interesting, so grubbs hasnt been given the ok from you guys to change the pulley?

 

Forced

I am surprised at your post. I was told by John at Grubbs that he has been discussing the 9 lb pully issue with one of your VP's for a while. As of last Friday, I was told by John that Grubbs is now officially authorized to make this change. Myself and two other G owners are getting this mod done this week for this very reason.

Also, the Grubbs GM posted on Fresh Alloy that they are the only authorized dealer in the US to install the 9 lb pully and keep the full Vortech warrenty.

I find it hard to believe that these guys would be making these statements if they were not true. Do you think it is possible that you just have not been updated on this new policy?

Either way, this is an important issue, and I intend to discuss it with Grubbs tomorrow.

 

The idea that somehow Grubbs would be the only one authorized to install the 9lb pulley and retain the warranty when there is no such thing as an authorized Vortech installer is downright offensive if it's true and laughable if it's false.

I'm also pretty annoyed by the fact that Grubbs is charging $250 or whatever for the 34-tooth pulley when that part costs only $60 from Vortech and adds absolutely NO time whatsoever to the install or to custom tuning if done during initial installation.

I also thought it was pretty funny that Grubbs claimed that the reason that the ATI kit for the G35 only ran at 6psi was because the G35 had smaller injectors than the 350z--but that's another story.

--Steve

 

Grubbs is not changing out the Cog Pulley. there changing the Surp Pulley on the front of the jack shaft. 3.33 dia (stock) to 3.12 dia or 9 lb.

Tim

 

Forced

Okay... now I'm confused... I thought the pulley being changed from 32 tooth to 34 tooth was the one on the back of the jack shaft. Is this correct or is it the one on the charger itself?

I think I will hold off now until there is more clarity on the specific part being switched.

Also, is there any chance that this pulley change will be warranty covered in the future?

 

Mcduck,

There are many ways to up the boost.

the easyest is to change out the sepintine pulley. Vortech makes dia's 3.48 to 2.62. The smaller the dia the faster the blo1wer spins= more boost. This will not void the blower warranty as long as you do not spin the blower faster than 50,000 RPM.

I don't know why steve would want to change out the cog pulley.
the 32 tooth cog pulley is much to close to the cam sensor for me.
the 34 tooth would just be that mush closer.

just my 2 sents

tim

 

Hmm... serpentine pulley change may require a shorter belt, tho. As I recall, there is not a large amount of slack in the belt provided. Smaller pulley would be less metal to go around... hence more slack... if the tensioner can't take up that slack, then a shorter belt will be needed.

Any good way to estimate how much more boost you will get with different size serpentine pulleys?

 

OK, so here is what's going on. Grubbs is changing the serpentine pulley like Timrod said. I guess some of you have changed the cog pulley instead. The end result is the same. As for Vortech's preference, we don't have one. When the call was placed to Vortech about warranty work, the response was: "going to the 3.12" serpentine pulley on the jackshaft will most likely not hurt the supercharger because it is not close to being overspun."

This does not mean that the warranty will still be in tact! But, as I said before when you send in the blower for warranty work, the paint will still be on the supercharger pulley. Eventually, we may put paint on the jack shaft pulleys and have all of them sent in with the blower, but that is not up to me.

 

so if we change to the 3.12" serpentine pulley, well most likely need a new belt, so youre looking at around 150$, or you can change the cog for 70$ and use the same belt, but the paint on the blower threads will be tainted, so warranty go bye bye, is that correct Forced?

and changing either one of these should yield the same gains, correct?

 

Timrod, the only reason I changed out the cog pulley (and assumed Grubbs was doing likewise) is because when I called a month or so ago and inquired about increasing boost to 9psi, Brian conferred with one or more engineers and offered that the 34-tooth cog pulley would be the way to do it.

I would have been happy to change out the serpentine pulley and use a smaller belt. That wasn't presented as an option at the time, but it does sound like a potentially better way to go. I'm not sure without the car in front of me how labor intensive one is versus the other.

That said, I'm curious to know why Grubbs is stating on another forum that they "are the only Vortech authorized installer in the US for this upgrade" when my understanding is that there is no such thing as an authorized installer and based on Steve's comments no such behind-the-scenes deal has been struck.

