hey all, got a question...

on our engines, is it possible to gain any power gains from just simple little things? i've already dont the airbox mod, and thas cool and all, but is there anything ike with the timing, or the pulley's and belts....

i've talked to some friends with honda civics and they said they can gain about 50hp from just a set of pulleys.....

is there anything like that for us? besides a whipple? haha

 

Gaining 50 HP from pullies - I think not
More HP is gained by pushing more fuel and air through the engine.
Anything you do to eliminate restrictions or force more of those items into your engine will increase HP.
Changing pullies usually stops power from being robbed and does little to increase power.
A pulley change will make better use of the currently available power, but usually there is a trade off.
Less cooling, less amperage, something has to be given back to trade for the power.

Changes to your intake, exhaust, plus engine and fuel management systems are the ways you get more power out of these 'truck' engines.

 

What Neil said. Also, there currently is neither a Whipple nor an underdrive pulley available for the 4.0L. There may soon be an improvement in hipo parts availability because the Mustang has the 4.0L for 2005.

 

true that...i can only hope....my 4.0 has some get-up-and-go, but just like everyone else i'd like some more...i was just curious

 

Now when performance types talk of changing 'a pulley', which pulley are they refering to? Is it swapping out a belt driven fan for an electronic one? Or is it a taller pulley for driving a supercharger?!

 

Usually, it refers to changing the crank pulley for a smaller diameter unit (requiring generally a slightly shorter belt). It decreases the parsitic HP loss of the belt driven accessories. Usually called an "underdrive pulley".

 

Maybe they were talking about adjustable cam gears or something...there is some power to be made there if you can re index your cams for advance or retard of cam timing but the Vtec motors already have variable cam timing so who knows.

 

and it's also a PITA to find a belt to fit it since its smaller...unless it comes with kit w/ the pulleys, and then again u're screwed when u need to replace the belt

 

Pully's suck for those in Texas (need A/C & water pump) and have aftermarket stereo's (Alternator). What little could be gained by the power steering pump, isn't worth the bother... :)

 

Thanks.. 'bout what I figured..

 

Don't know if this applies to our trucks since I've never removed that particular pulley, but this was a big issue with the Mitsubishi Eclipse forum I used to frequent. Seems that the Mitsubishi crank pully also was a vibration dampner, but the aftermarket smaller one didn't have the same ability to absorb engine vibrations. The crank started to rock, and the bearings got eaten in quite a few engines. The underdrive maker stated that the product was for "offroad use" (ie drag racking), so no warrenty was implied. Just something to watch out for when chasing cheap hp.

 

underdrive pulleys are a "relatively" cheap upgrade to gain a few horses. you can also change out your intake (new plenum, throttle body, MAF with air calibration) thats wut i wanna do if i get enough money. you can also get a tornado. hear tell they work really nice.

 

lol.. the tornado's dont do ****, they're a waste of money

 

Someone at work here dynoed one, it lost 2 horsepower with it on.

 

lol. they don't have their own power source do they? just spin due to the air passing through them?
i don't know how people actually think they work, when you picture it... it's just an air block that spins. oooohhh, pretty

 

Not saying they work, but what they are supposed to do is cause the air to swirl...they dont spin themselves, they are stator blades or stationary blades. The air passing by will spin causing vorticies...these vorticies should help the air and fuel mix, but I dont think they work well with the engine design, just like throttle body spacers.

 

I put a pulley set on my 2.0L Focus and I never had it dyno but I could most deffently feel more power. NO WAY was it was near 50 horses more like 10 maybe. The focus pulley set consistant of a smaller crank pulley, altinator pulley and waterpump pulley. The kit advertised all 3 pulleys were the same % wises smaller thus keeping your amps and cooling the same. After my battery was getting old my lights would flicker at idle but for all I know they might have done that anyway. Since I got a new battery it has stopped doing that.

I really like pulleys I think they are cheep power and as soon as a kit is availible I will put a set on my truck.

Note : You could get 50 horsepower of more with a supercharger pulley change maybe thats what the guy with the honda was talking about. Changing the pulleys on a supercharger will increase boost. Its like a gearing change. If you change the pulley on the crank (that feeds the supercharger) if you make it bigger it will spin the blower faster making more boost, same goes if you make the pulley on the blower smaller.

 

well...after hearing more bs that he was talkin about with his civ, i believe that he is a habitual liar.....haha....

i was just curious as to see if there wasnt any tinkering we could do...i remember working on my C10 and i cold just adjust the jets on the carb for power/economy etc...

 

If that was true there would be no benefit to installing them would there? They would present the same load on the engine that way.

 

pulleys basically slow down everything but the engine....the accessories rob u of power...but i'd rather have my headlights and power steering than the extra 15 hp...

 

They were also made out of light weight aluminum alloy conpared to a heavy steel which would reduce the drag on the engine. I don't know, I can't really explain how they work exactly but I took a chance and received benifits all around from MPG to better power transfer and I have never noticed any drawbacks. I have never lost power steering feel, nor any voltage problems(except the lights flickering at idle but the battery was on its last leg at the time so it might have done that anyway with the stock pulleys), nor have I saw any cooling problems even in 100+ degree heat we had a few years ago.

 

The were a larger size than stock to slow the components down, that is how they work. I knew a guy with an svt focus that noticed a difference with his too.

 

You could always strap on a Explorer Express supercharger but thats not cheap hp....$4,000 for the kit then you have to install it or pay someone to install it but its supposed to give an extra 76hp at the wheels.

 

look at the date man, this is almost 2 years old....

 

lmfao...