Hey all,

This is likely my first post here, I've been lurking a long time. Good tech here for a european vehicle, the best for this platform (and much MUCH better than other European vehicles I was looking at).

I bought a C32 one week ago. Not being one to waste time I'm taking it to Eurocharged on Thursday to install pulley kit, cm30 pump, heat exhanger, the eurocharged intake and tune...note its a big step for me to let anyone work (or even tune) any car of mine (been 15+ years)...I'm going to need therapy letting that go (although it seems it'll be in good hands).

So, here it is, they have 178 and 185 pulley options. I've done my due diligence and have read everything I could about the topic I still do not beleive I can make an informed decision.

What's the word? Will I have problems if I go to a 185?...will the h/e and pump address any concerns?...not sure if that's the case. I have key word searched evertything I can think of here and cannot see definitive evidence the 185 is better. I'm just not seeing dynos or track times to indicate the 185 is better, while with the 178 there seems no concern with heat soak, bearing wear or leaning out in high rpms as is with 185's (is that true??)

I'd love your thoughts...even if you expressed them before...perhaps with any new insights or comments. If I go with 185, will I really get more power and will it be safe to use it? Or...has it really not been out long enough for us to say at this point. Is the 185 truly superior? I like dyno numbers and all, but the strrip is the best measure...any experiences out there?

I'd appreciate no "rolleyes" saying its been beat to death...but if the case here is that its been beat to a point that there can never be consenus, then I can understand that. Thanks all. Again.."Hi...nice digs you got here." -Chris

PS: Is it pulleys or pullies (I'm thinking its the latter)....

 

Welcome - nice first post.

Like your plan - go for it. LET (Eurocharged) is a GREAT company.

Take the 185 but I would HIGHLY recommend installing the NW pulley saver kit.
That "little" bearing just spins too fast and has too much load. It just makes so much sense to increase the pulley diameter.

 

I have a C32, and have been running a 185 for 2 years and 30k miles w no problems. I also have the fastest car out there.

Ur call

 

Hi and WELCOME to the forum!

First off let me answer for Evan (Cruzinquick) before he gets a chance to. "The 178 pulley IS the fastest pulley ever! No one can beat me and my 178 pulley!" LOL!
I believe there is some truth to his answer of the smaller pulley being "faster" than the bigger pulley. Reason? Bigger pulley, more boost but not necessarily more power because of the extra heat produced from compressing the air intake.
I think that for street use you get more out of the bigger pulleys because your boost comes on sooner (lower RPM) where you spend a lot of your around town type driving. However with the bigger pulleys you are spinning everything else faster and bearing life could become an issue.
Personally I'd go with the bigger pulley and take 70GT6's recommendation and run the pulley saver kit just for added protection.
Either way you go you've still got one hell of a car!!
Enjoy!

 

Hey thanks for your feedback guys. I'll tell you now that if the 185 brings on boost sooner I'm in. I'll just pick up a pulley saver kit a bit later.

 

Oh...after a little searching 'pulleys' hit more than 'pullies'...so I'm voting for the former.

 

You're correct, the 185 will be making more boost/power than the 178 at any given rpm. That being said; here's the real question you have to answer:

If you are going to be driving the car more than racing it, ie, around town, stop and go, then get the 185 because it has a significantly stronger midrange and is more responsive and torquier. However, if you are going to regularly drag race the car, or do top speed runs, get the 178 instead. There is a yet-to-be-solved problem with the 185; be it octane, timing, heatsoak, spark, parasitic loss, etc... but the 178 is faster at the track than the 185. That being said, if you will be only racing once in a while, get the 185.

I have a C32, I've owned both pullies, and I don't care what loungn14 has to say. He is an outlier on a graph. Many of the crossfire srt6(same engine) guys are a lot faster than him anyways, and of them 90% of the fastest ten cars use the 178 pulley.

HTH.

 

Weird, I have a SRT-6 and have been running a 185 for 1.5years and 7k miles and have had nothing but problems(bad hub,sheared hub bolts,cracked WP pulley,bad "new" replacement parts, replacement parts that never show up,non returned calls,non returned emails). Maybe I should've bought a real AMG car.

On the flip side my car still runs pretty fast............but didn't stand a chance when I lined up against Cruizinquick and his 178 car in California.

 

signature below with mods yield those results pretty often, and intake manifold seem to push others into the 11's.

 

I always hear of people saying the 185 gives you heaps of problems but how many have had issues in the last year? I dont seem to hear many complaints from actual 185 owners? Just an observation

What ever you go for i can garenteed you will love it, any setup so long as you go for an intake, pulley tune will have you laughing and dominating everyone on the street or track just about. This engine is remarkable IMHO

 

I have run and tested all combinations including stacked 178.

