Not to pick on Alex, many had the same thoughts, so let’s address them in some detail.
As to billet pulley undoes effects of a fluidampr so you are better of keeping the huge piece of rubber pulley -
Ya might want to consider almost every engine in existence uses a solid pulley. Can someone please show me a mouse motor or rat motor with the rubber pulley? How about the cummins? Hemi? 289 from their mustang?
Are all those undoing the effects of the fluidampr? Or maybe could the rubber in the factory pulley be undoing the effects of the fluidampr?
What about the billions of cars and trucks made with solid pulleys over the years- the a/c compressor, p/s pump, etc all sending vibrations and rotational pulses into the belt. By the way, what’s going to absorb them first — the belt tensioner or a crankshaft? Think that through a minute. The pulse is created by the AC compressor tugging on the belt…if major will simply make the pulley move. Stop reading for a minute go outside, pop your hood to start the engine stare at that belt tensioner.
There is legitimate conversation of - does the lack of rubber affect balance- until you do what I did. Paid the machinist to do the balance work, then bolt on the pulley to the front and see if one vs the other affects the balance. guess what? It doesn’t. Infact, when he tried it at a couple different rpms, the rubber pulley did affect it. Guess what else- I brought a really old one I had that had not started cracking yet and had under 80,000 miles on it from a truck that sat and when he did leaking front seal, put in new balancer and and pulley. And brought a newish one that had about 20,000 miles on it that I bought from Henderson Chevrolet dealership. There was a difference in those two. Very slight- but a difference.
Chris want to see one in action on his engine- and since I have other stuff to send him for coating, I can throw mine in and just send stuff now rather than later. And seeing with/without runs on video would be cool.
But let’s not get the impression on this thread that there isn’t people out there running them now. Could be as simple as
@Burning oil - can you post video of yours running on your truck and have your wife turn on/off A/C compressor, etc?
It could be the billet pulley is the end of mankind as we know it. I just don’t see it.
Massive compression has massive rotational pulsing. That will pulse the belt and cause it to work the belt tensioner more because the fine pulses that the rubber pulley normally absorbs gets smoothed out. No one is questioning that- it’s obvious. But the concept the rubber pulley is there to protect the crankshaft from the mega-forces of an a/c compressor is laughable at best. There would be millions and millions of broken crankshafts from all the solid metal pulleys.
One could argue that the rubber pulley is part of or an extension of the harmonic balancer to ease the unbalanced rotating mass on the crankshaft. Ahh, but can we go back in the Time Machine and remember one silly detail?
GM BUILT MANY 6.2 and 6.5 WITH SOLID BELT DRIVE PULLEYS!!!!
Just because the one or two you may currently own doesn’t have it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. None of the 6.2 /6.5 generators I saw ever had a rubber pulley. And there is a big customer that bought many- the US Military. What- you don’t see many hmmwv engines where you are- ok. Here is a picture for you. Please not the crankshaft breaking in the hmmwvs are not even a known issue because it happens so rare.
