Light weight pulleys-Worth it or worthless?

Old thread but I wanted to get some of the pros thoughts on a fluid damper crank pulley as opposed to stock, and or lightweight. If the 35s lightweight pulley was only 3% lighter. Would a 20-30% lighter pulley be a really bad idea? I know that not counter balancing the crank enough will cause premature wear on the bearings. I would think that a lot of the 45s OEM crank pulley weight is added for the belt driven radiator fan. And If the E-fan mod is done, would the lighter pulley make better sense? What I'm trying to get at is when whomever gets this thing made for the VK owners how much lighter is safe, or would a fluid damper be better even if it might be just as heavy as the OEM? Thoughts?
 
I don't know about most of your question, but I do know that mine (Fluidampr) made my engine feel smoother, had no noticeable affect on acceleration (though it revved a little slower), and is significantly heavier than the OEM pulley. Its not the most noticeable, but definitely one of my favorite mods to date.
 
So you would have never thought twice between a light weight crank pulley and a Fluid damper? Do you think a slightly lighter than OEM weight, Fluid damper is possible or makes more sense than a 30-40% lighter aluminum pulley; If we 45 owners are pursuing a future group buy?
 
Slamming45 said:
So you would have never thought twice between a light weight crank pulley and a Fluid damper? Do you think a slightly lighter than OEM weight, Fluid damper is possible or makes more sense than a 30-40% lighter aluminum pulley; If we 45 owners are pursuing a future group buy?
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I did think about it, a lot in fact. During the course of my research I never found any evidence indicating that one is necessarily "better" than the other for an NA application. (For boosted VQ motors the fluidampr is widely preferred due to the added torsional vibration imparted on the crank) In the end I chose the fluidampr because I preferred its characteristics, which were a smoother feel from the motor with little to no performance sacrifice. The VK is a very different animal though, and nobody currently makes a damper pulley for it.
In your place here's what I'd do: Look on Fluidampr's website for their list of applications. Find the closest thing you can to a high revving 90 degree V8 on the list and search for reviews for that application. No speculation will trump that data, if it exists... :top:

EDIT: I also do not believe a lighter than OEM damper pulley is realistic, but I really don't know much about them so I do think its possible. I think the million dollar question is whether or not it would still be effective at that weight.
 
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Great info, so basicly unless you are rebuilding and balancing a new build including a lightweight pulley, custom or not, this is the only time you can run it safley without taking the risk of destroying bearings and so forth... Bad news for a stock internal 45s, Good news for you lance:wink (2):
 
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