Ok here is the story: Friday night I installed a brand new CTR crank pulley on my 1999 turbo Si. Car starts fine, runs fine etc. I take it easy on the way home and then ease into boost and do a third gear pull. Car feels fine, seems to be a little more rev-happy. Anyways I drive it around for a while Friday night, and don't drive again until Saturday night. Car runs fine all night, im going in and out of boost like I normal and the car is doing great.

We drive about 30 miles away to go to a weekly car meet - Alot of cars are on the highway i get stuck behind a truck so I down gear to accelerate by, I get at around 7K in third and just shift into 4th when the oil light comes on. I immediately pull onto the shoulder and turn the car off. I inspect everywhere under the hood that could be leaking oil, oil feed, return line, etc. and nothing. I checked the timing belt, crank pulley etc. and everything looks fine - I let the car cool down and check the oil, and the oil level is right on target. So I try to restart the car - No oil light.

I am about 3 miles away from where I had originally started, so I drive back there, meet my roommate and we start for the ride home - I did not boost the car one time after the oil light came on - Im on the highway at about 70 when the car just dies. I drift over to the shoulder once again and get out and pop the hood. (Keep in mind it is 2:00 a.m. by this point) I immediately look at the cam gears and see that the exhaust cam is almost perfectly TDC, but the intake cam looks like it rotated 180 degrees out of TDC. I tried to turn the crank and nothing. The timing belt is extremely tight.

So I get it towed home and the next morning I pull the valve cover to inspect. I removed the cams and find the exhaust cam looks like it has dug into the head. The exhaust cam was badly scarred, along with the head. I didn't have the tools at my house to pull the crank pulley yet, but from everyone I have talked to, I have been told it sounds like oil pump failure, due to the crank pulley. The car ran top notch before the crank pulley, I just replaced the timing belt, water pump, etc - So right now I am at a loss - Anyone have any ideas?

 

There is a good possibility that the CTR pulley is the culprit. Your bottom-end was balanced with the heavier Si pulley, not a lighter, non-dampened single belt pulley. It could have caused the bottom-end to get unstable at higher rpms. Pull the oil pump and you will know for sure if it was the culprit. I'm assuming you tensioned the timing belt correctly?

 

Yes timing belt tension was correct. This is the third timing belt, this same person has put on for me, and I have had no problems before. So I assume the tension was correct, but then again, you never know.

 

Sounds right to me. I wonder when people will finally stop using these pullies on street motors...... Sounds like it is time for a new motor man.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nfn15037 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds right to me. I wonder when people will finally stop using these pullies on street motors...... Sounds like it is time for a new motor man.</TD></TR></TABLE>

New motor for sure. Another project to make the people next door mad... It suxs that little 30 dollar pulley will cost you SOOO much..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nfn15037 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds right to me. I wonder when people will finally stop using these pullies on street motors...... Sounds like it is time for a new motor man.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yep, but **** happens, I have Hmotors programmed into my phone

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by G"UNIT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

New motor for sure. Another project to make the people next door mad... It suxs that little 30 dollar pulley will cost you SOOO much.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yep, we will be pissing them off - I was hoping I would never have to swap out the stock motor unless I was putting in a built one

Thanks for the input guys

 

That sucks! Good luck with the next one.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SuperTeg95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That sucks! Good luck with the next one.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I appreciate it Nick

 

That sucks Robbie...good luck on the next one....toss the pulley to!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Redline130 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There is a good possibility that the CTR pulley is the culprit. Your bottom-end was balanced with the heavier Si pulley, not a lighter, non-dampened single belt pulley. It could have caused the bottom-end to get unstable at higher rpms. I'm assuming you tensioned the timing belt correctly? </TD></TR></TABLE>


its not that.... the reason his oil pump broke is because the CTR crank pulley, doesn't provide any dampening for the crank..... harmonics are a wonderful thing...

 

on your next motor make sure you buy an oil pressure gauge, you would of seen a
problem immediately.

 

The same exact thing just happened to my friend's boosted ls hatch. Made a pass at the track and his oil light all of a sudden came on. He pulled it apart the next day to find the oil pump was shattered. He also had the CTR pulley that i told him over and over again to get rid of .....luckily he had the car towed home and the motor wasn't harmed.

