I have made 3 mods that most people have bashed on the board one way or the other many times. If I were worried about justifying mods I would have a pretty interesting 700 posts before these.....and I did mention that I would take it off if he provided information related to the blown motors - i dont want one if theres any indication of any problems from any credible source and he could be one if he would answer what we all should know: What brand, what was damaged and what was the resolution.

In context of the help he has provided and the fact that he and I aren'y really chummy I find it interesting that his word is assumed to be the WORD with out any one questioning his outrageous (and possibly true) claim that 2 G35's have blown engines in one week. Just my opinion and to keep those of you that do find him helpful I'll certainly let my opinions lie so you can stay on track.



2003.5 DP 5AT Sedan (E-thing but Nav)
14.2 @ 97.18
Injen CAI
10 Wire Hyper-Ground
Crawford Plenum (V4)
UR Crank Pulley
Polk ex-3500 Tweeter Upgrade/Shock Sensor/H-Liner Under Hood

 

I never said everything was BS - just you opinion on grounding and subsequently on the claim of two G35's having blown internals from a crank pulley - two problems which your dealership's service department has never heard of by the way!

2003.5 DP 5AT Sedan (E-thing but Nav)
14.2 @ 97.18
Injen CAI
10 Wire Hyper-Ground
Crawford Plenum (V4)
UR Crank Pulley
Polk ex-3500 Tweeter Upgrade/Shock Sensor/H-Liner Under Hood

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

OK lets be objective for a second. Even the guys who say the pulleys are just bad will i bet never say one good thing about nitrous. Not really knowing I'd guess that you have a much better change of screwing your VQ with No2 than with a pulley.

<hr></blockquote> Your point is?? If you install it correctly you should not have problems. If you are running a 200 shot and racing it everyday you are bound to run into some problems. As far as the most bang for the buck you can not beat N2O. Back to the subject. Since I have never used Underdrive pulleys in my lifetime and from the people I have spoken with, it does little for the $$. I also had no idea until I had spoken also with Doug @ Crawford Z about the engine balancing. Now I see an Infiniti Tech's notes and it justified my return weeks ago. Some people might not have problems and maybe some people DO HAVE problems. Just like some G35 stock cars will run .1 second faster/slower than the next, etc. (Considering same variables). Maybe some people that have used these U. pulley more than 20 or 30 thousands miles can post their experiences with them?

 

I am through with this conversation. I never said dont do this or dont do that. I just laid out there he truth, and the two engines werent in the same week, both were in the last few months maybe. Put NOS on your car I dont care really......cloudkid, you made some good points there. Let people do whatever they want to there car....If it blows it blows, if it doesnt, it doesnt, LET IT GO SIXFOOT

Infiniti Gearhead

 

Whats next? LOL. A V-8........? Hmmm.. What will fit? =)

B. Silver| Loaded to the "Brim"| 20" Iforged Rims - Flux| Pop-Charger | Z-Tube | Nismo Cosmetics | GroundGear Equipped | Borla TD | "Custom" Stereo - JL/Focal/Eclipse

 

NOW YOUR THINKING! Being a Ford guy at heart and building many drag Mustangs, i am thinking a nice souped up 5.0 liter in it..........Now that would be fun

Infiniti Gearhead

 

Infinititech, please don't allow others to disuade you from giving your input. Some people are "emotional" posters and take things personally. (For the record I believe dollar99's post, that you get 1 hp per every grounding wire... hence his 22hp post was post of the year for 2003!!! [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img])

Now back to the pulley. Is there a good reason why you could not post information to validate that the crank pulley is infact on the crank when the engine is balanced? Maybe show us a copy from some Infiniti service manual, or a letter from Infiniti NA (anything would be greatly appreciated). How the engine is ballanced seems to be the main focus of proving or disproving the pulley's potential harm. Has your dealership ever re-built an VQ35?

I really don't want to be a critic BUT I own a crank pulley (it's sitting in a box in the trunk of my car awaiting install or return) and I have decided to go down the NA path to a faster G35. I do not want others to sway you from making LOGICAL, FACTUALLY and PROVABLE inputs that will greatly help this community, and I for one, appreciate you input regarding this subject.

Is there any data that you could post to help those of us out that keep hearing "the pulley is great", "the OEM pulley does not have a harmonic dampener on it", "the engine is internally balanced", etc... All of these statements are just that, STATEMENTS.

The Engineer inside of me is dying to see some proof so I will feel better about sending my pulley back... TIA

Self proclaimed member of the 300bhp club

 

"They were 2003 G35's with 30,000 miles on them......They were in last week......"

