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I've got around 180K miles on my 03' JCW R53 mini. I'm still running the oem harmonic balancer/crank pulley....which is starting to look pretty rough. I figured that I should probably replace it before it comes apart.
I was looking online, and there there are a ton of options. I could go with an oem type balancer, then their are the SFI and ATI brand balancers, then you have the fluidampers, and Speedmaster types.
For a daily driver, what's a good quality damper to replace the oem one with? I saw that JEG's has this Speedmaster one for $175 which sounds like a pretty good deal for a fluid filled damper.
Not to bring an old thread back to life, but if you need to remove that Jeg's damper, how are you gonna do it? There's no holes in it for a quality puller
Not to bring an old thread back to life, but if you need to remove that Jeg's damper, how are you gonna do it? There's no holes in it for a quality puller
Bryan
Hey, don't feel bad about bringing back an old thread...
Before getting the nerve to work on my own MINI...I went through 3 crank balancers within 50k.
It was under dealer warranty at the time and each time they were replaced with the same "made to fail" OEM balancers.
Anyway, since I'm now @80k, and the last OEM is still on there; I made the preempted decision to have/buy a back up ready for when it blows. I purchased an PRW SFI (fluid filled)
Since your post; It never dawned on me regarding the puller holes!
I had to go run and check it (still in the box).....
I found a similar, if not the same crank pulley on eBay the other day....it was around $150, the auction even said it was a fluid dampener.....I posted it in one of the Facebook groups I belong to and asked if anyone had ever heard of this one.......there was one guy that asked the same question that I just did above....how is it gonna be removed? So I sent a question to the seller asking if it needed to be removed for any reason, how was it supposed to come off? I also didn't see any puller holes in the eBay item
Seller got back to me the next day, which is kind of a surprise....he said that you would use a normal 2 or 3 jaw puller to get it off. Yea...not gonna happen
I deleted it from my watch list and I'm still going to get a PRW style in the near future.....cheapest I have found is $212.00.....I'm not gonna spend over twice as much for an ATI unit when my car will never see 6000 RPM unless I miss a shift.....everyone that I have talked with says the PRW unit will be the one I would want for my daily street use
my R53 2004, will be soon hitting 94,000 miles. With this ATI damper Stock size ( not the 2% ATI damper ) I bought it last year. Can I use the same size stock belt? all my pulleys are original mini stock.
Any tips when removing the stock crank pulley? I have the tools.
I am planning on using my milwaukee impact wrench to break the old bolt., by using this tool am I going to disturb the crank bearings? like they might move a little?
You will need the impact wrench to remove the bolt. There should not be a problem with the crank bearings. I've done this a number of times with no problems. If that bothers you, use a breaker bar while having someone inside stepping on the brake.
If I'm not mistaken, instructions on the ATI require you to heat it in the oven prior to installation. Make sure you have appropriate gloves to transfer it to the crank.
You will need the impact wrench to remove the bolt. There should not be a problem with the crank bearings. I've done this a number of times with no problems. If that bothers you, use a breaker bar while having someone inside stepping on the brake.
If I'm not mistaken, instructions on the ATI require you to heat it in the oven prior to installation. Make sure you have appropriate gloves to transfer it to the crank.
Super happy with a PRW one I bought off Amazon. Nice quality and feel. Although I figured out my crank pulley had already been done once we got into the job. Oh well; this PRW is nicer than the OEM type replacement which was on the car.
If I'm not mistaken, instructions on the ATI require you to heat it in the oven prior to installation. Make sure you have appropriate gloves to transfer it to the crank.
Then after reviewing from ATI's website that you cannot use the ATI puller. I am not sure if it's the same ATI puller offered by WAY.
It’s been a couple of years since I installed my ATI super damper, but I used the puller style shown in Way’s kit, above. If I recall correctly, I bought it from WMW by way of ebay. It worked fine to remove the stock damper. Maybe ATI is saying their puller won’t work to remove an ATI damper?
Last edited by WhoHasGotTheBlueS; Aug 10, 2025 at 11:15 AM.
It’s been a couple of years since I installed my ATI super damper, but I used the puller style shown in Way’s kit, above. If I recall correctly, I bought it from WMW by way of ebay. It worked fine to remove the stock damper. Maybe ATI is saying their puller won’t work to remove an ATI damper?
I just installed mine using the WAY puller, and I also bought the recommended puller from Harbor Freight this morning.
Poor taste in modding? Too each their own I guess......
