I just installed a k&n intake and UR crank pulley yesterday and holy crap, the engine sounds like a beast. The install was fairly easy and took about 5 hours total. If anyone is installing the crank pulley let me resolve two install issues that I was a little worried about after reading some of the threads here. (1) You do not have to disconnect any radiator hoses to remove the fan housing other than the overflow tube from the top of the radiator. You only have to simply remove the overflow tank (1 bolt and it slides right out) and remove the bolt on the bracket holding down the air conditioner hard lines (this is to give enough clearance to wiggle the fan housing out). After you do those two things you just remove the two screws from the top of the fan housing, lift the fan housing up slightly to remove it from the bottom supports, then drop the passenger side of the housing down and under the top radiator hose while lifting the driver side of the housing out first. It takes some patience to get the housing by the air conditioner hard lines, just be careful not to tear anything out. Also, don't forget to unclip the two electrical connectors from the bottom of the passenger side of the fan housing. (2) The crank pulley bolt is not difficult to remove. What you need to do is go to home depot or lowes and get a 48" section of iron pipe (the kind used for residential gas lines). I bought a 3/4" diameter to fit over my craftsman 3/8" ratchet with out too much play. You don't want a lot of play between the ratchet handle and the inside of the pipe. The pipe cost $7. Then, you need at least two people (preferably 3). One person needs to step on the brake hard with the car in 6th gear. If you have a third person have them hold the hood back for you. If you don't have a third person then hold the hood back with one hand and pull on the pipe with the other. Just put tension on the bolt then give a good tug to loosen. I did this with one hand (I'm 170lbs and I don't work out) the key is leverage. With 48" of pipe over the ratchet you have a lot of leverage. My ratchet did not snap in half or anything. The only problem I had afterward was that the the ratchet mechanism ceased and I had to bang the thing on the pavement a few time to get it working again (percussive maintanance).

Now, back to the sound of the engine. I don't know if it is due to the pulley or the intake but the thing is loud. It also has some serious vibration now. Not a bad vibration, but the kind I would expect if I were in a race car. It actually feels more like my brother-in-law's 69' camaro with a 350 in it. I hope I didn't screw anything up. As for power gains, I will have to wait and see. My base dyno was at 241hp. I have a plenum and TS chip coming so i'm going to wait to install those before I re-dyno. I'm not too interested in individual gains, I just want to see what I get total.

 

Serious vibration is NOT good. I would check you install if I were you. I have about 1500 miles on my UR crank pulley with NO vibrations at all!

 

Have to agree with EnthusiastZ.
I would get that checked out asap.
I have no vibration at all with mine.

 

When I say vibration, the engine has a growl that resonates when you first hit the gas and then again at about 3000rpm. I also get more vibration in the gas pedal than before. The UR pulley is a lot lighter and doesn't have the dampener that the stock pulley had, so I'm figuring this is suppose to occur. It could also be the k&n intake, that thing is not plastic like the stock one and is bolted to the engine and engine compartment which can transmit vibration. The vibration i'm feeling isn't like an out of balance vibration and there is nothing there at idle. I just hope I didn't tighten the belt too much and maybe the vibration is coming from stress on the bearings. Will have to double check. Now your getting me worried.

 

I just went out and spent the last half hour getting intimate with my engine compartment (no not like that) and the belts seem to be okay there is about 1/4 to 3/8" deflection on the larger belt and 1/2" on the smaller. I search around for vibration and noise closely at idle and there definately is nothing coming from down by the crank pulley, it seems pretty smooth. I did notice that the engine is surging up and down slightly though. This is without the a/c or fan on. From the tach it looks to be about 100 to 175 rpm.
I then got in the car and revved the engine a little to locate the growl noise. It seems to be coming through the firewall on the driver side and I noticed that the exhaust now how some back sputtering when you let off the gas from a quick rev. I'm thinking this must have to do with the new intake. Any input, er, reassurance on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Greetings from Singapore!

I will be getting my 3 piece pulley set this Fri. Just to check, did you install using a lift as in from the undercarriage?

Sounds like a lot of work for 3 pulleys...

Also, how difficult is it to install the Nismo anti-roll bars? Can they be use with stock suspension? I do not want to lower the car with Tiens or HKSs because the car is pretty low, my Nismo y-pipe's flex joint is shot with all the scraps it had to endure.

Thanks!

 

hi there and Welcome. I recommend u to ask mechanic to install your 3 pieace Pulley for you if You don't know DIY.

The Anti-Roll bars must be a sway bar that you are talking about.
If so, yes they can be installed with stock suspension.

Cheers

 

As you may have read, there is a big unresolved controversy about whether or not the UR crank pulley generates harmful resonances. I suggest that you take off the intake and see if the vibration stops..

 

Yeah, I might just do that. I have to take some of the intake off anyway when I finally get my plenum so it wouldn't be too hard to just remove the airbox and put the stock box and tube back on just to see if the noise goes away. I really think it is the intake though, rather than the pulley, because the car sounds really smooth when I start it up in the morning until it warms up after about 15 min. I imagine it probably runs rich during warm up and the air intake flow is reduced.