What's up men and women. I just installed the stillen lightweight crank pulley. I am very displeased with this product. I feel absolutely no difference from stock. It doesn't rev faster, not smoother on the engine, doesn't pull different to me in any rpms of the power band.

Is this because I am not tuned? Is there something wrong. There are no noise or lost of power just seem to be a waste of money good thing I purchased it from someone on this forum for only 100$. if I paid stillens price I would be very upset. Would love for the sedan owners of this part to chime in with there opions on there experiences with this part or a similar part tuned or untuned.

 

Thats because the gains come from the underdriving.

 

I disagree stillen and others say you will get gains on either one. Do you have the underdrive.

 

shouldn't be able to feel anything.

these pulleys never make a claim to MAKE hp, its just they free up HP. like bypassing your AC pulley. it might rev a hair faster but i think thats as far as it goes.

in a sense, say you can curl 20lbs max but normally do 5lbs, if all of a sudden someone swaps your weight into a 3lb weight. Whats going to change? nothing really you might be able to do your reps faster but thats all.

 

How much lighter is it than the stock pulley? If it's only a couple pounds you won't really feel anything. Gains are there, they are just very minimal.

 

I dont have one yet, but all accounts of their effectiveness have led me to believe they are about on par with a high flow filter... there are gains, but you wont see or feel them. Besides its more of a "in addition to reg scheduled maintenance" mod. I still intend to get one when I have to replace my belt anyway regardless of the speculation.

 

Lightweight pulleys save maybe a pound or two, doubt you'd really feel that.

It also really depends on where the weight was removed from as well. Remove it from the hub, not as much difference. Remove it from outside of pulley, bigger difference

 

Why you don't feel a difference:

1) The rotational mass only encompasses an area 6" wide and it's hooked directly to the crank. Simply put, it's far easier for the motor to spin a 7lb pulley (OEM weight) or a 1.7lb pulley (typical lightweight VQ pulley). It would be different if the weight increase/decrease was on something far away from the motor and the circumference were much larger. Say like trying to acceleratate a 26" diamater 60lb 20" wheel combo vs a 26" diameter 40lb 17" wheel combo.

2) The theoretical gains becomes significantly less on every up shift. It's physics LOL. By about 3rd gear, the supposed gains are basically erased. In 1st and 2nd gear is where the gains occur. However, when you're only accelerating in these shorter gears for a very short amount of time and you're only talking about 2 to 4whp, it's not going to make on lick of difference in acceleration.

3) Gains from underdriving come largely from underdriving a water pump. There are very very minor gains that come from underdriving the powersteering pump and alternator. Since the VQ's water pump is driven off the timing chain, underdriving is pretty much pointless on the VQ. Underdrive pullies on car like an old 5.0 Stang do make some gains (~8whp) at the expense of risking overheating during extended hard driving. The underdrive gains on these older motors seems to have be pertuated by companies like Unorthodox Racing to make wild power claims about their UDPs on non-water pump driven accessory systems like the VQ motor.


Years ago I had an UR UDP on my heavily modded VQ30 Maxima 5MT that saw lots of strip time. The UDP didn't make a single HP on the dyno nor did it make my Maxima even a hundreth of a second quicker. If anything, it slowed me down because the reduced inertial mass made the car slightly more prone to bogging. I removed the pulley after 1.5 years and about 50 1/4 mile passes. It was a waste. The metal UR UDP pulley also removed the elastomer damper that is found on the OEM pulley. I noticed more engine vibration and the motor sounded strained in the upper rpms. When I put the OEM pulley back on, the motor felt much smoother and eager to rev. It was surprising the difference. You might not notice the vibration difference on the VQ35 because it's not remotely as smooth as the old VQ30.

 

try to reset the ECU

i have a 06 sedan that i put the Unorthodox lightweight pulley kil on and i do feel a difference but its not much no crazy hp gains

 

^ Reset the ECU. el oh el.