I have a 2000 Accord 4cy, 5spd. I was thinking about getting an underdrive pulley kit, probably aem, but I was wondering if anyone else has one, and if they noticed a difference, I was hoping to get a little more power, and maybe a little better gas mileage. If anyone has one let me know what you thought of them and if it was worth it, also what are some good brands besides AEM??

 

unorthodox racing makes some good pulley's as well... my friend put a crankshaft pulley on his focus and it helped... pay close attention to which kit you're getting there's the SS kit which has underdrive pulley's so your alternator won't put out as much juice as normal or you can just get lightweight ones that maintain the stock size but still give you gains due to the lower rotational mass...

 

aem or unorthodox is good, but like sirnasty said, there are sets that the alternator pulley even though is much lighter then the stock, but it is also bigger, and depending on the alternator, it wont put out enough juice to charge your cars battery and fire the sparkplugs. The power steering pulley will always be fine, but its only a few oz's lighter. The underdrive pulley is going to give you the largest gain, but i havent heard too many people say much on them.

 

If you live in a very hot climate, under driving the A/C is not a good idea.

 

why is not a good idea?

 

Underdriving the A/C compressor will make your A/C warmer. Especially at idle and lower engine speeds.

 

if this is a daily driver get the OEM replacement set from Unorthodox, it will keep the same diameter of all your pulleys but they are all lightweight so you still get some power gains.... And yes they do help

 

How much of a gain will you get with the lighter pulleys, OEM size? One or two? Also, speaking of alternators, anyone know where I could find a higher output alternator?

 

here's the alternator link

http://www.alternatorparts.com/

then for the pulleys go to http://www.unorthodoxracing.com/ and click on one of their products, then in the upper right hand corner select "information" then go to view dyno results, a scion tc with a stock size replacement lightweight pulley gained 4.9HP, an accord V6 with under drive system gained 20HP, if you under drive your pulleys they claim you can run a stereo up to 600 Watts (RMS) without a problem.... (most amp/reciever combos go over that) so hope this helps!

 

My stereo isnt too huge yet, its just one amp, 360 watts, plus whatever the deck puts out to the speakers. But of course it isnt enough, so Im going to upgrade it when I can afford to. I just dont want to underdrive it if its going to cause issues with my alternator.