I autocross and enjoy the 185 for the bottom end. I would recommend that a streeter, go 185 get the bottom end gains. When I developed the super cooler and pulley saver design for Rob, I was running the 178. ITs a good pulley too, and if your doing lots of high speed driving Id consider it too for the reasons stated above.

I believe that the eurocharged 185 that I tested and run ( got 354 hp at Carlisle this summer) is working because I spent hours making sure it was on right. I chased all the threads, used moly antiseeze, and verified the belt alignment before cranking it up. On any given weekend Iam shreading my tires turning near 6000 for 45 - 60 seconds at a crack, without any big pieces falling off. Autocrossing with the Yaw sensor and T/C switched off.

Some like this some like that, there is not enough difference to really make a case for one over the other in my mind. I currently have the 178 on the shelf and have no reason to get rid of it or install it.

Me for the street, down low the 185 has the go.

Enjoy the HARVEST MOON TONIGHT. WOODY

 

So based on this info the 181 pulley is best of both worlds?

 

They do not make it any more.
(If you find one it is an outdated design)

 

I should hope so with the hundreds of pounds more that the C32 weighs then the srt..... Now look at drag times on the C32. 90 percent of C32s are running the 185.

 

I have a 181mm and love it. As mentioned, you cant get one new now. If I were to wear it out(??) or break it, I would likely go with a 178mm. I chose the 181 because I didnt want to push quite as hard on the engine as the 185, but wanted more than the 178. I hit max boost occaisionally with the 181, which I think messes me up on the top end at the track(???). It all comes down to choosing what you think will be best for your use and then enjoy the power and smiles per gallon.

 

The C32 dragtimes data is interesting - but if you just look at just the quickest times, it's a bit of a crapshoot. 7 C32 timeslips are posted that are 12.5 or quicker - of those, 4 are 178's (2 are the same car/driver), and 3 are 185's (2 are the same car/driver)... they seem to alternate back and forth a bit, and the non-nitrous runs all have very similar traps (109-110). Seems to lend at least a bit of credence to the hypothesis that much of the added boost of the 185 setup is negated by it's incremental heat production.

Agree with the sentiments above that 185's are likely to be torquey street monsters, assuming appropriate cooling upgrades have been addressed. That said, 178's appear to be better suited to higher rpm situations.

 

I'm running the 181 and the Code 3 on the coupe.
If I wasn't running the 181 and the code 3 together I would be running a 185 pulley.
Running a 192 on the roadster.
Sometimes BIGGER is better!

 

While this is true you have three letters that make all the difference. C32 and not a SRT6. Weight and cold air intake limits are the two major disadvantages the C32 has. So not apples to apples sorry. Regardless whatever pulley you choose, get a datalogger and closely monitor your AFR's. Talk to Jturkel either on here or MBworld.org and get good info straight from the man who has tried it all. Always comes down to money and it's not how much you want to save. Do it right the first time. Good luck.

 

yup. weight kills us and we need a better intake setup without a doubt. none of the setups are really sufficient enough for the C, and it makes it more difficult that we have no space near the grill where the srt6 guys can put their intake and we don't have the clearance near the firewall (without cutting into it) to make something work out (i still might do that if i can figure something out, but we'll see)

yup....i've tried almost every setup: code3, code3 belt wrap, evosport 178, and 185. all different.

to testnight or anyone else. i agree with evan in saying that it is definitely important get a datalogger and wideband to monitor A/Fs. i like watching my IATs too.

as far as one pulley versus another, i never dynod with the code 3 or the 178, but have with the 185. i have never run the 1/4 with the 185 but have with the code3 with beltwrap. i have also run the 1/4 with the 178 but that was years ago in my rookie days before i realized my car was very slow b/c of a choked up intake (disgustingly black filters, i can't begin to explain how bad).

hopefully i'll report back soon with my results in the next week or so with the 185 at the track. just gotta get my needswings pulley saver kit on first. sounds like my upper and middle idler bearings are going out (not sure which one, but might as well replace both with the NW kit, right?)....and gonna get a new s/c bearing while i'm at it just in case

...well written evan

 

While I was working around the house, I got to thinking and wanted to bring up another point.

Mathematically the difference between the pulleys are not very significant.

The 178 is 114.8 percent bigger than the stock pulley.

The 185 is 119.3 percent bigger than the stock pulley.

The difference between the pulleys is about 5% which is not going to drastically alter the characterisitics of the supercharger or the boost.

Our cars are tempermental and any intake heat causes diminished performance, pushing them harder or longer will cause heat related issues.

Enjoy, Woody