Underdrive Pulleys

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bluwarguy

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Do underdrive pulleys actually work or are they a waste of money? Thought about getting some because why not but I want to be sure they actually do something useful.
 

R/T_Fire

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Its not just the HP gains to put one on, It also is to help balance the motor with a better balance main pulley, or fluid dampener. your motor will be a lot happier. Even if you don't see power gains the benefit to the motor is worth it...

Take you stock balancer off and see just how well balanced it is and it will make you go buy a quality one...
 

dapepper9

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Underdrive pulleys on one of these if not going as far as heads can and intake at least those balancing benefits are negligible at best. Got also negligible power gain
 

dudeman2009

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Underdrive or overdrive pulleys are useless if you're trying to gain power. The draw from things like the alternator or water pump is miniscule in the grand scheme of a daily driver. Race engines are a different story, but thats not what a Magnum in a truck is.

Differently sized pulleys have specific uses, largely, you will never reduce load on the engine. If you are drawing 800 Watts on a stock pulley, sticking a different one on there won't magically make your electrical draw less, you will still be using 800W of power, simply put it just draws that 800W at a different engine RPM.

The only use to change the pulleys, is to change the behavior of accessory components, such as to get better alternator output at idle, or to get better waterpump/fan speeds at low RPM for use in severe duty applications such as lots of city driving in southern climates or in snow plow applications.
 

Yeret

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^Couldn't have said it better myself. The LS1 guys who are running 300 HP stock gain something like 8 HP.

Save your money and buy something that will truly boost performance. Like an anti-death flash, ie a tune.
 
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bluwarguy

bluwarguy

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Think I may spend my money on a cam instead.
 

dudeman2009

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Think I may spend my money on a cam instead.

You'll get much more out of a tune than a cam. Cams are basically useless on stock intake, heads and headers.
 

craigsez

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nas car boys only gain 3 hp when they have the bearing treated(water pump/alt) with a service called micro blue...And ya know those boys are lookin and doin everything for performance..
 

Yeret

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The Crane 2020 grind operates about in the same range as OEM but has a much sooner IVC which will give a nice increase to dynamic compression which will improve power across the RPM range as well as make the engine much "snappier". However, if your engine knocks in even the slightest, this will probably make it worse so make damned sure your plenum isn't leaking.

Be advised, even a minor cam swap will require stiffer valve springs unless you feel like destroying your valve train via coil bind. Also, with the kegger intake, your power is still gonna be pretty flat after 3,000 RPM. ALSO, without a tune and especially with the "death flash," the cam is definitely not going to be able to work to it's potential.

These engines just don't have much power potential with the factory stuff no matter what you throw at them. If you really want to up the power, you gotta swap EVERYTHING and that can get expensive in a hurry. Gotta pay to play as they say.
 
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bluwarguy

bluwarguy

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The Crane 2020 grind operates about in the same range as OEM but has a much sooner IVC which will give a nice increase to dynamic compression which will improve power across the RPM range as well as make the engine much "snappier". However, if your engine knocks in even the slightest, this will probably make it worse so make damned sure your plenum isn't leaking.

Be advised, even a minor cam swap will require stiffer valve springs unless you feel like destroying your valve train via coil bind. Also, with the kegger intake, your power is still gonna be pretty flat after 3,000 RPM. ALSO, without a tune and especially with the "death flash," the cam is definitely not going to be able to work to it's potential.

These engines just don't have much power potential with the factory stuff no matter what you throw at them. If you really want to up the power, you gotta swap EVERYTHING and that can get expensive in a hurry. Gotta pay to play as they say.
my whole goal is to just slowly upgrade one at a time. So while it won't be doing much at first, hopefully in the long run i'll be able to get somewhere.
 

dapepper9

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Tune>cam. Heads>cam. Intake manifold>cam.

You'll get more out of those 3 than you will out of a cam. Factory keg flows about 180cfm vs minimum aftermarket of 255. Heads are not much better. Neither supports much in the way of cam but a good tune is amazing. I'll run my truck out of gas if I can't find 91 rather than de-tune and fill with 87. Hell no, not taking it off lol.

And as Motortrend has proven on Engine Masters (might not be on youtube yet, I have MotortrendOnDemand) good flowing heads are more important than big power cam. You can still get hella numbers and power with a small or stock cam if the intake heads and exhaust are good but if they're junk you won't make crap with a big cam
 
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