5th gen. the car had a chewed up pulley when I bought it and it finally destroyed my newly. Should I go with the stock pulley or go with something aftermarket/light weight?

I'm worried about them being balanced right and what not.whats my best choice with this

 

If you buy into the hype/fear of aftermarket pulleys, then go stock. I would personally say you will be fine with an aftermarket pulley, because I have been using mine for like 7-8 years now with no issues (Unorthodox aluminum underdrive).

I think the issues only start to arise with heavily modified or high HP engines with aluminum pulleys. You can also go with something like a Fluidamper, but that is $$$...

 

Otherwise, OEM will do just fine.

 

cheapskate ebay lightweight underdrive pulley(bomz racing) user here 130,000km+++ so far so good. fyi:stock internal h22

 

What do you think about OBX? they are cheap but had anyone here used them?

 

Every OBX part I have ever seen has been sketchy....

Personally I used some of their radiator hoses for a while and they even sucked

 

lol damn.. well maybe ill just go with stock and know that everything will be fine.

 

OEM is fine for a street car.

 

buy into the hype/fear?

thats not some fabricated myth. they are called "harmonic" pullys for a reason. you WILL have more stress on you bearings with after market pulleys, fact! may or may not toss a rod bearing but driver behavior is a major factor.

EDIT: not sure if OP is talking about the underdrive pulley or not, but "worried about balance" makes me think he is.

they make aftermarket harmonic pulleys but they cost money, for good reason.
just using a aluminum pulley is foolish in my book. and for what? a little throttle response?

 

UR aluminum pulley stock specs not underdrive. Saves you about 2-3lb rotational mass and doesn't drag on your electonics like and underdrive. (If you have alot of electonics subs, tweets, etc underdrive pulley would be bad Idea)

 

All of this has been debated endlessly in many threads on many forums. Some have good results, some have bad, and I don't think anyone has proven a link between engine failure and these pulleys on Honda engines.

I also don't believe Honda calls them 'harmonic balancers' on their small internally balanced 4-cylinders like you would expect on an externally balanced V6 or V8. Just a 'crank pulley'.

 

yea it sure has, don't they all conclude with...
just like a sound wave... metal has a frequency point (harmonic) that is most harmfull or prone to wear. That balancer can disrupt or dampen that point? pretty sure its relatively high with H series, something like 7.8ish rpms instruments start showing a stronger harmonic on the crank.
at least thats what i have have been told by dynamic engineers out of Sac.
seems to me like its not worth risking, the gains form pulleys are weak, why cause more wear on your motor?

Maybe Honda didn't call em that, regardless Im pretty sure that any pully wiht a water or rumber insert is a dampening pully, aka harmonic pully.

 

I think you have a lot of good points. As far this goes, I have read in some Honda literature somewhere that the ring is to reduce the vibrations from the accessories, such as the AC kicking on or PS fluctuations. Who knows for sure

I put my UR pulley on waaaaayyy back in the ricer days and have never had an issue, so it has stayed on there

 

I am a stock pulley guy myself. But FYI you can take any pulley and get it ballanced along with crank,rods,pistons, entire clutch assembly, ect.

 

yea you can get them balanced, but at that rpm when/if the crank harmonics, being balanced isnt gonna help any... right?
only if/when your drive train or crank harmonics will the rubber help dampen anything. but i can totally see how having balanced parts (crank, pulley, rotating mass) would reduce any chance of ever getting any vibrations.

I did not know you could get your clutch assembly balanced. are there brands that come balanced? interesting! im gonna have to ask my machinist to balance my g23t clutch.

 

+1

 

OEM only, especially wouldn't get an OBX since I recently saw first hand how it ruined the end of the crank cause it didn't fit right and spun bearings on a car that was gently driven.

I'm big on stock only pulleys, you don't have to worry about them.