willc55

So I need a new crank shaft pulley and the only place that I can get one is quoting me $388.00, which I think is absolutely ridiculous for a pulley.

Does anyone have a stock crank pulley sitting around who'd be willing to let it go for a fair price? Hooley? Or is there anyone who has a source I can get it cheaper?

If anyone can help me out I'd really appreciate it.

JonMBZ

Evosport makes them I don't know much about them, but I think they are $350 and add around 10-15hp. MSRP on the OE is $380 though I am sure you can get a discount elsewhere, but it is the correct price.

jturkel

PM Hooley. I bet he has one lying around somewhere.

Phil C55

Here's one for a lot less

http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByDepa...S_BENZ/C55_AMG

Newzchspy

** FYI, put a crank pulley on the ML 55 (same engine as the C55) and it did nothing!! Absolutely nothing. **** Save your money and get a factory one. Now if you're running BOOST, then a pulley makes a big difference.

Q: Why do you need a new Crank Pulley, did the shear pin go or what???

c55asleep?

Do you still need the pulley?

JonMBZ

Thanks for the info I was thinking of getting one too for my first mod since they were kind of cheap. I was going to of course ask you guys, but it looks as if it doesn't do anything. It is however still a bit cheaper than the oem.

advans

yes. Will does. He's out of town, so I'm gonna chime in for him. it's best to PM him your phone number so he can call you asap

ITAVMT

I see that AMS sells one pulley for the M112/M113 engines, including the C55. However, the C55 is the only engine that has a different part number then all of the other crank pulleys. Also, it seems that most of the issues associated with the AMS pulley are on the 5.5L engines.

Does anyone have pics of the C55 one? I thought I had one until I realized they were not the same as on every other M11x motor.

AMS Performance

Hello,

Correct, AMS does have C55 pulleys in stock. If you are looking for a crank pulley you might as well upgrade it instead of replacing with the stock unit, that would be a waste of money if you just put a stock one on. Also, there are no "issues" with the pulleys especially on the 5.5L AMGs (those engines are bulletproof). Of the hundreds of crank pulleys sold only a few issues occurred due to IMPROPER INSTALLATION, there is no issue with the crank pulley and most of the pulleys sold are to 5.5L AMG customers running them for years with zero "issues".

Just clarifying to dispel any incorrect info.
~AMS~

JonMBZ

AMS how much is the pulley and does it actually show gains unlike the evosport ones?

AMS Performance

Hello Jon,

The pulley is $549 and there is a free domestic/international shipping special right now as well.

yes, the independent dyno sheets are on the website and show to add 10-15HP/TQ at the wheels in the mid range on DD dyno.

Thanks,
~AMS~

Newzchspy

Tell me how its increases HP as I had no such luck with my 5.5 engine (with no tune since no one can do one for the ML 55??) Whats the logic?? Less inertial force required??

Phil C55

Lightened harmonic balancers don't make any more power. The motor might rev a touch quicker, but it doesn't make any more power. The aluminum pulleys are about 4 pounds lighter, which is a lot, but racers put lightened flywheels in two cylinder Ducati motors that are 3.5 pounds lighter. We talking about a 1100 cc twin vs. a 5500 cc V8 and reducing nearly the same rotating mass. On the dyno at a race shop, the Duc revs faster, is less streetable, but makes no real difference in power. The other thing I have seen over the years is any time a keyed bore is made of aluminum instead of steel, it tends to fail. Aluminum is plastic in nature and tends to "move away" from loads placed against it. It's why they outlawed aluminum wiring in homes years ago, over time the aluminum relaxed and there were fires. Check out some of the other pullys available, you'll notice some have a steel center. These things aren't much more than Kool-Aid for the masses. A harmonic balancer needs to cancel out frequencies from engine pulses, if it wasn't there, over time a crank can fail.

ITAVMT

There's a youtube video of one on a C36 that shows exactly that. The pulley is wobbling and then when the engine is stopped, its able to be spun by hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEbgV7oeguw

With that said if someone wants to give this a whirl, I've got one off my engine for 375.00 shipped.


Oh and to the poster about the ML55, you can tune them but there's a funky way of doing it. Shoot me a PM and I'll share some info with you.

Newzchspy

+1 PM sent. I also sent a wobbling Crank Pulley to Youtube?? Mine was not an AMS however. And to boot, my car only had 32,000 miles on it at the time. I stayed Factory since the piece is so well built and they've modified it recently. For the C32 , the new crank Part # is A 112 035 16 00

** I know this is OT for C55, just thought I 'd share my experience. ***

AMS Performance

Hehe, wow there is alot of misinformation in here....

First, The independent dyno tests were done by hooleyboy and made power back to back, that is proven.

