thing, you are trading off by losing on another.

 
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The pulleys don't add power they just free-up some of the hp that the accessories are using. There is no torsional vibration dampner on our crank pulleys. The design of the engine or something makes this part unnecessary on our cars. There is a rubber gasket type thing that some people mistake for a torsional vibration dampner. I don't torsional vibration dampners are found on many cars today and I think they were mostly used on v8 engines to begin with.

Most of the above info came from conversating with a tech from unorthodox and my own research. Also, Familyman, I don't think he is a member anymore, had the unorthodox pullies installed and relayed some info as well. I think he lossed a couple 100s of a sec on his et but that was about it.

I am sure you will get a few hp but everything works together and adds up together. A couple parts that only yield 2-3 hp will yield 4-6 in unison most of the time. So, every little bit adds up.

 
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barkat and mbow raises some good points.

familyman also had a problem after he installed his crank pully too... but I dont know if thats associated with that. lets just say the dealer blamed him.

he didn't notice any significant gains too. which I think for 300 bucks, kinda sucks. in fact his overall ET in the quarter mile was worse...

IMO it just doesn't free up enough hp to be worth it.

and about the 90+ mph deal... I'm guessing maybe the accessory pullies dont burden the engine as much until higher engine speed where the engine needs as much hp and torque as it can get to keep the car at high speed...

ah... on another note, wouldn't driving without the ac or radio on make this worthless? heh. okay I know the pully spins all the time but eh, doesn't it spin more when u turn on the ac or radio?

 
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Hmm, well I guess I won't be getting the unorthodox ones.

I'm trying to make my car as fast as it can be with basic bolt-ons and not changing how it looks. As a college student, I'm only interested in mods that are cost effecient. For example, I am very happy with my K&N FIPK. It was about $190 after shipping (group buy) for about 4hp. I know that still kind of sucks but it's good for our cars. I would not pay $500 for an exhaust to get only a few hp. I'm trying to maximize my hp per dollar [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

In the future, if they/we ever get all the bugs out of it, I may consider a V-AFC. That's not considered a bolt-on, though, is it?

Right, anyway, if AEM pullies will give me 2-4hp for $140 or whatever they were then I would do that. That's much more effecient than a $500 exhaust for the same gains.

And I don't have any heavy speakers or anything. Oh yeah, I know nitrous is the most cost efficient hp gain, but I don't want to go that way.

So, do you think AEM's pulley kit would benefit me?

Thanks for all the help,

IronFist

 
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I don't think so.

I'd save that money towards exhaust and then a Jet Chip. (Or VAFC if it ever gets working)

 
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Imo, the hp header w/high-flow cat or the Kamikaze with downpipe give the most hp per dollar. I wouldn't really worry about the exhaust unless you have an LX vic or just want looks and sound. The EX's exhaust is perfectly fine unless you were to go FI or something.

 
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Bartkat, would an exhaust help more with a VAFC? Because right now I don't want an exhaust because I want to keep my car looking stock, and also because it's not worth all that money just to change the sound (in my opinion). If an exhaust were like 15hp then yeah I'd pay $500 for it.

Mbow, I can't get those headers because I have to keep my car legal

I have an EX, btw.

Thanks,

IronFist