Steve, I just want to express my enthusiasm for your participation in this forum. It's not always easy for a manufacturer to have a presence.

--Steve

 

After talking it over with the guys at Grubbs I have found the problem. It seems it was a communication error on Vortech's part. Grubbs was only going off what we told them and I don't want any of you to think they were BSing you.

When you change pullies on the supercharger, the warranty is not totally void. The 3-year warranty will be dropped down to a 1-year warranty.

Does this cover all of your questions? If not, fire away.

 

tig488, I'm curious about this as well. I did not ask one way or the other about the warranty when I spoke with Vortech but no mention of pulley paint was mentioned

Here's a photo of the blower and the (potentially) three pulleys in question:



My assumption is as follows: (a) the jackshaft pulley is the one on the bumper side of the mounting bracket and the one that is spun by the serpentine belt; (b) the cog pulley is the one directly behind the jackshaft pulley; (c) the supercharger pulley is the one mounted to the actual blower and the one with the paint on it. Hopefully more knowledgeable members than I can jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.

--Steve

 

zimbo

That is correct.

 

Forced...

This discussion raises another question for me. I had the cogged pulley, the one of the back of the supercharger, come loose on me during a long road trip. Basically, the allen head bolt that secures it had backed out for whatever reason. This was not touched at any point prior to this. I removed until I could get somewhere to fix the problem which was relatively easy. Pulley was put back in place and the bolt was re-tightened.

Based on your warranty comments above, tho, my questions are...

1) Will this occurence affect the paint on the pulley you keep referring to?
2) Is my warranty going to be considered voided or shortened if my SC comes into Vortech now?

This occurence was by no fault of mine... the bolt holding the pulley came loose. Yet it sounds like, on your end, you may perceive this as a deliberate removal of the pulley and thereby void the warranty.

I'll be the first to admit that I will explore the pulley options being discussed here. But if I decide not to make any changes and leave my kit as it came from Vortech, I'm going to be very upset if I can't get warranty work done due to a problem I incurred because the original pulley was not tightened properly when it came in the kit.

 

That pulley probably did not have paint on it, only your supercharger pulley. The paint on the other pulleys is a recent change. If there is a problem with a loose bolt, we will certainly want to know about it so we can see the blower and make notes about what happened for use in the future.

 

Forced

I appreciate your clearing things up. I was starting to doubt if I was getting truthful answers from Grubbs. I feel a little better. However, they made no mention of my warranty being shortened to 1 year.

Zimbo

When I was told that Grubbs was now the only place authorized to install the 9 lb pulley, I assumed they were just the first, with many more to follow.

All

I spoke to Grubbs today. They finished my install and tuned the coupe yesterday. They said they got 387 rwhp. The only mods I have are the Borla exhaust and the Vortech with a 9 lb pulley. I will be driving back up there tomorrow to get the car. I can not wait to see this beast. I hope the curves look as good as the max hp.

 

Forced (Steve), I was wondering, with all of this talk of pulleys and such, do you guys have a rundown what is safe for the car pulleywise, and what boost levels can be attained by the pulleys offered by Vortech??

Are you saying that if you ran more than the stock boost, you would still have a 1 year warranty??

Do you guys have a 10, 11, or 12 lb(psi) pulley(regardless of warranty)??

What boost levels are possible from the Vortech unit (looking for the potential of the unit here)???

 

little_rod: Vortech's stand is what comes in the system is safe for the car. Anything more....well we don't condone that. No matter what pulleys you run you will be dropped to a one year warranty. I guess if you did the 34 tooth pulley and the 3.12 serpentine you could get around 11ish. We have not tested this so beware!

Houston G35: We are taking care of you on your warranty for the little mixup that we had.

 

I was told by VORTECH that changing the serpentine pulley dia would not effect my warrenty at all, as long as the blower does not spin faster than 50,000 rpm

 

I got one better, I was told by Grubbs Infiniti ie. John that when they installed my 9 lb system it would not void my 3 year warranty what so ever. My install was done 5 days ago.