87 CRX SI on dirt / Crank pulley

[Hot rod Heistand]

Does this pulley do anything besides run the accessories (air cond. & alt.) Is it a balancing pulley and if it is removed will it cause an oil leak or disrupt a seal?

[cvcc_wagon]

i don't think it is a balancing wheel (don't quote me), the cam belt pulley is behind it so it shouldn't disrupt any seals,

why do you want to remove it?

[87civicfranky]

yeah... what for???

[Hot rod Heistand]

Well since I'm not using any accessories I didn't see any need in it & I'm Hoping to reduce rotating weight and give the car a few more horses!
What do ya think

[87civicfranky]

sounds pretty good.. it would be nice to have a kick ass car..

[87civicfranky]

see ya!!!

[Hot rod Heistand]

This is the first Honda I've ever owned and I am blown away by the way it runs. This thing will litterly eat the tires off of it and it has the original Bone stock w/minor outside changes engine in it with 187,000 Miles on it and I'm turning it at 7200 Rpm's at 72 Mph in second gear. The first race I ran the car in was Mid-season last year against 20 some-odd cars. I expected to go out and work out all the bugs, yeah right, the car won both the heat and Feature race that night and it's won every race it's been in since unless it's blown a tire or something & that includes a 50 lap enduro where it started next to dead last and turned 7200 all 50 laps and won on a near flat right front tire.

Now back to business do you think that taking off the pulley is a good idea & can you think of any negatives about it.

[cvcc_wagon]

the pulley runs the water pump and he alternator, your engine won't run without it. people have tried using smaller pulleys but all the reports i have heard about that is that it doesn't help much at all, the pulley simply doesn't weigh that much, it's not like a domestic balancing wheel. i'd say don't waist your effort on that, if you want to reduce rotating mass your best bet is to get the fly wheel lightened, balance your crank and get a set of light wheels, that's where you will see the most improvement.

[Hot rod Heistand]

The pulley does run the alternator, if you have one.
I took my alternator off last year and I'm just running a red top optima gell cell Battery which, lasted through a 50 lap enduro and had plenty left. Last year I had to replace my water pump and noticed that it was run by the timing belt Which I thought was cool. So right now the pulley in question is spinning with absolutley no belts whatsoever. Even if the HP gain isn't great I do think it would be a minor improvement and that combined with all the other little things will add up. My biggest concern is, will this affect the balancing of the engine? I can see how replacing a pulley with a pulley would not make much of a difference, but removing all of that weight might give me a Horse or two. what do ya think

[Hot rod Heistand]

Oh and by the way since I built the car last year and I'm almost at the end of my legal performance rope, Im BORED!! I've already taken almost every ounce of unused weight out of the car, we don't have a weight limit. The car is so light in the rear now that I can litteraly lift both rear tires 3-4 inches off the ground by myself. So Really a small HP Gain would feel signifigant.

[87civicfranky]

the" pully eliminator tirk " works better on bigger displacement engins (like the power stering).In a smaller engin, the signifigance of horse power gain (the economical way) wouldent be so much.Besides!That pully doesent take away any power..

[cvcc_wagon]

i didnt realize that the next generation engines ran the water pump off the timing belt so you're ok there, and if you run alright w/o the alternator i see no real problem with removing the pulley. if after you get it off you see a potential problem you can always take the pulley to a machine shop and have most of it machined off so you end up with a little center hub. i still don't think it will free up much hp, like i said, you will see a lot more weight loss if you get the flywheel lightened

[Hot rod Heistand]

My thoughts exactly on the little center hub, I just took the pulley off and I am now wondering if that pulley holds the lower timing belt gear on. Well heres the results, The pulley weighs 2 pounds 11 ounces (heavier than I thought), It is 7 inches ID. I did a 3000 rpm bump of the throttle before and after removal. It wasn't extremly accurate but I believe it is dang close. Before was 3800 rpm & after was 4200 rpm. So a 400 rpm gain. I don't know what that would translate to in HP & until I find out if that bottom gear will stay put w/o that pulley I'm not going to get it out in the street and play, so we will have to wait on those results. One more thing, I was watching tuner transformation on Speed and I saw a segment on brake rotors and by putting larger & I believe lighter rotors on a car they lost like 5 or 7 hp. They talked to an expert and he said it was because of enursia (dont think thats spelled right). The larger diameter caused hp loss. Could this also be true with that pulley? Ijust lost almost 3 pounds and 6 inches (crank shaft roughly one inch) of rotating mass that cant hurt, right? Hey, I appreciate everybody's Inputs, thank you. Keep em coming!!!

[cvcc_wagon]

reducing rotating mass is a good thing for a race car, too much is not good for something that you run on the streets regularly (it will idle poorly and get bad mileage) but you are going to be just running track right?

[Hot rod Heistand]

Well since the car doesn't have any windows or lights, I don't think the cops would like me to much if I drove it around on the street Our shop is out on a rural road and that's the only pavement the car sees So far it looks like it's going to be a good Improvement. On this car I couldn't tell that I picked up any vibrations. I laid my hand on the engine before and after and couldn't tell a difference. On the gas mileage subject, I couldn't say. I do agree that this wouldn't be something that you would want to do to street car for the simple fact that most people want A/C & altenator (battery might not last to long w/ headlights) See ya!! :