Second, The perceived effect of the improvement in power can be affected by things such as overall vehicle weight and whether the vehicle is 2wd or 4wd. As drive train losses increase the amount of power going to the wheels decreases. The positive effect in acceleraton is much larger on a lighter 2wd sports car versus a very heavy 4WD SUV. The power is there it just doesn't make as drastic of a difference. To be honest nobody comes to us to mod their SUVs, its rare you get that request like that (off the top of my head you may be the only one ever). However since you wanted it we provided it. On an light SLK55 the results are impressive, but on a 4800lbs 4wd SUV you just can't expect acceleration to improve that much when its 1000-1300lbs more than many of the AMGs we tune. As a result, none of what has been said applies to C55s, W210 E55s, W208 CLK55s, R171 SLK55s & etc...

The only way the pulley will mess up is due to improper install, this has been said time and time again and of the hundreds of pulleys sold its only happened a few times due to improper install. Doesn't matter how good a part is, if its installed improperly then it won't function correctly (obviously).

Thanks,
~AMS~

Phil C55

Talk about misinformation:

Lets use your story about vehicle weight, I stated that when nearly the same rotating mass is reduced from an engine 5 TIMES smaller than a M113 AMG in a vehicle that weighs 10 TIMES less, there is no HP increase, why would that be?

You keep saying the failures are due to improper install, really? You are claiming people can't tighten ONE bolt in the center of the pulley? ONE bolt? Come on, give me a break. No, what you aren't coming to grips with is aluminum is the WRONG material to make a harmonic balancer out of.
You might want to consider just how significant the power pulses are and ask if all this thing does is spin, then why do the stock ones tear away from the rubber isolator? Maybe because every time a piston fires it's like a miniture impact driver pounding away and the job of a harmonic balancer is to cancel those impacts. The aluminum center that gets bolted to the crank will not tolerate that abuse and they will fail.

I've seen this exact thing happen on an aluminum flywheel Fast By Ferracci used to sell for Ducatis. It was a beautiful machined piece that fit very precisely, got torqued to 170 lb ft. and over time, the whole center was destroyed by the steel crank. Power pulses of an engine are very significant, and aluminum is the wrong material.

You won't admit to anything other than "somebody can't tighten one bolt", but then you have a big axe to grind, you're peddling these things.

Can somebody pass me the Kool-Aid...........that stuff tastes great.

JonMBZ

Phil do you happen to know what would happen if the balancer fails on the car? Does it just break the pulley or does it take other parts out with it? Kind of like the code3 idler pullies were doing.

Thanks!

willc55

Well, I'm not trying to make power, I just need a new pulley because mine is wobbling alarmingly right now, and I kinda want to correct it before something catastrophic happens. Thanks everyone for the replies so far, c55asleep? check your pms.

Phil C55

There are two kinds of failures that happen, the OEM MB has the rubber isolator tear away, but the hub is still tight on the crank. On those the pulley can move and hit the front cover, not good.

On the aluminum ones, the center bore gets destroyed by the steel key in the crank. Look at the videos mentioned in post #15 of this thread and find the video numbered 5. 1-4 don't seem too bad, but 5 will give you something to think about. Here's the sobering part, the center of the aluminum started out as a precise fit, yet on vid 5 it's wobbling all over. The steel key carved it's way through the aluminum making the bore WAY too big. The washer under the bolt head sealed the outside, so where did the teaspoon full of aluminum shred go, INSIDE the motor, that's where. So how many of you would take a teaspoon of aluminum filings and dump them into your oil fill?

The video shows after the key has carved a full 360 degrees around, but as soon as it starts to carve, aluminum is being dumped into your motor, the pulley will seem fine and it won't wobble untill it gets most of the way around.

ITAVMT

There are numerous companies that create lightweight crank pulleys for all different makes and models of cars, AMS is not the first. However, almost all of these companies use steel centers and swear up and down the only gain you will have is better response and quicker revving. Never a mention of power gian.

timdf

Phil,

I agree with all your comments below, but also bear in mind that aluminum and steel have different expansion co-efficients which also add to the problem of the pulley holding in place.

In one instance the pulley was installed by a very experienced MB mechanic and it still broke loose. This instance is posted on youtube.

Further if you do the math it's scientifically proven that at most an extra 0.5HP during acceleration with no increase to peak power is produced by said 'performance pulley'.

As for 'proven independent dyno results' - it's physically impossible for the dyno to be that accurate / consistent - even the Dyno Dynamics website only talks about resolution not absolute accuracy.

I suspect some members of this forum confuse resolution with absolute accuracy :-)

JonMBZ

Thanks Phil I cant see youtube at work so I will check it out when I get home.

c55asleep?

Pm replied.