What are some of the best ones to buy for the money?I don't want to spend a fortune,but I would like to get good ones.How much they cost?

Stock. Free.

There is no best underdrive pulley. However, Perrin and agency Power both make excellant lightened crank pulleys. I am running the Agency CP with no problems.

Jay-R

I would stick with lightened pulleys, I've seen some negetive side effects from the underdriven ones. (An 04 STI threw a CEL and an 02 WRX lost enough juice to really DIM his headlights and dash, looked like crap) I haven't seen underdrives on an N/a yet. And I've read before on manufactures websites that most of the power gains are from the pulley being lightened.

I would go with what dibblejr said.
And on ebay there's lightened pulleys by Mr. Josh i beleive for about $80. But I would seek out people who say they are worth it before I order, I'm looking at those for myself as well.

Unorthodox and GFB both make lightened pullies in the stock or undriven diameter. In about a week I'll be picking up a lightened stock diameter 3 pulley set from GFB most likely, about 10 hp if I'm not mistaken.

LMAO 10 HP!?!!?!?

the gain won't even reach 1 or 2 hp, without a matching lightened flywheel.

Be aware that when you do get a lightened or underdrive lightened pulleys that you risk throwing your motor off balance slightly.

As for Underdriven on a RS; I can add to that.. I own a Unorthodox underdriven crank pulley it has been on car for approximately 37,000 miles and daily driven, through temperatures of 10 degrees fahrenheit cold starts and direct opposite 90 degree starts, so far never had one problem with the charging system or electrical.

IMO if you were to underdrive all the pulleys then it would be bad, other than that, it's just hype. take my words as a grain of salt.

Advantages to a lightened pulley over a underdriven;
No need to buy new belts
No need to worry about belt angle on the pulley not being precise
Probably won't have trouble starting if ever the battery is drained somehow

8HP has been mentioned by Mr Josh:
http://www.mr-josh.com/parts.html

Pulley's don't make power but rather just free up energy wasted spinning up heavy parts.

As mentioned above by sifuspec 10 hp or even close to that is just fiction. Anyone producing a product will and can say anything they want, however there is no way of even 4-10 hp, the lower end possibly.
The biggest noticeable gain is in throttle response. As far as throwing your engine balance off-absurb (unless you bend the cs trying to remove the stocker).
50,000 miles on my LCP.

Jay-R


8HP has been mentioned by Mr Josh:
http://www.mr-josh.com/parts.html

Pulley's don't make power but rather just free up energy wasted spinning up heavy parts.

SoFuSpEc: By "no problems" you mean you don't even get dim lights? That would be great to hear, since looking for non-underdriven pulleys really limits my options. But, the more I think about it, my lights already dim down a bit when my RPMs drop down at idle.
Also, have you also installed a lightened flywheel? There is much mixed information about how it, alot of people saying it's a one or the other deal (underdrive vs flywheel), I'm not sure why, something about poor behavior at low RPM. It'd be nice to hear from somebody who actually has one in use on a car similar to mine.

Major Johnson: GFB's website only list applications for the WRX, same parts? Tweakit's website lists them for the WRX as well but then says in the description that it works for n/a applications also. Are the RS crank pulleys the same?
And isn't $300+ quite a bit just for some pulleys? I'm hoping you get them alot cheaper than that.

so far the $80 mr josh sounds like the best deal.

I run both Lightened CP and OS Giken Light Flywheel Racing Clutch Sytem. No problems whatsoever.
300 for a pulley is crazy. You can buy an Agency Power a lot less than that.
As far as this pulley you speak of, I have never heard of them. Better to get one that has nad success unless you want to be the experiment and do the writeup.

Jay-r

SoFuSpEc: By "no problems" you mean you don't even get dim lights? That would be great to hear, since looking for non-underdriven pulleys really limits my options. But, the more I think about it, my lights already dim down a bit when my RPMs drop down at idle.
Also, have you also installed a lightened flywheel? There is much mixed information about how it, alot of people saying it's a one or the other deal (underdrive vs flywheel), I'm not sure why, something about poor behavior at low RPM. It'd be nice to hear from somebody who actually has one in use on a car similar to mine.

Major Johnson: GFB's website only list applications for the WRX, same parts? Tweakit's website lists them for the WRX as well but then says in the description that it works for n/a applications also. Are the RS crank pulleys the same?
And isn't $300+ quite a bit just for some pulleys? I'm hoping you get them alot cheaper than that.

so far the $80 mr josh sounds like the best deal.

I refuse to participate in the usual pissing match about how much power an underderiven pulley does or does not free up.

What I will say is that I have had my Unorthodox underdriven pulley on my car for 130k of it's 135k mi lifespan. I am still on my original alternator, AC compressor and power steering pump. My headlights don't get quite as bright when the pulley is on the car versus when it's not, but not enough to be any sort of problem. Take that FWIW...

there is no good underdrive pulley.

Underdriven is BAADDDDD!!! STOP IT! BAD!

I have a stock sized light weight pulley from teh perrin maNe and it is teh uber fast4r.

actually it just made the rpms smooth

matt: without going into a debate about figures, like you said, is it an overall thumbs up? Are the gains you notice worth the money, work, and loss of accessory in a daily driver?

Also, specifically, are the top end gains worth the difference of lightened vs underdriven?

thanks

just saw honkey's post. i'm thinking the 2002+ vehicles respond differently than the older cars, judging from other posts as well, not just mr honkey.

Rich,
I don't see any tradeoffs present. It's a worthwhile mod. I picked up 1mpg with the pulley. I used to track EVERY single tank of gas, and there was an immediate change. Couldn't tell you if you would see the same thing from a just a lightened pulley. Also couldn't tell you the difference between the 2 up top. I just don't see a single good reason NOT to go underdriven...

