Does one exist for our engines? Would a pulley from a different engine be smaller than ours? And if so, would it be a good idea with cooling? I'd guess that charging would be ok as long as you don't idle too much.

I had one on a Neon I used to have, and it made a huge difference. I thought it might make some difference with my leaning engine.

Given the RPM range in which stock or anywhere-near-stock slant-6s operate, an underdrive pulley setup would cost vastly more work, money, and hassle than it would ever be worth.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Really, unless keeping the belts from being thrown is an issue undersize pulleys are not usually worth it. Even if they are off the shelf. It's hot where I live and the ones I have seen used just made it harder to keep the engine cool and did not charge well in traffic. They only save power by not using it to spin the accessories as fast. Only at high rpm do they help by not over-spinning them.

If high rpm is throwing the belts, I would start by aligning everything and running gates belts. That should solve it most of the time below 6000 rpm.

As Dan pointed out, most slants don't rev much, I don't suppose most stockers get past 4000.

And boy...if you think your lights dim at idle now, just wait til you slow down the alternator by 20 or 30 percent!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Yeah, that's kind of what I expected to be said about it.

Hey Dan, I didn't think it would be a lot of work if a smaller crankshaft pulley existed. Then, it'd be just putting the new pulley on and a smaller belt, wouldn't it?

I know it made a difference on my Neon, but then I had power brakes, steering, AC, etc. My Dart only has the water pump and alternator, so it probably wouldn't make that much difference.

It was just a thought, I can't believe it took me over 2 years of owning my car to think of it. I guess a new baby and other things keep the mind occupied.

It's easier to run a larger water pump and alternator pulley than to run an underdrive crank pulley. I wouldn't change the pulleys for most stockers, but if you run high (numerically) rear end gears and put in a better alternator you could run the accessories slower.

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Joshua

With the Slant's main fan belt groove machined right into the inertia ring of the vibration dampener, it makes it hard to do an "easy swap" to a smaller drive pulley.

I have used a smaller bolt-on drive pulley on the drag cars and had to re-position all the other pulleys to line-up with it... kind of a pain for very little gain.
DD

I guess I should have looked at least a little bit at my engine before I posted about this. And I guess the fact that no one on the board has talked about it should have been another hint that it's not feasible.