I have been talking to a friend of mine about these light weight crank pullies that folks are putting on our MINI's and I read some threads about the possible harm that these may cause. My friend did some research and mentioned this:

One of the engineers that had a part in developing the Chrysler? motor that is used in the mini piped up and mentioned that he ran it without a TVD just trying to see whether it would break the engine. It didn't.
So I guess you folks have a pretty strong bottom end. I don't have a web reference to it. I just ran across it during my research on this topic..."

So I guess I will try one of these. Chime in if you have any opinions. I would appreciate it.

 

Sounds like my days in tuning my DSM. Alot of the Eclipse/Talon guys also removed the harmonic balancing/dampening parts to get rid of some weight and they also seemed to think if the car didnt have to drive it the power would be better used in other areas (like the wheels). Anyways I have never heard any problems in the DSM world on removing it, and I would think it wouldnt damage any well balanced engine, just wouldnt run quite as smooth. Chrysler also made the 4G63 motor in the DSM's which I heard is very similar to the ones in the MCS (correct me if I am wrong on that one) when it comes to the bottom end at least.

 

you just opened a can of worms!!! EWWWWWWW

 

How has yours been Mario?

Does anyone have first hand experiance with someone ruining their engine with one of these?

Lots of people speculate, inquiring minds want to know

 

Mty friend is running a 0% lightened crank pulley and I havent heard of any problems at all from him on his pulley, although he has had a slew of other problems (nothing related to pullies in any way). He was hit by an old woman and had intake issues with a messed up throttle body and whatnot. I think the biggest problem comes down to the installation. I think the bolt that holds the crank pulley in really needs a dab of loc-tite on it on installation.

 

yes... a friend of mine here in town (he used to post on here) ran a crank pulley without a balancer... the crank ended up working itself out of the side of block!

but hey... thats just one experiance... personally... the risk isnt worth the reward.

 

If you are racing for money a lightweight crank pulley is a good idea; if you're not it is a bad idea.

 

agree 110%

 

Could we get your thoughts behind the statement? Just our ot curriosity.

Thanks.

 

every hp counts when you are racing for money. plus if you are racing quite a bit competively you are expecting a full engine rebuild... but for a street car... the 3 extra hp just isn't worth the money... plus once you build the motor you can balance and blueprint the whole motor.

well... those are my thoughts... not that you asked me... you asked don...

 

The stock crank pulley is designed in the manner it is for a reason: dampening. Dinan has a White Paper on harmonic/vibration dampening that ought to be required reading. I've seen more than one rod through the block of a MCS that had foolish bolt-ons including a lightened crank pulley. Do a risk/reward analysis to see if it is right for you.

 

Exactly

 

Im looking for everyones thoughts on this... hit quite button was just closer to the cursor at the time I replied haha. Does the lightweight crank pulley put any wear and tear on any items or anything that the stock one doesnt? Im just trying to understand why some people think its a bad idea and some dont. Isnt the oversized pulley's supposed to slow down the crank a little? What effect does this have on other parts? Or is it just the idea of the engine being not as balanced as it was designed to be?

 

--To look for everyone’s thoughts is not a good idea. You ought to seek the thoughts of those educated on the subject matter.
--Did you read Dinan’s White Paper yet?
--I image that some people think it is a good idea because they make money selling and/or installing them.
--Slow down the crank? No, the crank is spun by the internal combustion in the cylinder through the rods.
--Read the White Paper for how they affect other parts.

 

Ok I just finished going through their white paper and I see where you guys are coming from on it. A lot of it makes sense and are things that I know myself didnt quite think about before. I was going to do one on my MCS but think I might pass to simply save my peace of mind even though there are people that run them with no problem. Thanks for the info guys.

 

I'll let you know when my motor breaks Arly...

 

Sid,
I am going to do some more reading and find out where my friend found his research of course. Doing one's own researching is best when playing with this hot topic. I almost got an '06OEM dampener becuase it was 3 lbs lighter. That might b the safe ticket, but if I find the research supports the lightened aftermarket crank pulleys, then I will try them.

My friend is pretty knowledgeable about why engine designers use TVD's. He explained the physics of how the crank is put on loads at certain stages of the engine's 4 cycles.

 

Me too.

If anything, it wil be of my own fault and not from a pulley...(IE nitrous, lol )

 

Add me to the list of those who are "waiting" for the prophecied Dinan-predicted explosion. >20k miles and not a wimper from mine.

As a counter point to the Dinan white paper, you can look to the Neon/SRT-4 forums where guys using the tritec engine have run lightened crank pulleys for over 100k miles without incident.

Now granted there are exceptions to eveything, as a doc I hear it all the time: "my friends surgeon told him he wouldn't live a year, and he's still around 10 years later. You docs don't know diddly". Same is true on this issue I think. All I can say is Alta, M7, and WMS have sold a lot of crank pulleys to folks here on NAM that have driven their cars HARD without more than a handful of reported problems.....

Just trying to provide a balanced "opinion" on NAM.

 

Does the Dinan white paper address the Mini Cooper engine specifically? IIRC, it does not. All engines are not created equal (ie, BMW inline 6 vs Dodge based 4-cyl). As was mentioned before, the Neon 2.0 engines (which are the basis for the design of the Mini engine) have shown no adverse effects with running underdriven crank pulleys. I had them on both of my Neons, one for 20k miles (sold the car) the other for over 60k miles (sold that one too), and many people have ran theirs for over 100k miles with no reported problems. Some cars are a lot more sensitive to unbalanced or undampened crank pulleys, others are not. On my cars there were no adverse effects to the alternator, PS, ECU, lighting system, or anything else. My '96 Neon saw 8000 rpm on a regular basis and was making considerably more power than stock, and when I had the head off the engine at 100k miles, things looked virtually as good as new.

-Keith

 

Good points. The other issue is when do engine harmonics occur? By report they occur at 600 and 8600rpms on the tritec engine in our cars. Revs it is unlikely to ever see at all (8600), or for only a milisecoond at startup and shut down (600).

 

Can someone explain how the dampening is achieved with the OEM crank pulley? Is it the mere fact that several extra pounds are on the front of the pulley? I'm curious because the OEM pulley is solid steel -- its not like there are any aspects (like rubber, etc.) designed into it that seem to indicate dampening.

BTW, I'm at about 20k miles with the Alta 2%. No hint of any problems.

 

The OEM crank pulley is not solid steel, there is quite a bit of rubber on it that is used for the dampening effect.

 

agree 100 %

 

I'll let you know when my motor breaks

BTW...don't walk under a latter