See my post #364.

The crank damper was installed to dampen vibration/resonance which occurred at idle or slightly below. This originates from the supercharger accessory drive. Higher frequencies have no impact on resonance which the stock damper was installed to address. Idling with the a/c on or letting clutch out in such a way that the rpm drops below idle will make the resonance apparent. I posted somewhere on this site a link to the engine design paper which discussed this. I experienced it as well. I was lucky enough to score an 05 crank damper and am happy with it, in place of the Alta Crank Pulley. Racers and those who keep the revs up should have no issue.

 

So where can I get a 05 crank pulley? Somewhere besides the dealer and ebay preferably.

 

had a light crank pulley..... found an 06 ..... engine seems happier...... no science.... could be my imagination but I like it better

 

I'm curious why there has been no mention of OEM crankshaft vibration damper failures? I now three people locally who have experienced a failure so I' have no doubt there are more out there. Just bringing this up for those who believe there is no risk in going with the '05 OEM part.

 

After reading all these thoughts. Does installing a supercharger 16% pulley have the same ptonetial damage of installing a cranck pulley? I think that the supercharger pulley has no side effects at all.

 

The superchareger pully has no ill effects beyond shortening your supercharger life from 100k to 75-80k

 

No. There are harmonic vibrations in the engine because there are lots of parts moving up and down. In the SC, things go round and round smoothly. It adds a parasitic drag to the engine, but no vibration.

It will reduce SC life by approximately (surprise!) 16%, but in the real world I haven't heard of enough SC failures to have an idea of what the 'normal' life of an SC is - though MINI says ~100K.

 

66k miles 15% and stock lighter crank (Alta) 2003 MCS Seems fine and i flog it. BTW bought it used with these parts already installed.
-Josh

 

Another possible implication of a smaller supercharger pulley is that if you later raise the redline of your engine significantly, you could overspin the supercharger and/or water pump at high RPMs.

 

It would be interesting to see the update from people who have been running their motors without the dampner!

 

I too would like to hear from more people. We have been selling this part for a very very long time, and besides the power gains from the power, the only hold up people have from buying it are durability issues. OR that should be non-issues.

Of the hundreds of these parts out there, we have had ZERO calls regarding something failing after installing it. We have had only 1 or 2 people with "Vibration issues/Wobbling issues" but this might have been from a damaged part, or who knows. The % of these are very very low.

Webb, has had ours on his car forever, we have "Somewhere else on this thread" a customer that says they have 100+K with no issues, the guy from a couple posts back with the same thing, all this with years to back it up.

Someday, customers will figure out that the damper is not as important as they think or told it is. This will be a discussion for years to follow, but truely wheres the proof they cause a problem? That is a hard one answer! Wheres the proof they don't? That is easy, look above and to the past......

But truly if you are worried about it causing issues, and the added 5WHP isn't that important, then its not the part for you. But the 5WHP, the noticeable change in power, and the ease of installation is a proven fact, and for those wanting a bit more power, this is a great inexpensive part.

That is just my two cents.

 

We have found the same to be true as Jeff has. I have had one on my car for over 25k miles with no side effects. We , as a company , have had no reports of engine issues other than one that was spinning it up to 8k . That particular car had the oil pump gear go and that may or may not have been a problem with the 2% pulley . For the record my redline is 7400 rpm. An interesting thing to note that the OP " warning " of this thread was almost exactly two years ago. I would think that with the thousands sold if there was a problem everyone would have heard about it by now .

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I had an ALTA 0% crank pulley on my 360HP single turbo R53. After 70k miles, there were no crank seal leaks or noticeable oil consumption. This shouldn't be a surprise as the light crank pulley's only negative impacts are some slight NVH additions that make no noticeable impact on the engines longevity.

 

Both are great testimonials, and maybe we can get Randy Webb, and some of the other Vendors that build these to chime in.

And good point Randy, this thread has been going for 2 years!

 

i think it's safe to assume the harmonic damper is there to give bmw a buffer for build tollerences. What are the chances it is needed? who knows. Slim to none. BMW will of course error on the overly safe side.

Would I run one? prob not just because i don't think it's necessary... Would I tell people not to? hell no. I am not a fan of anything over a 15% increase in super charger rpm... but again that is all personal preference.

 

I've had a 2% on my MINI since ~28000 miles. I now have ~98000 miles. I still track it, autocross it and drive it hard and have had no ill effects. Brad's MINI has almost as many miles on his and has also had no problems. We have a dozen local customers with crank pulleys and not one of them has had a problem that is related to the pulley. I have a hard time believing that there will ever be a problem that can definitely be attributed to a crank pulley.

Steve

 

That is true with many things with these engines. They build in buffers to be safe. If i had to make an engine that lasted for 200K and i had to personally warranty, i too would be doing things to de-tune it!

LOVE IT!

 

Alot of car companies do exactly that.

 

...and BMW is particularly famous for de-tuning engines.

Remember the S52 engine from the E36 //M3? 240HP in the U.S., and 320HP in the rest of the world. Booo!

Another current BMW de-tuning example is the N52, which in most applications is 260HP, however in some it's pulled back to 230HP.

 

Excellent points folks!

 

i had it installed at 40,000km, now its 85,000 km and not an issue

dealer did blame a failing alternator a year ago on the c-pulley and refuse to warranty the alternator, i was never told what went wrong on the alternator

and a year after that, the alternator has not failed, my car still starts on the first crank, and i flog it, i track it, i autox it

 

... will I listen to a stealer again. This is just more proof that they are idiots and ripoff artists.

 

Excellent point!

 

+1 to what Adam said. Zero customers have reported problems to me related to lightened crank pulleys regardless of the manufacturer. Yet...I have had many say they would never make the change because of the lack of a damper.

 

I wanted to chime in a bit to the earlier posts about neon engines. I had a 96 acr that was tracked mildly w/ 2 different crank pulleys. One was an Unorthodox Racing traditional heat to install design, the 2nd was a now defunct company called TTi that made one with centering shaft coupler like alta's sc pulley. I ran that car over 130k with zero problems and its engine is similar design.

I've been debating getting a lightweight pulley for my 04 mcs as I'm at 104k and have been replacing items that wear out like the harmonic balancer. My experiences with my neon place no worries as to applying this part to the Mini, but with my high mileage I dont want to install something that will lower life even more.