Damn, I just read this now and thankfully read fully before I made my purchase!!!

I'd hate to think what an unbalanced pulley will do to the oil pump on a 55K engine. I know all about bad pullies....a solid crank pulley shattered the oil pump on my Celica after a few thousand miles of use.

I think I'll get back to the safer option of running nitrous...

 

Sound much safer

 

Yes I have and it is very nice. I will be out that way again soon. Lets go racing!

 

A properly set up nitrous system is safer than running more boost.

I won't debate it on this thread though, for not wanting to thread hi-jack.

 

Has anyone asked how these "defective" pullies were installed yet? There are no indents in the RTR pulley to use a pulley holding tool, but the pulley needs to be torqued to a large amount specified (much more torque that what can be applied without holding the engine from spinning). My question is how were these engines being held in place from spinning to ensure the proper torque was applied. There are no instructions that come with the RTR pullies to address this situation (at least not in my case)

Anyway, I've been running this pulley for several thousand miles of flogging the crap out of it with zero issues. Perfectly straight.

Not trying to hate, but I can't see how a solid piece of aluminum, which is basically what the RTR pulley is, can warp itself on its own or cause a properly torqued bolt to come loose. Even when MB had the pulley recall on OEM pullies, it was just the outer ring that came off. The bolt never loosened even though there was substantial amounts of imbalance to the pullies when they were coming apart.

 

So Far from what I have read there haven't been any defective pullies installed, just defective installs. If you install the pulley and miss the keyway and think you torqued it right it is going to come loose. But once you installed it and ran it you are damaging the pulley, the crank do to vibrations. taking the pulley back off and reinstalling what you think is correct again won't help the damage you already did to the pulley and crank. So you get on here start causing a big upstir of a bad pulley, but it all started when you paid someone to do a bad install and damage everything.

e55amgrocket is doing all he can on here to cause problems to other vendors when he is selling unautorized parts on this site and others.

 

Being around 'performance' cars for some time, I can attest that bad and poor quality components are made and sold often. I have had underdrive pulleys warp over time, nothing to do with installs. This is why they have revisions. Even this forums past is choke full of bad pulley designs that fall part having nothing to do with installs. Search it up. I can also say for a fact that my last performance pulley jumped belts often. With my new even larger pulley, not a single belt has jumped. I went through 8 belts with my last pulley. Anyone want to claim that I did not install the belt properly.

Additionally, what you stated goes without saying, we all know that already. Also, folks here should be installing pulleys with a flywheel lock, not the ridiculous OEM wrench.

 

In my case, both my crank bolts were TQ'd down to MB specs, using two different methods.

When the first pulley came off, it was TQ'd down to MB spec by locking the flywheel with a bar. On the second go around, Buckhead Imports Performance made two tools, one was to hold the crank pulley in place instead of locking the flywheel, and the second tool was to pin my crank/pulley.

Well on the second pulley, it has severely wobbled loose again. So, using two different methods arriving at the same outcome resulted in Redtooth racing Pulley failure.

My question to you is, since you have had several thousand miles of been problem free, what size is your pulley, how much did you TQ the bolt down, and what method did you use to prevent the motor from spinning?

 

Read this and educate yourself a little brotha, what you are saying is, Benz Elite and Buckhead Imports Performance have installed dozens of ASP/Kleeman pulleys between the two of them with no come backs, but on these three attempts with the same 195MM RTR pulley, all install jobs were botched

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ml#post5166604

 

So if I just wanted a 180mm pulley for my SL55 where is the best place to buy one to avoid any of these issues? Eurocharged?

T

 

You honestly read the entire thread , and thats what you got out of it ?Youre kidding right ?

 

DONT BUY A REDTOOTH RACING PULLEY

 

ROFL!!! It's funny that your buddy Brooke himself agreed my pulley was installed correctly. It's also funny that there was no bad install or any damage until the price of s*** RTR pulley damaged my crank. Brooke and shardul said they would do what they could to help but Brooke is MIA of course now. Funny how the only 2 known RTR 195 pulleys have problems to or the fact that Sharduls pulley also fell off. The best part of this is that Brooke himself decide that he won't even run a 195mm now. Cause problems? You mean warn people of the junk pulley they might have or think about buying and god forbid something happens your just flat screwed?? I do like how y'all try to take up for him though. Since you know him so well and know so much how about telling us who RTR is, what their address is. Who owns it but I know you will have nothing to say like usual. Good luck at the mile this October boys. Something tells me your going to need it.

