I looked at the numbers from the Kleeman C23K Boost-Kit (www.kleeman.dk and www.evosport.com), and it seems that there is a somewhat drastic performance between the numbers provided with an alloy pulley than without (almost 20HP). Keeping that in mind compared to the 7-9HP improvement seen in pulley but non-Boost-Kit engines, this brings a question to mind:

Will a car with the C23K Boost-Kit benefit much greater than one without the kit? In other-words, can I expect similar increases in gains from intake/intercooler/exhaust mods like that of the alloy pulley when I install them?

And if someone has actual numbers to talk about this, plz post.

 

What they call a boost kit is just pulleys, a belt and a badges. I've seen lots of dynos and they performance gains from all pulley kits is about the same. It was once thought that a lighter pulley would produce more power but I've dynoed with heavy and light pulleys and I get very comperable numbers. The best buy in pulleys is from ASP at $250 plus your old pulley or $650 without your pulley (these prices are the last I've heard and may have changed so check with Lee at www.ASPRacing.com .

 

But what's the big difference between Kleeman's kit and the single underdrive pulley kit? Right now I'm thinking Kleeman's kit is a complete pulley set, not just a driveshaft pulley. Because why else can Kleeman claim such a large power increase compared to any other pulley kit? Or am I mistaken about the numbers the underdrive kits get?

 

Any vendor can claim whatever they want, none will guarantee any gains so what's the point. With the Kleemann kit you get either a crank pulley or a ring to make your current pulley bigger (they have 2 kits) that overdrives the s/c and alternator by about 19%, then then give you an underdrive alternator pulley that underdrive the altenator by about 40% so you net out about 20% slower. Most tuners do not underdrive the alternator pulley, vendors like ASP offer it as an option but nobody makes a belt for it. The upside of the alt pulley is that it spins slower and may last longer, no performance gain has been proven or claimed, alternators have very little drag and free spin for the most part when not charging. The downside is that it requires a special Kleemann belt so if it's not available and you need a belt that may be a problem, many customers pickup an extra belt just in case. Also this is a difficult pulley to remove and doubles the install time/costs. If you are into shear number of pulleys in a kit, get the Carlsson, comes with 3 pulleys (crank, altenator and idler) and the Renntech comes with 2, a crank and idler pulley and an ITG air filter (good filter). It's mostly marketing hype as most people understand that any pulley of the same diameter will create the same boost in the same motor. So in theory the larger the pulley the more boost. Unfortunately there are two limitations, one is there's only so much room and the pulley can only be so big, two, you can only get so much boost out of that Eaton M45 before the losses from heat and friction outweighs the power gains from the additional boost. Just be aware that an all alloy pulley does away with the harmonic balancer and this has caused problems on some C230's in the past.

 

Deos any one know whether the 1.8L Kompressor engine has "waste gate valve" (such as those found in Turbo Charge engines)?

Is there pulley for the 1.8 L (2003 model year) engine?

TIA

 

There is a pulley for the 1.8L and it's already on your engine. No aftermarket pulley kits yet. It took a long time before the 2.3L for the post-2000 C230K/SLK230's had a pulley kit, over a year and these tuners already had a pulley for the pre-2000 C230K and SLK230's.

A turbo has a wastegate to manage boost so you don't blow up your motor. For example the turbo may put out 15 PSI while cruising but the wastegate may be set to 5 PSI and vents the excess. This is because you have no control over how fast a turbo spins or when it spins. A supercharger has a fixed amount of boost relative to engine RPM so there's not need to manage it in the same way. Since superchargers have a load on the engine that is not wanted during normal driving they have a bypass valve that releases any backpressure on the s/c and let it free spin and improves gas mileage so most of the time you drive you are getting no boost at all. Then when you want to accelerate, probably at about 3/4 throttle or more it closes the bypass valve and you get your boost. You can put a turbo on your car and make it significantly faster but you would really have to know what you were doing and have access to metal frabricators to make the exhaust manifold (your car has a very unusual exhuast manifold that is one piece with the cat so that won't be easy), and all the brackets and piping. A little Mitsubishi 16g would probably work out nicely.

 

so you diden't see a major difference between a pulley with a dampner and a pulley without one on the dyno?

btw- some how i thought renntech replaced my alt. pulley and not the idler? i guess i was wrong.

 

Yeah, tell me about it. Hardest part of the whole installation.