And FWIW, I immediately dismiss posts from people who don't know how to type or use the English language. My thinking is that is someone sounds stupid, they probably are stupid. But that's just me...

I refuse to participate in the usual pissing match about how much power an underderiven pulley does or does not free up.

What I will say is that I have had my Unorthodox underdriven pulley on my car for 130k of it's 135k mi lifespan. I am still on my original alternator, AC compressor and power steering pump. My headlights don't get quite as bright when the pulley is on the car versus when it's not, but not enough to be any sort of problem. Take that FWIW...

:lol: i also have HID's so my headlamps don't get effected that much;
as far as i can tell in my interior the lights dim as much as they did stock.. especially since subaru's idle so low.. :lol:

i don't have a lightwhee flywheel; i just have the underdriven crank pulley..

The "best" one is probably going to fit. Both you car and your budget. Other than that IT DOES'NT MATTER THAT MUCH!!!!

I remember when these things first cam out for the subies. Christ, people said this and that and blah blah blah.....

You want one? Buy one? It does'nt matter which one unless it matters to you.

Good luck and have fun.

When I sayed $300 it was for the entire 3-pulley set including belts. I figured since my car is nearly approaching 8 years old why not change out all the pullies? Plus I like to be unique and I hardly know anyone with a pulley set.

When I sayed $300 it was for the entire 3-pulley set including belts. I figured since my car is nearly approaching 8 years old why not change out all the pullies? Plus I like to be unique and I hardly know anyone with a pulley set.

Sounds good. They look cool too. Get a color that contrasts the black.

Ebay baby.....

$20 plus shipping.

I have used these cheapies for supercharger crank cores three times now. And not a single problem. If its round, it probably gonna work.

Buy whatevers cheapest, but I wouldnt do the Ebay ones.

I'm running an oooold vishnu underdrive pulley :lol: :p It was cheap, so I got it. I also have a lightweight flywheel. Car pulls great, fun as heck to drive. No light diming issues, but I dont run a big stereo or anything either.

I Have the Perrin one on my car... As for HP gains I dont know but I am going to get a dyno done to find out the before and after affects of it to put the theory to rest.

HOWEVER i would like to say that I did notice one thing when i took it to the drag strip. my best run ever was 17.237 on the 1/4. after i put the pulley on it was only hable to pull a 17.499 at best BUT i didnt notice that i almost ran a consecutive 17.5-17.53 did that 13 times in a row. never in the 6 times of going to the strip have i been able to pull off so many consecutive runs in a row.

My lights to dim a little but I have been told put a grounding kit on your car and that will offset what happens with the lightweight pully.

I just got the Go Fast Bits pulley kit the other day. Blue...to match my car.

Be aware that when you do get a lightened or underdrive lightened pulleys that you risk throwing your motor off balance slightly.
i just heard this recently too from a honda buddy of mine. he was reading some post how since the damping measures that the stock pulley had is gone, the crank wobbles and eventually eats up the crank... apparently the pix on that other forum of the crank were gruesome... i got kinda nervous when i heard that.

anyways, ive got an agency power pulley from rallitek and i like it. smooths things out, looks nice. ive had no problems that other ppl have had. as far as power, the only other power mods i have are a short ram intake (with a K&N in need of much cleaning), a catback and this pulley. i pulled 135 awhp and 145 awtq on the dyno, which is high compared to other pulls ive seen with the intake/catback combo... now im not sayin for sure that the pulley makes that much power (maybe my motor is jus really healthy), but the numbers dont lie and im happy with them.

i just heard this recently too from a honda buddy of mine. he was reading some post how since the damping measures that the stock pulley had is gone, the crank wobbles and eventually eats up the crank... apparently the pix on that other forum of the crank were gruesome... i got kinda nervous when i heard that.

Hondas are COMPLETELY different motors and this information does not apply to Subaru's.

I know plenty of folks who have put 100k+ miles on a motor with a lightweight drive pulley without issues.

I know plenty of folks who have put 100k+ miles on a motor with a lightweight drive pulley without issues.

Like me?:cool:

My advice is to buy the purple one. When there's a choice, ALWAYS buy the purple one...:devil:

thats good to know then.

Like me?:cool:

Ya, and a few other people locally who have had them for like 4 years or more... Its one of those mods people just install and never remove.

I have slight dimming issues on the headlights with the stock pulley... There's a good chance its because my battery is about 7 years old. Maybe those with dimming issues just have old batteries like me, but find it easier to blame the pulley.

Your battery is 7 years old?

You need a new one like, tomorow man...

No way man! Ive now grown attached to this one :). It was the original battery in my 00RS.

well i have underdrive pulleys on my wrx, for about 20000 miles, i noticed a nice difference in the way the
engine revs quicker, i cant say how much if any power was gained with the pulleys but i installed the pulleys and short ram, and i picked up a little over 1.5 mph in the 1/4 mile.

Your battery is 7 years old?

You need a new one like, tomorow man...

Or perhaps about 2 years ago.


I'm a huge fan of the Mr. Josh pulleys, installed 5 of them onto friends cars, one on mine and it frees up a little power and lessens that dead spot around 4,500K, my pull to 80 getting on the highway is about a second faster with the associated mods.

i had a perrin lightened crank pulley on my old RS. freed up maybe 1-2 horses but its nothing you can really feel. Definatly made rev matching easier. also made the car a little easier to drive in traffic. overall i loved it. Doesn't do much on a rex though lol.

I'm a huge fan of the Mr. Josh pulleysAnybody know how to get in touch with him? I sent him an email back in Oct and never heard back. :(

Check out the Unorthodox site. I picked up a 3 pulley underdriven set from their cosmetically damaged selection that they don't advertise. I couldn't find the damage on mine and they've been working great for a couple of years now.

Christian