 

Gonna go for a Eurocharged one I think! What's the largest they do, 190 or 180?

Cheers for the advice :-)

T

 

Based on your comment , it would be safe to assume that you only buy AUTHORIZED parts , for your cars , which leads to the question as to what is your interest in this thread ?

 

He doesn't even own any 55K car......

 

Unauthorized ??? as far as I remember EC also sell RTR 195m pulley. We should thank e55amgrocket and chawkins2001 who let others members know NOT TO BUY RTR PULLEY. Would you install one of this pulley if you have a 55K after all this happened ???

 

Eurocharged IS your best bet my friend. Talk to Jerry or Jake about what you want, and they WILL put you in the BEST position

 

I would also contact Bruce at TTM. He is a vendor here and has some quality pulleys and many other quality goodies.

 

He happens to be friends with Brooke and thats where Brooke does his dyno tuning. I bet he's not running a RTR pulley. Oh yea thats right he dosen't even have a mercedes to put one on. Just on here to try and get people to use his shop and take up for other peoples wrong doing.

 

Jmb614-Bruce from TTM refuses to sell garbage, as a result, he does not, and will not put RTR pulleys on any of his customers cars.

ASP has a very good reputation for their welded design, and their new aluminum pressed outer rings. You cant go wrong with that selection.

Correct me if I am wrong Steve, but we both had ASP welded pulleys on our cars before we decided to go with Red Tooth Racing design. That product was been run by two well respected members on here, Shardul and Brooke, and it was led to believe they own the company from other sponsored vendors on this site. Steve and I opted to go for their 195mm as it was in stock, and coming from what we thought was a good source, who backed their products as it was on their own personal cars. I guess it should have been a sign that Brooke has gone through more motors on this site than anyone else.

That is why we went the RTR route, when ths s**t hit the fan, other horror stories also started to surface about these pullies not been able to handle the engagement of the blower, as the HB is faulty with this design. As a result, the crank bolt would back out and pullies started to come off.

With the bigger rings, it is just pronounced further, so if you have a 190, 185, 180 or smaller, it may take longer for the failure to occur. All Brooke and RTR are doing are shifting blame and calling installer error, thank the LORD that PTE came out with his NUTS and Bolts thread yesterday, as someone that actually knows what the hell he is talking about put this issue to bed. IT IS NOT INSTALLET EROOR! Off course he did not give his own personal opinion about the RTR pulley on the boards, but after talking to him a few times on the phone, it is MY ASSUMPTION, based off his knowledge, the design is flawed, and it is just a matter of time before it rears its ugly head for other owners.

 

Ive had the dreaded bolt on design VRP 175-178mm pulley that the same shop installed and never had a problem. I also had the ASP 180mm welded ring pulley that i also did not have a problem with. As people know Bruce and I aren't exactly friends but i must commend the guy. He wouldn't install a RTR if you paid him double and it looks like it was for a good reason. My pulley was on for over 300 miles,20+ 1/4 mile pulls, atleast 20 dyno pulls, 6 60-130 pulls plus street driving. You mean to tell me it was installed wrong and stayed on for all that before deciding to tear the crank up while it was trying to come off.

 

Are there any manufacturers or vendors of aftermarket Mercedes pullies that offer warranties covering engine damage if their pullies are used?

 

Mine is a 180, and I used the same method as you on the flexplate. I also put a drop of loctite on the threads for peace of mind.

I wasn't trying to say you didn't have it properly installed. Hope you didn't take offense. I just didn't see anywhere where it said that you did in fact torque it properly. Sounds like you went through the best available procedue to install it.

What is the latest in your case? Are they going to refund you?

 

NO offense taken man, we used red loctite on my installs too. Just keep a very close eye on that pulley bro, I would hate for this to happen to another member. Save your pennys and get another design so you have piece of mind

When you say refund, are you refering to the Red Spoof Racing pulley or the thousands of dollars of damage it caused?