So Im about to replace my harmonic balancer damper on my 03 mcs and Ive been seeing different type of pulley that say there for the crank shaft pulley and say it helps out with the acceleration so is there any and that won't hurt the engine without having the damper

 

Some people have installed lightweight pulleys (with no counterbalancing) and had no problems with them. But that's a risk you don't really need to take for a daily driver Mini. The crank and components (oil pump, for instance) need that dampening to rotate smoothly.

 

its a very debatable topic.... do we actually need a harmonic damper? would these products actually be sold if catastrophic engine damage occurs? r50 has a much lighter pulley than the r53..... inline 4 engine is a very balanced engine


hard to say if its needed at all. a lot of people are scared of doing it on a daily driver. but yet most of the torsional force would be happening on the track where supposed pulleys are being used.


there are many threads with no evidence pointing either way. and makes you think would X amount of company's sell this if they knew it caused engine damage. or since they buy this they many other mods..... its cant be suspect that it was the crank pulley

 

An excerpt from our crankshaft pulley replacement:

 

So many threads with this question lately. Use the forum search before you post next time and get an ATI super damper. Never have to worry about it again. You will not see significant improvements in light-weight designs. I'd rather have the lifetime durability of an ATI than anything else.