 

pulley problem... nothing beats stock pulleys.... just reuse stock pulleys..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its not that.... the reason his oil pump broke is because the CTR crank pulley, doesn't provide any dampening for the crank..... harmonics are a wonderful thing... </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Redline130 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There is a good possibility that the CTR pulley is the culprit. Your bottom-end was balanced with the heavier Si pulley, not a lighter, non-dampened single belt pulley. It could have caused the bottom-end to get unstable at higher rpms. Pull the oil pump and you will know for sure if it was the culprit. I'm assuming you tensioned the timing belt correctly? </TD></TR></TABLE>

B-series motors are in-line 4 they do not get balanced with the crank pulley, rods, pistons, crank and crank pulley are balanced separate. The CTR pulley might have been responsible for the destruction, since it does not have the rubber cushioning ring in between the two parts of the pulley. In a boosted car especially there will be more stress involved on the whole rotating assembly simply cuz of more power. The CTR pulley has no ability to dampen the vibration your crank creates and that probably shattered your oil pump gear. That's why race cars have harmonic balancers not pulleys. But don't be set on the pulley being at fault, you still dont know for sure.

 

Sorry to hear bro. On my old NA setup, the CTR crank pulley held up fine for several thousand miles. Eventually it gave at roughly 20,000 miles. The only thing is, we could not point the fingers fully at the CTR N1 Pulley because the car have seen several 10-12,000RPM pulls.

There's several possibilities that could have caused it, so I say, hold the judgement until you fully disassemble and inspect the engine.

 

Yeah--I just wouldn't automatically assume that the CTR pulley did you in. What I don't get about them--is that if you want an undampened pulley--why not just get the Unorthodox Race (single belt)? Is it because people think its a "honda" product it is somehow "better" for your motor? If you are going to take a risk like that--you might as well go for something much lighter that at least you will maybe feel!! Although I would just run the stock or one of the Fluidampr pulleys, it totally not worth the risk. There have been a bunch of tests that stock pulleys actually gave MORE hp!! Because the crank harmonics of that these light pulleys cause were reaching the valvetrain, making it unpredictable--this is probably more prevalent on gear and chain driven valvetrains, though...

 

Thanks for all the input everyone - Hopefully I can dissassemble the engine later this week - I am curious to see what went wrong - Priority number 1 is getting a replacement engine, the thing that really sucks is that my ITR cams are fucked, at least the exhaust cam is, the intake cam may be okay, I will try to get pics up soon.

Robbie

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SOHC_MShue &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The same exact thing just happened to my friend's boosted ls hatch. Made a pass at the track and his oil light all of a sudden came on. He pulled it apart the next day to find the oil pump was shattered. He also had the CTR pulley that i told him over and over again to get rid of .....luckily he had the car towed home and the motor wasn't harmed. </TD></TR></TABLE>

that was me... The oil pump gear shatterd. One 1,000 miles on the parts/motor also. I looked on my other oil pumps on the other engines w/ the CTR pulley and all had excessive wear at the flat and ribbed notches that aline w/ the crank. Looks like Vibration was the cause. F*** the ctr pully. It almost cost me a built motor. Like Shue said, Im glad i cut it off immidiatly and had it towed home from the track. Ill take pics of it if you guys would look to see what the oil pump looks like...

 

I ran the ctr pulley and one day i was driving to work and was messing around on the freeway and dropped 3rd gear and all of a sudden the oil light came on. i pulled over and went to the nearby gas station, checked everything and couldnt figure out why my oil light came on and wouldnt go off. i towed it to my buddys house nearby and took the oil pump off. and this is what i found.



this was a brand new oem acura oil pump with about 600 miles on it. took the crank pully off and put a new pump on and havn't had issues since.

 

Dumb question but why they still sell these pullies if it is causing damage to peoples motors?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rod. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dumb question but why they still sell these pullies if it is causing damage to peoples motors?</TD></TR></TABLE>
They are supposedly ok to use on street cars W/O boost.

I want a fluidine (unsure on the spelling) but Im unsure who has the hook ups on them on the board.

 

Damn, I was just told that I should get the CTR pulley for my built motor. I'm glad I read this thread. I would have been pissed if something like this had happened. Who sells a pulley with a dampener??

 

I have a Fluidamper I bought from Arturbo, everything is fine after 4000 boosted miles.

 

On the contrary

I used to own a 98 Integra GS... turbocharged, with unorthodox pulley set...included light weight crank pulley. I had those pulleys on the motor for well over 20k miles, and had no problems what so ever. Maybe its because the b18b doesnt rev as high?