i have been looking around at the smaller pulley's, and was just wondering how hard of an install it is.
1)would i be able to do it myself?
2)do i need to buy the puller and tensioner tool?
3)if i take it to a mechanic shop, would they be able to put it on?
4)about how long does it take to put on?

and any other comments would be nice

thanks :smile:

 

1)u must be pretty dam mechanically sound... it's a part i wouldnt want to do myself but i got little mechanical knowledge... the thing is to take ur time... never rush it and take care to watch every detail

2)yes, u need both

3)if i were u u might want to take it to a shop with both tools... some shops might pry your pulley off with brute force and u dont want tat..

otherwise.. ask around to see if there's a pulley installer in your area

4)mine took 4 hours to install at a mechanical shop.. zero problems so far

 

I installed the alta 19% pulley myself. I have never worked on a car before in my life. I did not need the belt tensioner tool I used a screw driver to place in the hole on top of the tensioner spring worked fine and saved money. The puller I used was from a place called harbor freight tools called "4 inch Three Jaw Gear Puller" worked excellent and it was less than 10 bucks. There is an excellent write up in the Performance Mods :: Drivetrain-How To Section at the top I used Method 2. I was a little nervous while I was working on it but I had no trouble what so ever and the increased performance is out of this world. O yea by the way it only took me about 4 1/2 hours for the whole install. You should definately be able to install it yourself.

 

You mean that we are all blowing money renting these fancy clamp on gear pullers and a 10 buck Harber Freight model does the trick? Incredible. Kudos for a great tip.

 

[font=Verdana]I installed my 15% pulley myself and used a standard 3 prong gear puller by craftsman. The pressed on pulley is on the shaft pretty solid and I destroyed the original pulley with the gear puller while removing it. With that said I will be renting the pulley puller and belt tensioner tool this time around.



S_HAPENS ?? How does the power come on with the 19% pulley? I'm trying to decide on another 15% or going with the 19% this time. Thanks.

 

The power defienately comes on strong at almost any rpm. I think it increased the boost about 6 psi it was around 10psi at redline stock and now it is about 10psi at WOT at any rpm. It gets up to 16psi at redline. I dont know how those number compare to the 15% pulley or even if you have a boost gauge. Oh yea wheni used that $10 gear puller it shreaded my stock pulley the pulley shaft was fine but the stock pulley is now just a trophy.

 

Having just, last weekend, watched the master (Randy webb) do my pulley install,let me offer these words of wisdom.First,he jacks the car up and puts it on 4 jack stands.next, he detaches entire air intake assy,including detaching the battery terminal from the side of the intake box.Next, he detaches the ECU cabling/plugs.he puts 2 two ton jacks under the car and proceeds to completely unbolt the engine from the car(there are 2 bolts that must be done from below).using the 2 jacks,he then raises the engine enough to expose the pulley and tensioner(approx 1 foot) .He removes the tensioner completely , and lowers the belt out of the way.he removes the bolt from the end of the pulley shaft.His puller-clamp(that I am in the process of building three more of for him) is one that clamps around the old pulley,completely engaging ALL the fins.His puller(a standard puller of the 10 dollar variety) screws into the clamped assy and the old pulley comes off pristine and re-usable.He uses Alta pulleys,because they install with a taper fit collet .As a machinist, I was very impressed with the build quality,but admittedly ,I haven't seen any others to compare.this is basically it.He did replace my plugs with irridium of a suitable heat range for the mod (ask him for the correct #).Then he reversed the above.He replaced my air intake on the way out with Alta(no extra labor charge!) and the whole thing took him an hour and a half.Amazing what doing close to 400 pulley installs will do for your time.Hope this helps,I have probably painted a rosey picture of how this was done,and I may have missed some minor details.He gets $400 at pulley parties to do this job. Peace, Jock

 

You really only need to raise the engine about 3-1/2 inches. I would not recommend raising it a foot. Here is another how-to from PROMINI. I used this one. It's about as cook book as it gets.