Bits n Pieces

Picture below of the stock QG18DE crank pulley and water pump pulley. It's the same as the QG16DE. The QG15 supposedly runs a narrower accessory - power steering and alternator belt (3 belt ribs) compared to the QG16/18. Main crank/power steering belt is 6 ribs. Let's call this 6/3pk belt for the QG15 and 6/4 pk belt for the QG16/18 belt. Now having said this the pulleys on my QG18 looks more like a 6/3 pk arrangement. Bro Fooyc what say you? Anyway be it 3 or 4 pk is no big cause for concern as one would just have to change the accessory belt.

Currently from what I know there are two manufacturers for lightweight aluminium same diameter as stock QG16/18 crank pulley. Alutec and Redline Motorsports which looks pretty similar to the Alutec cept the name. Who ripped who you decide. The Redline is bout 330 bucks or so plur or minus RM10 depending on how you bargain. You can also read up on the Redline crank pulley in the Malaysian N16 forum here. Both (Redline and Alutec) are in the 800+ grammes range which is around or less than half the weight of the stock crank pulley The Alutec is made from 7075 grade aluminium which is stronger than the more common 6061 grade aluminium used on the Redline crank pulley. I previously bought the more expensive Alutec crank pulley and you can read about it here. Never got around to installing it though. The Alutec is only avail down south in Singapore while the Redline is widely avail in the Klang Valley. In addition I also have another project to custom manufacture the crank pulley. More details to follow :)

In addition Unorthodox Racing from the US also make an underdrive (smaller diameter) crank pulley for the QG18. Basically an underdrive pulley is designed to drive the vehicle's accesories at a slower rate than stock. This increases engine horsepower by reducing parasitic drag caused by belt driven accessories such as the aircond and power steering. However too much of a good thing or underdrive will lead to decreased performance from said accessories. Whether that concerns you varies from driver to driver and car to car but IMHO I personally prefer stock diameter for a daily driver.

On a completely different topic, the gearbox mount for my RS5F70A gearbox has arrived. Picture below. The smaller part is the support rod bracket which I ordered just for kicks. Price came up to quite a bit including shipping (bout RM400 or so). These are brand new Nissan items though.

My gearbox is basically ready to go in at this point but I have not decided if I wanna mod my stock puny driveshafts or get Nissan or oem QG18/RS5F70A items or custom some performance ones. Price will be pretty massive for Nissan driveshafts or performance ones though. If you need to know it's in excess of two thousand smackers and possibly more.