Well, I got the UR crank pulley installed by a great shop that I found. Titan19 and some others said I wouldn't be sorry, and you were right. It was less than $300 installed and I compare the "seat of my pants" gains to the CAI I had installed, so it was well worth it.
Anyway, the vibrations and minor noise side-effects that some were worried about are entirely absent. I have no issues running any of accessories at all. I, again, didn't get the other pullies as the guy told me they were entirely cosmetic and had no benefit in my set up, though would make the steering feel different (I love the steering in this car) and have more of an accessory affect. Additionally, I needed new belts, which worked out well, since for the last two weeks or so, the belts squeaked from a stop with really hard acceleration.
I really don't know how to quantify the difference in acceleration and the feel of the car. It seems "free-er". Sounds corny, but it does. The Florida heat and humidity have sapped the car as of late, but now it is back to a nice hard chirp in second gear with WOT, even in the middle of the day (TL-S auto).
My friends with an Audi and WRX have ridden and driven the car and they find it more different than I do. My friend described the response of the acceleration as more "violent" in that it seems it is quicker to VTECH. Right or not, I dunno. The extra umph allows me to keep up with his '02 WRX with an exhaust on the highway, as before he slowly would creep away. From a stop it's still no contest. I leave the Audi more than I did before so that makes me happy I suppose. I think the engine is spinning free-er, and to me the freakin' CAI seems even louder and more obnoxious under WOT. I scared some poor lady to death in her Z3 with the top down after she pulled in front of me. I slapped it into second and blew around her. I thought she was gonna crash into the concrete onramp barrier when her neck literally snapped left when I hit VTECH...

 

Teach the nice lady a lesson R . BTW, what exactly is the pully supposed to do?

 

the pulley is lighter than stock and also underdrives about 20%. Its god for a decent amount of hp and torque, aslo the revs come up and drop way faster

 

'zactly...Most of this is done by underdriving and by the fact it weighs like 10pounds less than stock.

 

to those that did the install themself, how hard was it?

 

the dealer is gunna f*(& you on this mod.. they don't like pulleys on the crank... no good

 

What? Why don't they like the pulleys now?

 

i heard its not so good for your car too. dun know why though

 

they say they do not like to mess with non-warranteed products. The dealer I use was going to do it, but backed out. Thats ok though, because I found a cheaper person to do it. And he is good too. Pro-Tek has done all my mods except headers, and i wish they had done those too. Like I said before...get in good with your dealer's service manager and it will help a lot.

 

Supposedly this doesn't happen w/ the Unorthodox pulley set, but sometimes having a lightened pulley on the crankshaft can cause the engine's natural rotational resonance (i really have no idea what the REAL terminology is .. someone else can clarify) to be offset... causing potential engine damage ..

Also, somepeople say that the pulleys kill your alternator, though I don't know how.

I searched under "pulleys" in the CL-S forum and found over 30 threads with TONS of information...

Anytime you mess w/ the engine directly, the dealer no likey .. exhaust and intake .. it's ok cuz it's just air flow ...

 

do they make lightweight pulleys that dont underdrive?

 

njtls: No, not yet...
The dealer would not install my pulley. I knew that as it was not a Comptech part and they won't touch a thing that isn't. I happened to get mine in black to make it at least semi-stealth for service visits...
The main issue with the crank pulley, is this (as I understand it and I am not an expert): some cars have a harmonic balancer located on the pulley itself. Without this, you could see damage to your engine. The CL-S guys, who are overly qualified to know, put it this way: Stock pulley should make engine last about 200-250k miles. With the upgraded pulley, expect to shorten the life of your engine by 20 to 25%--IF INDEED there is truly a problem with the pulley (then you could still have recourse vs. UR in all reality). The UR pulley hasn't been tested in this manner over the effect on the engine for our cars. The Accord pulley has and seems fine according to the accord guys who've had them long before we have.
I won't keep the car for more than 120k miles and still have the stock pulley which required less than an hour for my shop to install. No biggie...
The other pullies can affect your alternator and shorten it's life too--especially if you are running other draining things such as upgraded stereos, etc...