even22even

A few ppl have told me that installing a lightweight pulley will increse horsepower... Is this true, and if so... how much, and what in ways???

thanks to all of you!! The Scion family has been very helpfuyl and i truly appreciate it!!!

jct

not increase, free's up power

Blacklisted

how much power are we talkin exactly?
im curious too

chadfo

I can't think of anyone who's done a dyno on them. I could definitely feel it when I put mine on.

evosky

search for crank pulleys ^^^^^^^^^

i have the Agency Power Lightened Pulley. There is no increase in horsepower guys, let's get that cleared up off the bat.
The lightened pulley will reduce the rotating mass at a crucial point in the engine turning process, thus relieving some stress from the engine. It will let the RPM's spool up faster and thus feel like it's giving an increase in horsepower, but it's really not.

Easyoboe2

What's the down-side to these pulleys? If there is no down-side I have to think Toyota would have installed them originally.

web

And here comes the can of worms..........


There's always down sides to anything. I've got the pulley from Agency Power and I love it. There has not been enough testing on the tC though, to say that this will be good in the long run or bad. You will get mixed reviews and those that oppose it will tell you that in "their experience with other cars" and other things like that. Other cars are different so it's really hard to relate their issues with our tCs. Yes, most cars have harmonic balancers built in as part of the crank pulley. The tC is internally balanced and the weight of the pulley is irrelevant.

Also, you have to realize that since the tC was created to be tuned by the owner, they won't put all performance parts on it for you already. That's how they make money. They don't sell a pulley through the dealership but that's not to say that it will hurt the engine.

The thing about any power gains is also up in the air. I still have not seen a dyno on these pulleys but yet I've heard people say they cut down up to 3/10 on their time. Sorry, that's BULL SH*T!. People that say that basically are relating the pulley to installing I/H/E and springs. All 4 of them may have a slight effect on 1/4 times, but that pulley will NOT take off that much if any. What it does is help free up the engine a bit and helps it spin faster as stated in the previous post. In turn, this can work with the rest of the mods in the motor to increase a slight amount of hp. It's a sequential gain in power and not an exponential jump. Just b/c you put an intake on your car or a header does not mean that you will instantly cut 1/4 mile times. The pulley works the same way. It just enhances your ability to "be able" to reach lower times.

I have no complaints with mine and I do feel that it helped pull the torque band back down a bit after I/H/E. Instead of it kicking in around 4K, I feel the pull more around 3300-3500. Not a HUGE decrease, but still something.

Contact:
Matt Jobin
Brand Manager Agency Power
Tel: (480)921-7422
Fax: (480)966-0806
Email: sales@agency-power.com
AOL AIM: AgencyPower

Ask him all your questions. I called and emailed him and he emailed me and then called me immediately within 15 minutes. He was describing the "literature" of what is out there about pulleys (good/bad) and explained the balancing of the tC and how their pulley will not throw off the balance of the motor. He emailed me installation instructions as well. Most sites that have the install of the pulley do not say anything about BLUE THREADLOCKER. I highly recommend getting a small tube of it and putting it on the bolt when you install it too.


Hope all this helped. Good luck.

web

I do realize someone is going to read this and see the part about how Agency Power claims "their pulley won't hurt your motor" and say, "Well, any company will say that to sell their product." He did say that their pulley and others manufactured that are just light weight and NOT UNDERDRIVE will NOT hurt the motor. So, he is a pretty honest guy when it comes to answering your questions.

YourNameHere

from my understanding...lightweight pulleys are just that…a lighter version of the stock piece...usually its made of lighter material (a reason toyota may not have used it...it likely costs more to make then the stocker) under drive pulleys are just bad, smaller diameter and lighter…but can through off the timing and all sorts of bad stuff. i would stay way from them

web

^^Agreed.

Lightweight is stock size, just made of aluminum rather than steel. I believe it's a Zinc/Aluminum alloy for strength and light weight. B/c it is aluminum, though, you still have to make sure not to over torque the bolt b/c you can deform the metal. Follow specs. Agency Power recommends theirs at 144 lbs.

Yes, STAY AWAY FROM UNDERDRIVE.

george_da_2nd

thats nice the tC is interinally ballenced but what about the xA/xB and your saying all this stuff about them throwing off the interinal ballencing is just a myth created by abunch of seemingly inteligent guys?

web

Nope, and as I stated in an earlier post on this forum, those who say they've had experiences with cars in the past having problems with this modification, it's really hard to relate to this engine. A lot of cars have a visual external harmonic balancer as part of the crank pulley. Yes, getting rid of that pulley with that setup WOULD do some damage. And what I also said was that since the tC is a really new car, there is no full proof testing of the crank pulley on the market.

I never said that anything those guys said was wrong. Please read the posts more carefully.

With the current setup of the tC, not sure how the xB and xA are, the lightweight (stock size) pulley should not have any problems. I've had mine on for 12K and nothing so far went wrong. If no one is willing to try these pulleys out, then how will we ever know if they will damage this motor? It's risky, but there is enough knowledge from the manufacturers and from others, like myself, who have spoken to several mechanics on the design of this motor who have agreed that there is no real threat with using the stock size (lighter weight) pulley on THIS MOTOR. Not all motors.

xBHAWK

I too, installed the PERRIN Light weight Pully. 3 Months later, I have a slow leak that the dealer says is NOT my oil pan gasket. They say that it may be from my pully. A slow leak dribbles onto the pully and gets thrown all around.
A new pully seal is $24, install is $176.
I don't know what to think, the install went fine, the pin was O.K. and the new pully went on fine.

XA and XB also have the internally balanced motors.

web

Well, that kind of sucks. Again, we would not know this if no one got the pulleys though b/c of how new the car is. There have not been any tests done to these cars. A few tCs near my house have had their pulleys (ZPI and Agency) for about 1 year and 2 of them for about 18 months. They have had no problems. Possible human error on initial install? There was a slight balance problem with mine when I put it on but that's b/c the bolt wasn't flush....I retorqued it the next day and it was straight after that. Most companies don't tell you that you have to retorqe the bolt after a few hours of driving either.

lppro-xb

i heard that the light weight pullys affect the output of the alt. is this true?

xBHAWK

No, the overdrive pully is a differant size. Differant size belts are needed.
This slows the belts so more power goes to the wheels and less power spins the power steering vane and the alternator spins more slowly. Stay away from over/under drive pullys.
Lightweight pullys are the exact same size as stock pullys but are lighter, allowing more power to go to the wheels.

But don't go by what I say, I may have struck oil with my Perrin Pully install.
It may be something else, but a little birdie tells me that I may have a leaking pully crank seal. Darn.

jct

no, the underdrive pulley does thou

web

^^Agree. Lightweight is the way to go.