flexus

Hey! I just bought a '96 SS and was looking into stage1 mods. There are going to be some races soon in town and i'd like to give my car an edge.

Can anyone tell me if these pulley kits are worth the money, actually do something? And if they do give you some horses, will they cause any premature wear on the external engine accessories? Will there be any unpleasant side effects? Will i have weaker steering, brakes, battery will run out?

Please give me your experiences! Thanks a lot, Felix.

Also, which one of the kits on this site would be best? Maybe you can recommend something better?
http://www.lmperformance.com/c/6/2.html

z28trick

i have heard of people putting underdrive pulleys on their cars and having no problems at all and i have heard of people doing that and their batteries would die very often. so i dont know what to say

WS Sick

I have had (on different LT1 cars) the Asp Pulley and the March pulley, Both gave a few horsies (ie less than 10) and both charged lower at idle, as soon as the gas is touched the volts came up. Now both of my experiences were with the crank pulley only.

SentimentalValue

I have the march pulleys on my car (one for the crank and one for the alternator). If you get a set, I would get one that has a pulley for the alternator.

On the same note, I don't believe that underdrive pulleys help much at all. I could be wrong, but the only reason I still have mine on is because I can't get the aluminum crank pulley to come off of my hub .

What all do you have done to your car. I believe there is something else that would prove better to help performance for about the same price.

flexus

Thanks for the input! Waiting on more oppinions!

Right now my car is a bone stock '96 SS. What can you suggest i do for starters? How should i procede? So far these pulleys seem pretty much waste of money

WS Sick

The second pulley would go on the alternator, the big one on the crank.

With the alt pulley it will speed up the alt at lower rpms to help get some of the low rpm charging back.

Nitriding is a hardening process on steel.

flexus

I've studied the ASP Racing site, and pretty much to my surprise, it sais there that the 2 pulley kits have "full charge" at higher RMPs than single pulley ones. Take a look for yourself:
93-97 LT1 350 34% Crank 950 RPM
93-97 LT1 350 34% Crank15% Alternator 1050 RPM
93-97 LT1 350 23% Crank 800 RPM
93-97 LT1 350 23% Crank15% Alternator 900 RPM

My first guess was what you said, but on the site it's different

Severous01

if you want to waste your money, just get the stock replacement pullies in billet. they're lighter and will reduce rotating mass...and they look cool...and you'll get the warm fuzzies of having more HP...

or, you can spend that money on intake/exhaust/suspension mods and really put the money where it should go for starters.

the first thing i would do if i had to do it over would be...
1 subframes ... about 200 bucks
2 shock/spring package from sam, and any other suspension components he suggests
3 exhaust, dynomax or mufflex ... 200 for used stainless headers, 200 for new exhaust
4 CAI (used from the forum) less than 100 bucks

and that should be good for about a grand and for starters.

Injuneer

Dyno test of U/D pulley..... 0.70 peak HP, a little more on average, and a small bit of torque.

http://www.ws6.com/mod-2.htm

flexus

Ok i'm convinced now But please, would someone translate what severous suggested? I have no idea what half the terms he used means Links would be a real help too.

Thanks everyone for your oppinions!

Z95m6

I'd get headers first. It'll be like a whole new car. You can't believe how bad the exhaust manifolds are on these cars. You already have a good start because you have an SS this gives you a better intake setup and a catback exhaust. I would go with some long tube headers, or at the very least some 93-95 shortie headers. the early shortie headers flow so much better than 96+shortie headers.
http://www.ws6project.com/user_stor/...83d4e1f68b6084
Also you might want to get a computer tune its about $100 and it'll get you some power and get rid of SES lights caused by going with long tube headers. Also with it you can change shift points if you have an auto, raise rev limiter, get rid of skip shift if you have a stick. Is your car an auto or 6 spd. A torque converter will also make a huge difference if you have an auto car.
www.madz28.com

flexus

Mine is manual convertible, 6 speed. Skip shift really is a pain

Please suggest header model, links, something compatible with my current setup (cats etc), i'm willing to go with best performance but i'll stay legal... or maybe you can suggest something that goes together with high flow cats, everything up to muffler... anyway please give me links for possible setups. Thanks a lot!

P.S. Hehe you edited with links right when i posted asking for them...i'll look into those, they look great!!!

Z95m6

Your car should have a great exhaust system on it, as it probably has the 2 on the left exhaust or 2 tail pipes on the left side. This is a great flowing exhaust. You just need to change your Headers back to the cat back exhaust. What are your emissions laws or where do you live?

flexus

I live in Romania, we do have emissions laws, i don't want to sweat it by removing cats. Those headers you suggested, do they fit without modifications? They seem less expensive and if they don't create any adaptation problems and are really an improvement as you say, i will pretty sure buy them! My exhaust tips ARE 2 pipes on the left side of my car's butt. But as far as i know one of the previous owners changed/modified the muffler itself (make it louder or something).

P.S. I do illegal street racing and i don't want to give the cops any reason to pick on me if they catch me around those sites.

Z95m6

Headers are the biggest performance gain "bolt ons" you can get for an LT1. In some cases people report close to 20-30rwhp gains with a nice header setup. Thats alot better than the pulleys which don't even get you 1 rwhp. I don't know the emission laws in Romania, but i'd try to find out for sure because the last option you want to have to take is 96-97 style shortie headers because those offer the least gain with the biggest headache. With those headers i posted a link to you can keep cats but you're forced to move them a little farther back in the exhaust system. In the United States this is illegal. Its illegal to modify the cats in any way over here even though you could move the cats and install more cats and in theory be more environmental friendly. Do they do visual inspections where you live? or just sniff your exhaust?
I remember when i first got my car and i added a cold air intake and felt no gain. I then added a catback and felt no gain. The next mod i did was headers and whoa a huge seat of the pants gain in power. It had me smiling for a long time.