jangy

Does anyone know what the stock and aftermarket pulleys weight in at?

I saw the dampner that EVO made for the 63s and wondered why we can't get similar gains by lightening up our 55k dampners some?

Also, I noticed some lag from the larger VRP pulley than with my OEM one and was hoping that dropping some mass (back to OEM level) may help?

MJ50

code3 should make SC pulley for M113K...

AMS Performance

Stock is 10.52lbs (its much heavier than it looks). Most aftermarket overboost pulleys are in roughly that same area although some are a little bit lighter.

We offer the only stock diameter lightweight 55K pulley available on the market. Our performance 55K Lightweight pulley is only 4.3 lbs (60% weight reduction) and the gains are significant. Many of our 55k customers who are looking for additional power without cranking up the boost or drastically altering their engine too much and have been very happy with the results.

The additional power at the wheels is obviously not as much as the overboost pulleys, but then again its not supposed to be, it is a much more conservative & refined approach. The gains are purely from mass reduction, and much like a lightweight flywheel, it enables the car to accelerate more freely and quickly. Typically gains are in the 20-25hp/tq in the mid range instead of the much higher overboost pulleys which can be much more aggressive. Additional benefits of mass reduction are improved smoother shifting, as many of our customers have immediately noticed once installed, and improved fuel efficiency.

With that said ours are only cost $550 and do not require any special belts or other accessory pulleys, they are literally a direct replacement for the OEM units. Obviously the overboosts cost more, cost more to install, and require proper software (which also adds even more to the overall cost) so they are in totally different price ranges so its hard to compare apples & oranges. Over the long run the costs difference is drastic once the additional hidden future fuel costs are factored into the equation. A lightweight stock diameter does not require any of that, the ECU automatically adapts to the new pulley and it is 100% compatible with all the other OEM components so its very easy to reverse one it comes time to sell the car and you want to return to stock.

The trade off is of course power vs. efficiency/refinement. If you want all out crazy power at the expense of fuel efficiency get the overboost pulleys. If you want more refinement, a decent amount of more midrange torque & HP, and overall smoother operation then go with a lightweight. Its entirely up to the consumer which route the consumer wants to take. With that said, increasing boost does often introduce a whole new set of headaches sometimes where as lightweights do not sacrifice the reliability of the engine or hurt fuel efficiency. Its up to you to decide which route you want to take, some prefer one route, some the other, either work and work well in their intended purposes.

Link: AMS 55K Pulley Info

Hope that helps.
~AMS~


this thread should get interesting, I'll go ahead and brace for it

jangy

I don't buy code 3

jangy

It does, thanks. Any odds of a larger and lighter setup?

AMS Performance

If we did make an overboost lightweight pulley it would put all others out of biz. So, we made some quiet arrangements with some of our competitors to stay off their turf as long as they stayed off ours (you know many of their names). So no, we won't be doing overboost pulleys unless some of them go out of business, in which case we would come in and fill the void.

jangy

That sucks. Looks like more ways to keep the client from the ideal use of knowledge. I'm sure one of the Supra pulley makers will give it a shot...

AMS Performance

I'd be careful, I talk with many high HP supra guys, and on a recent drive one of them had his supra CP fail on him and nearly cost him his engine. Those Supra pulley manufacturers are not producing a very high quality product, most of their pulleys for their market aren't even harmonic dampened. Be very careful who you trust with your engine, most performance companies are not able to produce MB quality performance products. Just a suggestion from someone who has seen some pretty bad product designs from other companies when they've gone wrong.

jangy

==Very valid point

I Like Soup

Can you quantify that statement?

Was there an understanding that other competitors were going to work on the lighter overboost pulleys?

AMS Performance

based on most reviews of overboost pulleys typical MPG drop on avg can be around 1-2mpg on avg. Over the long run that does add up over time. The only way to predict the difference in price is to know future gas prices (which is near impossible). The general consensus is that gas prices are going to increase in the future to around their old highs if not higher so it could add up quickly depending on how high the fuel prices are.

chiromikey

for what it's worth...with all the crap on my car, which includes an overboost pulley, i still get the same mpg's i did when stock.

Ted Baldwin

........I don't post much anymore, but I see where this is going and I wanted to spare someone some heart ache.

........the idea of making a lighter crank pulley is not a big secret. why has it not been made? It is not because of some secret agreement between AMS and some imaginary big name tuner.

........Unlike the s/c pulley, the crank pulley needs to be of a certain weight in order to work properly. This is why it has not been done. Brabus, VRP, Renntech, Carlson, Kleemann, MKB etc would not give a rodents behind about what AMS is doing or not doing. Infact, Kleemann had already tried this in 2001. This is long before AMS even knew what AMG stands for. Kleemann at that time had a few light weight crank pulleys made by an outfit called "unorthodox Pullies." I know because I had one of them installed in my CLK32. That engine ultimately failed.

..........Finally, the original post was about s/c pulley which is distunctly different from the Crank pulley. Not sure why the two get confused.

Ted

chiromikey

ted, nice to hear from you buddy!

blackbenzz

I thought the sc pulley could not be changed on the 55k

I was considering geting the lighter crank pulley but after Teds comment I'm gonna have to pass

E55Pilot

I SERIOUSLY doubt that claim, If you actually made a lighter weight overboost pulley you would license it to the mystery tuner and the two of you would rule the world

bobgodd

Oh the pulley can be changed... It just might be more work than it's worth.

timdf

Well said and summarized, but don't count on AMS changing his marketing strategy.

He's been told time and time again that there's a very good reason for the crank pulley weighing the amount it does -ie crankshaft torsional resonance.

Without this extra mass - bad things can and do happen. Out of interest what was the failure mechanism of your engine ?

Further any power claims made by AMS are simply imaginary - again proven beyond doubt the gain is less than 1HP (at best) and certainly not the 10HP+ claimed by AMS.

As for SC pulleys - sure they raise the boost and work, no question. But a lightweight SC pulley is just nonesense.

E55Pilot

Hence my raising of the bull**** flag. His claims are pure comedy. BTW I think we have a few mutual friends

I Like Soup

That is why I asked...even at my lowly mod level (but a pulley change nonetheless) I haven't seen a decrease in MPG.

aleksandar1099

btw, LET has a new pulley for the e55 that is an overboost pulley and dampened. The e55 engine would not benefit from a new supercharger pulley, the crank pulley is the best place to raise boost...

bobgodd

Why would you think that? A smaller S/C pulley will increase boost just like a larger crank pulley.

chiromikey

there is some merit to his comments. a smaller s/c pulley would increase the likelihood of belt slippage which has already been an area of concern for 55k cars. also, the fact that we can reach the potential of our s/c's efficiency with a crank pulley alone means there's not a pressing need to worry about changing the s/c pulley and have to deal with it's clutch assembly.

bobgodd

That may be true but to say that it will not benefit from the other pulley is wrong.

chiromikey

agreed.