Unorthodox Racing Underdrive Pulley
 

Hello Guys/Gals,

Debating on getting a set of underdrive pulleys.. Currently looking at the set that Unorthodox Racing makes.. Has anyone heard about this company before or have any experience with their products? Thanks.

Philodox,

Ive never used an pulley system, but I do know from other auto forums (focaljet.com - Focus) that Unorthodox Racing makes some great parts. If I was to put this type of mod on any car, it would come for U Racing.

Unorthodox Racing is known for their pulley systems, they actually post here from time to time. They are claiming that they have gotten 10.9 hp from pullies on the RX8. I did talk to my mechanic and he told me not to get pullies as they will only give me 1 to 2 hp. I'm a bit torn here.

I'm still skeptical about UR's pulley sets, especially their underdrives. The myth is using underdrive pulleys compromises certain system in the car, such as the A/C. I would be more comfortable with something like lightweight pulleys, such as the ones cortc has.

I have SR Motorsports underdrive pulleys and I absolutely love them. The engine runs smoother and I really cant notice the difference in my A/C.

what would the pullys do to your warranty ??

Does anyone else have underdrive pulleys? Do you notice any hinderance of the A/C or alternator? I want to get them, but won't unless they still function up to par. Thanks guys.

I had the UR Pulleys installed on Wednesday. So far so good, though I haven't cleared the CEL yet. The engine revs easier. The air conditioner works fine. The install will be covered in this month's RX Tuner.

Jeff

I had an UR underdrive pulley on my Probe. Not much seat of the pants difference but you had to make sure you had the smaller belt on there and keep it tight (mostly because I had a high powered stereo system), the headlights tended to dim a little at idle and at stops in traffic, especially during high accessory use such as during rain, snow, etc. I would prefer a lightweight puller set myself, but I'm not sure anyone makes one for the RX8.

I have not seen nor experienced any UR kits with the 8's however with the 7 and some other cars, they worked great.. we have not experienced any problem with AC, however we have experienced a lil trouble on high powered sound systems or a lot of accesories in the car such as TV, DVDs, Xboxs etc but that was slove by a high out alternator.

I have a set of these sitting waiting to be installed. Good stuff, good company.

I considered the SR Motorsports pulleys too, until I learned that the UR pulleys do NOT require you do remove the hub as some have said. SR is making a big deal about this but UR is doing the same thing. Second, the SRs are very expensive because they are not a machine shop and do not do a large volume in pulleys in general. UR can make pulleys of the same or better quality because they make TONS of pulleys and own all the tooling.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. :D

I'd expect a very thorough review after installation, maybe some pictures too? Just kidding, well not about the pictures :D I'd like to know how the car feels with pullies installed, I've read some reviews, but the more the better. Thanks Omicron.

Just a quick question. Where are you guys ordering from? Directly from the manufacturer?

It's a nice upgrade. No reason not to do it unless you're getting a supercharger. The CEL went away after six days.

On the Celica boards their pullies were blamed for numerous car destructions.

You'll get it! :D

They have a write up about the UR Flywheel & UR pullies in this months RX Tuner.

I have the SR units myself (couldn't wait). I have a few friends that had Preludes that blamed them for engine failures. My mechanic, who has had extensive time with DSM cars absolutely hates them. Said they made junk for the DSM cars, and their products weren't designed correctly. FWIW.

You know what? This is another place I can help. I'm going to look into this for the 8. We make pulleys now for other companys (not for the 8) we could just design a set for the 8. I'm not interested in underdrive pulleys. You think the factory doesn't know how fast to turn the accesorys? They are not wasting hp, because that costs milage and smog.

I'm sure that we can make the lightest pulleys possable consistant with reliability and manufacture feasability. I'm going to get a set of stock pulleys and see what we can make them for.

I'll get back to you on this.

Sounds good Richard, and sorry to hijack the thread, but can these lightened pullies be run with a turbo/supercharger setup? I think I remember someone posting that you can't, but that may have been in reference to the underdrive pullies. Thanks all.

I know cortc was doing a project with titanium pulleys but I don't know if he ever completed it.

I hope the aftermarket pullies will be OK with the turbo setup as I will be turboed soon, and I have the SR Motorsports units on my car.

I thought I read somewhere that UD pulleys can be run with a tubro but not a SC.

I know someone that installed the Unorthodox Underdrive Pulley.

I can see that as the SC kits would be running off the pullies so if the pullies are different sized than the stock unit (which the UR & SR Motorsports are) it would change the boost level to possibly unacceptable levels, and possibly the belt that would come with an SC kit would not fit.

did you dyno your car with them off and then with them on ??? to know if you made any improvement.

In the current issue of Super Street magazine there is an article on installing and dynoing the Unorthodox Racing pullies on the RX-8.

It has a picture by picture tutorial on how to install and a pre and post install dyno.

For the #'s

10.7 HP gain
4.5 ft. llb tq gain.

There is a dyno sheet in the article, but it was hard to tell where the #'s fell in the RPM range. There was a difference through the whole band.

To me it looked like 3-5 HP in the lower RPM with the 10HP coming on around 6500 or 7K RPM on up.


EDIT:

Not sure if it matters, but the baseline dyno was 179 HP 139 TQ

All performed on a Mustang Dyno