LucidBD

I know its ALOT, but READ EVERYTHING!
1st i would like to say, Sticky this to FAQs. YOU CANNOT DO THIS ALONE! GET A FRIEND OR SOMEONE TO HELP! It would be very hard to do alone.
this is not the easiest install for a noob to attempt.
it wasnt the hardest thing to install but it does take some know how and with this HOW TO, i hope people appreciate it and can use it to do the install theirselves.

2nd, thank you ZPI for being there to answer my calls and getting me this pulley so fast. I ordered late Friday afternoon and got it Tuesday before Noon.

HERE WE GO!
1st jack up the car! if you dont have Jack stands......GET THEM!! dont risk trying to hold the car up with a stock or aftermarket jack!.



the stock crank pulley is on the passenger side.
go ahead and take the passenger wheel off.
now you will see a small panel on the side wall. you must remove 2 Screws and like 4 caps. there are 2 of the caps that are hidden, if you dont want to get to them. you can just pull the plastic back. like shown




Now you can try to loosen the bolt on the stock pulley with hand tools but TRUST ME! they dont work out to well. put the car in gear to keep the pulley from spinning when trying to loosen.

HAND TOOLS DONT WORK WELL FOR THIS!

i recommend going to Autoparts store and getting a quick Impact set. or use a friends...or get in professionaly installed.
HERE IS WHAT I USED


Now most people dont have this, or dont wanna go out and spend this kinda money.
well i bought the Impact wrench in a set and borrowed the compressor from a nabor.
now it takes some work but i found that you should be able to get it off with about 135PSI.. also use a little bit of WD-40. spray around the back of the pulley and let set for a few minutes. it will work its way in.

dont try to pull it out just yet.

Now here is the part where you gonna need a friend.
Looking at the engine bay from the top you can see this part in the midst of the pulleys. you will need a 19mm socket head and wrench.


you will want to have your friend pull on the socket wrench as hard as he can towards the front of the vehicle. this is the tensioner bolt and will release the tension on the belts allowing you to remove the stock pulley.

Here is a side by side comparison. Holding the Stock in 1 hand and the ZPI in the other. is SIGNIFICANT!


Now, what you wanna do is place the new ZPI pulley into the belt and then have your friend pull on that tensioner bolt again so that you can get the new pulley into its place.

Keep in mind the position of the inlet where the pulley fits into the groove.


when you get it FULLY into position it will look Almost FLUSH.
make sure its straight with the rest of the pulleys aswell.
This may take some brute force because it will NOT be easy as just popping it in.
MAKE SURE ALL OF YOUR BELTS ARE ON, TIGHT , AND IN THE CORRECT POSITIONING....i cannot stress this enough.

once you are 100% sure, your ready to screw the bolt back on.
i recommend cleaning the threads 1st of any WD-40 or dirt and grime.



now, make sure you have done everything that should be done, removed and replaced before starting your car. I was not 100% about this but i did it anyways while i cleaned up the garage. Start your car and let it run about 5-10minutes before putting it all back together. make sure it runs and NO check engine light comes on.
after that time shut the car OFF. and put the plastic panel back on, then the wheels and and drop the car down from the stands. YOUR ALL DONE!

take it for a little test drive!
i take no blame for ANYTHING that you do to your vehicle, i am just helping you out!


REVIEW:
i was very excited about getting this Lightweight Crank Pulley.
ZPI has had nothing but AMAZING customer service and aftermarket parts for the Scion tC! 1st off, Thank you to Keisha who is the best person to ever have to talk to on the phone and order parts from. Kenny, Nester, Joey and Brian are all awsome!
good group of guys that will do anything they can to help a person out.
during the install it was a little hard with out having Impact tools
i would NOT attempt this without Impact tools.
should only take about 30 minutes TOPS if you have all the proper tools!
so plan ahead.
I was not expecting to get my head thrown back into my seat when accelerating but there is a noticable gain with this pulley that has a great feel to it.
from the start of 1st gear til you hit 4th gear you can feel and see the quicker acceleration on the RPMs and going down the road. im not sure of the % but it supposed to be right about 15-20% freed up acceleration. gets rid of that Parasitic drag on the car.
my friend that helped me install this has a tC also and in the passenger seat he noticed a difference, and decided he want one now.. lol
this pulley is worth the money! great product from ZPI, good quality and performance value.

thanks ZPI, look forward to more aftermarket parts from you!

