im not sure who john is.. but if you go look at all the performance packages offered by Lingenfelter they include an ASP underdrive pulley system
... and their packages are backed by a Lingenfelter 3 year/ 36,000 mile warranty, if it was that bad for the enignes.. wouldn't they just not include that cheap mod...?

 

John would be the owner and founder of LPE, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering. He died back in 2003? and the company is now run by others. I believe they are harmonic dampers in those kits btw or atleast some of them.

 

I believe that most or all ASP pulleys have the balancer built-in to them if needed.

I had them on my mustang, and the balancer was built in.

 

maybe unorthodox has a balancer or could make one too..

i emailed then agian.. to find out..

 

The underdrive pulley is a bad idea. But, there is no problem with running the aftermarket accessory pulleys. As long as you stay conservitive with the sizing. Really not much of a need on the IS tho. The powersteering pump is electric and I'd never slow down the water pump. Besides, there is also the increased maintenance to the S-belt. Instead of belt changes every 50k try every 15k with pulleys.

 

they make crank pulleys that are not underdrive too.. there standard sizing

 

i said this to shawn at Unorthodox Racing..
"Well lots of people were excited and willing to help get this pulley kit in production.. unitl some people have been saying how bad undampened pulleys are. Some companies have the balancers built in. If you guys can do that or if thats how your products come then let me know.. If it is then we can forsure get this kit in development."

he responded with this "The some that have been saying undampened pulleys are bad don't know whatthey are talking about, we have been selling our products for 11 years withno problems. High power high RPM race motors use dampers, 99% of street cars driven don't make enough power to need one."

so is there anyone in or near Copiague, NY thats willing to let them check out your car?

 

That is a load of BS, I cant think of any car that dosent have a need for a dampener.

 

The only time I bought an underdrive crank pulley was for my 1992 acura legend. I bought the ASP 1-piece solid pulley. The only reason why I was not against the idea on the Acura was because the OEM pulley was solid piece already with no harmonic dampener. However, mid-way through the legend's lifecycle, Acura installed a different pulley with a dampener on it.

On these newer cars that comes with a harmonic dampener, I would not touch it. a few ponies at the wheel is not worth the disaster that may come alone.

 

if they are so disastrous why do so many people use them.. and say they like them?

i posted a topic about this on my.is and the first response was this..

"Ive had the UR lightened pulleys for 4 years on my crank, water pump, alternator and power steering. Felt power right away and no it did not damage my engine."

i thought me finding out about this product and possibly getting it started in development would be cool.. all of you guys are a bunch of haters..

there will never be any performance parts for this car.. all anyone will do is whine about it voiding warranty or breaking the engine.. b/c u guys know from experience right.. i mean u've put a pulley set on your is350 and had problems right?....

 

why do so many people use nitrous or add turbo's/superchargers to NA engines that weren't made to handle it.

Why? -> because they can. Some people have good results with minimal issues. Some people have disastrous issues and complain about it. And other people have disastrous issues, and just suck it up and pay for it. Or, they use it as excuse to upgrade their engine even more (ie-forged internals, etc). And others could care less about their warranty, and will just do it even if it does void it.


1) When you are dealing with modifications to cars, most people take into account their experience with OTHER cars that they have worked on previously.

2) you have to keep in mind that this is not a cheap car, with regard to price to buy and price to fix. It's not a honda civic or ford mustang that has had a cult following for ions and ions that people know how to fix, and for which parts are relatively cheap due to the aftermarket that's out there (yes, it's a vicious circle)


I agree with you that with all the complaining that people do, whether it be for price and/or lack of performance gains, that there will never be an aftermarket for our vehicle. In fact, I said it in my first post regarding these pulleys.

But, people are definitely not going to put inferior mods on their cars. Now, if these had the balancer LIKE THEY SHOULD (according to the tech people on this forum), I'd think there be a lot less reluctance.

Every mod *could* cause a problem. But, if it's not made properly for the car, the likelihood is much greater.


edit: well, I thought I had posted about how you should go visit them if you can, but it was in regard to the JET performance chip:

Here's my post from that thread:

 

you guys should have bought the 335 if you wanted aftermarket parts. its not like you werent aware that your buying a lexus. Now im not saying there is anything wrong with wanting more performance but i mean if you wanted performance from the getgo you would have picked something else rather than the IS. i bet most IS owners bought the car for its luxeries and gadgets rather than for its aftermarket abilities

 

yea i understand, still so many people are wanting turbos and superchargers or whatever.. knowing they can be bad for our cars, so why cant the people that want mods go for this one, which could easily happen if everyone wasn't hating on it..?

but no that wasnt me who brought up the jet chip idea.. i knew that was bogus..

 

I didnt have a choice, the car was a gift.. which I am extremely thankful for.. but that doesnt mean I dont want to mod it..

 

The uncrackable ECU, 12:1 compression, and complex dual injector and dual VVTI engine setup are the reasons there's no (useful) supercharger or turbocharger for the 2IS... especially the second two... "hating" don't enter into it.


The TOMs kit in Japan is a great example of why this is true, they CAN mess with the JDM ECU, and they still don't manage more than 5-something pounds of boost on their supercharger kit for the 2IS.... so about 40-50 whp for nearly 10k. It'd be nonsensical for companies here to invest R&D to try and offer that kind of mod, especially when it pushes the total vehicle cost near an IS-F for _less_ power and reliability.


On a lot of other cars most of the cheap/easy mods are simply "fixing" things that were poorly designed from the manufacturer... (a more open intake or exhaust for example)

The fact of the matter is, the ISx50 is a very well engineered car from the factory. This is one of the reasons I bought it. Others seem upset about it though.

Think about it another way... the BMW 335 needs two turbochargers to make 6 -less- horsepower than the IS350 does without any turbos.

Yes the BMW does offer ways to then turn up the power further at low cost- but the stock reliability ain't great there and it'll only get worse with more boost. Not to mention when I checked a decently equipped 335 (which still wasn't nearly as nicely equipped as my 350) cost a lot more than I paid too.