Can you shed some light on what you mean by "damage"?

Was it just seals, or something more major? Why do you think the cause was the pully? Did they have any other mods?

Thanks.

2004 G35C 6MT Black. Yes Honey, I promise no mods. I love it just the way it is.

 

Okay guys,
I could lose my job over this. Here is the information for whatever it is worth.
Case 1:
2003 G35 with 32,566 miles on it, exhaust system, intake manifold and tube, crank pulley. Customer complains of engine knock noise. Isolated it to main bearings making noise. We had the regional engineer come out with his digital stethoscope and that is how we isolated it to the bearings. He used a tool we have called electronic ears, which can actually get a hertz signal from the anything that vibrates. We took the aftermarket pulley off the vehicle and installed it on a similiar 2003, and measured the readings before and after. There was significant difference between the stock pulley and the aftermarket. The motor is balanced internally but balanced with the stock pulley on the motor, maybe the weight difference caused it, who knows. So the engineer boiled it down to the pulley as being the cause of the excessive vibration causing premature wear on the front main bearing.
Case 2:
2003 G35 with 38,334 miles on it. Similiar noise but this vehicle had the stock pulley on it. I myself inspected and worked on this vehicle. But as you all know to the trained eye, I could tell someone had removed the stock pulley. As one of the bolts was almost completely stripped. So logic would tell me, after seeing the usual modifications the engine, intake,intake tube, hi flow cats, exhaust, brakes, etc...One would assume he had the aftermarket pulley on and removed it because he still had warranty on it. I turned a blind eye to the matter and warrantied his motor, and had a little conversation on the side with the customer. He came back later with a case of wine for me and said he deeply appreciated the effort I had done.
There you have it, you guys can decide for yourself after reading that. I am not a referee here, just relaying information to fellow G35 drivers. Maybe it is a fluke this happened to these cars, maybe not. I came to my own conclusion about it. Take it or leave it. Oh yeah the engineer who knows more about the design of these cars agreed as well. By the way, they other guys insurance company bought him a long block, was not covered under warranty.
I am not discouraged by Six foot guy, or at what he was saying. I am on all your sides, and that is why I am here.

Infiniti Gearhead

 

THANK YOU! I will be shipping my pulley back to Performance Nissan in the morning.

Self proclaimed member of the 300bhp club (soon to be even more [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img])

 

Just dont tell Sixfoot guy I had anything to do with it. Hee hee.......

Infiniti Gearhead

 

Thanks man. Yep, bearing problem would be bad.
Still, I wonder if the pulley was the cause, or will we see more problems at 30K on hard driven cars.

Thanks again, you know how some of are, we need details so we can make an informed decision.


2004 G35C 6MT Black. Yes Honey, I promise no mods. I love it just the way it is.

 

I had the dealer install the set of 3 UR pulleys on my AT sedan and never once was a warantee void mentioned or documented. I have 33700 miles on it and is smooth as silk, can barely feel it idle. On the 2 engines that went south, I wonder if the pulleys were owner installed or professional. I would bet they did it themselves, tweaked something or overtorqued the bolts, or had crappy alignment to the rest of the system. They may not even have been UR which are very high quality. Who knows, but so far so good and I'm not taking mine off.

 

Could those failures been a result of, or involve the crank sensor recall? In addition, the fact that the bolt had been stripped tells me that it was not installed correctly.

No offense to the tech dude but I'm going to keep mine on until we get a forum regular (on here, FA, or my350z) reports a problem. There are enough guys on these 3 boards that also use other boards that will alert the rest of us if there is a problem. Call me a skeptic but owners with exhaust, intake, suspension, etc., mods get their mod ideas from somewhere and I'm willing to bet that they would be members of a forum like this one. The fact that I haven't read anything about this makes me wonder.

If I were in your shoes neff, I'd do the same thing. However, I've gotten a taste of this mod and me likey too much. I have about 3K miles with the pulley so far. I'm sure there are some with 20K and perhaps more. I think there will be enough of a buffer for me to switch at the first sign of trouble from a forum member.

BTW, I'd appreciate a pm from the tech dude telling me where he works. If I ever have a problem, there'll be more than a case of wine if you help me out. :-)

 

For those of you who are interested, I started a link on my350z.com (where there a lot of more VQ35 owners who are into modding) and this is what they had to say... crank pulley failures

THANK YOU InfinitiTech for your time and very valuable information. Apparently the 350Z community has already been down this road and people like SIXFIVE should really read these posts instead of bashing you (and probably me now too).

AL503, are you still keeping your pulley on?

300bhp??? We'll see... 5-22-2004