LucidBD

dunno why it went into Drag Coefficient...MOD pleas move to tC Powerhungry!

thanks

mr_lore

Awesome! now maybe I'll get off my lazy ___ and do mine thats been lying in the trunk of my tc for a month now.

DuMa

hmm doesnt seem as hard as i thought it would be.

how much does this cost? doesnt it affect long term reliability?

edit: how much lighter is the zpi pulley compared to stock?

LucidBD

i believe the weight for the stock pulley is 4.5 Pounds where the ZPI pulley is 1.1 Pounds.
holding 1 in each hand you feel a BIG difference.
as for pricing you should check out www.thescionstore.com
not sure if shipping is all the same or not.
as for long term. i dont think it affects it at all. unlike the NST pulley where it is actually smaller in size and you need to buy a new smaller belt. the ZPI pulley doesnt mess with the size...just weight. so it spins faster than stock, getting rid of "parasitic drag".

Sam_J84

well ya the NST one is smaller and lighter. but it spins alot faster than the ZPI racing one. and now they make a water pump pulley and alternator pulley so your accessories will also run at normal speeds with the crank pulley.

DuMa

i dont see pricing on scionstore.com. how much did you pay for em

87na

Very nice write up dude, well done

You should certainly feel faster acceleration from the new pulley,
almost everyone who installs one of these pulleys notices a difference.

Now as far as a comparison between this and the NST crank pulley from www.NonStopTuning.com here goes...

There are two benefits to aftermarket crank pulleys:

1. Light-weight aftermarket pulleys are often lighter than the stock pulley,
I believe both the NST and ZPI pulley weigh about 1lb. Less rotating mass leads to faster acceleration and better throttle responce.

2. Underdrive aftermarket pulleys slow down accessories,
By definition underdrive means to slow down. So underdrive pulleys send a little bit less HP to the accessories and more to the drive wheels.

So in theory, an underdrive crank pulley SHOULD put down more HP than just a light-weight pulley if put on a dyno.
It would be very nice to see some sort of comparison from a third party, but that will probably never happen because we probably have some
NST supporters and some ZPI supporters on this one. Doesnt really matter I guess, both are great options.

Last but not least, as far as I know both pulleys sell for under $150,
which leads to one of the best bang for the buck mods in the industry.

Best of luck to everyone

nester

It's theScionStore.com

The crank pulley is $135 + shipping. Since it's such a light package, shipping is pretty reasonable. ;)

LucidBD, great writeup.. :D

hahaitzskippy

lo bux???

do you have anything to say? :D

maximus96

excellent! what about this harmonic balancer thing and that the-lack-of-it-will-damange-the-engine-in-the-long-run business?

The_Instigator

Its questionable because nobody has had one on a tC for long enough to know what it could damage, but I know I wont be running one.

Marshall

Great Write-up.

Does your car feel like it slows down faster after you let off of the excellerator?

The_Instigator

LOL sorry but that sounds like some shareware add-on to Microsoft Excel.

Its "accelerator" FYI, not trying to be an @$$, but I thought it was funny.

Limey

We need the link to the last thread where lo_bux went into great detail what the downsides of doing this would be for the car.

Paraphrasing....

"It probably won't do anything straight away to your car, but I wouldn't want to be the one buying it second hand from you in 3 years"

I won't be putting one on until someone brings out one with the harmonic balancing done correctly.

I'd rather spend an extra $100 and have something that won't destroy any and every engine part slowly.

The_Instigator

Do you mean this thread: https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...87508&start=25

where he says this:

Limey

Actually I'll take it back irt was Enginefier that I was paraphrasing.

For me, when two of the people who's opinions I most respect on these forums say they wouldn't touch this for a daily driver, I won't go near it.

But each to their own, you pays your money you makes your choices.

Kaeon

Images transfered, Put into FAQ

miamibusta69

good WRITE UP i think ill take a copy of this with my to my install shop just incase !

thanks

ZPIracing

these engines are internally balanced...installing this is no diffrent that installing a lighten flywheel. We would not sell it if we thought it would damage it.