My local mechanic installed the pulley set today and said it was a real "*****". They had to pull a motor mount to get the starter out of the way. He charged my $192 for the job, and I feel that was a very fair price. I plan to drop off a $20 out of sheer guilt due to his busted knuckles. It took three of them to perform the 90 after the initial torque spec was reached.

My only performance mods so far are the NW single intake and the 181, but it already feels night-and-day different than what I drove home two weeks ago. The part-throttle power is sick. It easily breaks the tires lose on dry pavement without going WOT. Clearly it's going to be much quicker than before when I really get on it. I'm having to baby it right now due to a dead IC pump and no tuning cable (both are en route).

Hopefully the Eurocharged cable, Johnson pump, and NW catch can will arrive soon, and I'll finish piecing the puzzle together and hit the track. I got a quote of $300 to install the Phantom Grip, so I'm fairly certain that will be next as soon as I explore the XF's current traction limitations.

In summary, this is a very quick and exciting car and I enjoy every minute behind the wheel. No, it's not brutally fast, but it's no slouch either.

 

do me a favor and take it back in a day or and ask to have a retorque just to ensure the bolt isn't backing out.
after you tune and replace the pump you might consider a n/w supercooler. the 181 is going to generate a large amount of heat and the least you will need an e55 h/e or bigger. it will help keep things cool. also look at the wavetrac thread. you can get on a standby list . it will be the last diff you will have to install.

 

yea make sure they torqued the pulley all the way i had the 185 and my machanic didnt i ran into bigggggggggggggg problems luckly it was covered under warenty

 

I'd love to have the torque checked, but that's not a realistic expectation of a shop. It takes the same amount of labor to check the torque as it does to install the pulley. I don't know many shops that will do that for free. Thanks for the suggestion though, as I know you mean well. I'm still scared to death the pulley is going to spin, but I trust them more than any other shop.

As for the HE, I'll upgrade it as soon as I determine my AIT's at the end of the 1/8th mile.

I was on the Wavetrac group buy when I owned a SRT8 Jeep, but I'm just not going to spend that much on something I feel the PG will adequately accomplish. I agree the wavetrac is bullet proof, but my budget isn't.

Thanks for the great info. Hopefully we can meet up with some of my buds at Beech Bend or The Hill (Music City Raceway) this season.

 

As long as they didnt forget to put the key back in the keyway when they put the pulley on you should not have worry about the pulley spinning. You could conceivably shear that key, but that would be unlikely in most cases.

I am not sure how they would check the torque after the install... the spec is 148ft/lbs + 90 degrees. That 90 degree puts you at an unknown torque number..... so what would they check for???

Enjoy you car and don't get too crazy until you get a tune and as Krazy says, a bigger HE would be in order too....

 

Thanks. I'll keep my foot out of it until the tune and wideband are installed.

 

Wow, it sounds like too much work to replace crank pulleys. I'm sure glad the easy to intstall Code-3 pulley was available when I modded mine. Good luck and can't wait to see your track numbers!

 

No need to lift the motor. The starter was easy once you figured it out. The trick is you have to take off the intake and go from the top to get to the top starter bolt. LOL! Water under the bridge now, have fun.

 

The crank pulley is a huge PITA to install, but options are slim these days. I heard a rumor that Eurocharged was working on smaller SC pulley, but I'm too impatient to wait.

By the way, I'm sure my times won't come close to 11's, so there won't be much for you to see.

 

My mechanic was baffled why there isn't a smilar tool to lock the flywheel from the plastic cap on the upper bell housing. I saw the cap, but it never occured to me that there was a tool to immobilize it that way. If there was, the job would have been a piece of cake and take 30 minutes.

 

I just don't get why the pulley causes so many installers such a problem
I can run to my car pull the fan shroud pull the belt pull the pulley and replace it in less than 20 minutes. I would be more than happy to demonstrate if the "Wager" is worthy...


PS, Less than 20 may be 15 minutes

 

Removing the shroud and belt is a 2 minute job. The problem is keeping the crankshaft from turning. You must just pry a bar against the teeth of the flywheel through the upper opening in the bell housing if your're doing the job that fast. Even as I wrote that I find it hard to believe you're doing that, so spill the beans.

 

"Strap" Wrench around pulley,
Carboard or like behind Radiator,
Impact wrench with 27mm socket,
Lots of air,
Reverse process...
Ta Da

 

You're a braver man than me. Clearly you've got a beast of an inpact and one monster of a compressor.

 

I was using a chicago pnemateic but had to go to my father in laws' Snap-On because I have "Crapp" for air and the Snap-On is far more efficient.
You do need a good gun because of the lack of area behind the radiator. The cheaper guns are usually quite a bit larger than the expensive high torque ones.
Hope to get some new air in the future.
Mike

 

Dont ever do this. Ever.

 

Agreed.

 

Nevermind
I recant

 

I don't think he meant it that way, at least I didn't. He specifically quoted what I proposed as a farfetched way of switching the pulley quickly. He said never to do it that way, not the way you actually performed the swap. In all fairness, his remark had nothing to do with you. As I stated, it was directed at me. See below:

" You must just pry a bar against the teeth of the flywheel through the upper opening in the bell housing if your're doing the job that fast."

 

Nevermind...