Well, I decided to upgrade my supercharger pulley....

There's a decent amount of information on Powerhouse and the pulleys they make for our Jags. I chose to go with the popular 10% upper pulley, and I feel like I should take a minute to discuss the process of installing, because it was VERY different than what I thought it would be. Powerhouse was super casual about it being an easy 2-3 hour job. Well haha nothing is ever easy, especially with Jaguars (what makes it fun!).

First, the "super detailed instruction sheet with photos" did not arrive with the package like they said it would. I ordered the pulley off of their eBay store because Powerhouse does not deliver to the states, about a total of $350 for the 10% pulley. It did arrive super quick with great packaging just not the instructions 😂. Not a problem because it's straight-forward right?

Well, first thing's first. Hood in service mode, and fan housing has to be removed along with that top coolant hose to get to the belt tensioner. Nothing's ever too easy. The real issue began when we started removing the pulley. Once you remove the safety bolt, a normal pulley puller will not work. If I had instructions, I would have planned ahead and got the special "ribbed pulley puller". Four trips to Autozone later, we found a puller that dug a little deeper into the grooves and used a good amount of heat to remove. The other pullers put too much pressure on specific points and actually chipped the original pulley pretty good. Now we were at the point of no return. I had driven about 2 hours to a friend's for this fun three hour project, which we started at 3 pm.

For me, the biggest misunderstanding I had about his project was the amount of material that needed to be cut off the snout. I was told by a man on the phone at Powerhouse, that you could easily sand the snout down a little bit and fit the pulley. If you sanded for 3 days in a row, maybe. More than half of the material needed to be removed, something a Dremel can't do. Even with the coarsest grit I could find, you end up polishing it more than cutting. We ended up using a grinder and smoothed it off with the Dremel. A fly cutter would be preferred for this job, but be prepared to cut off a lot, about a 1/3 inch of material.

We popped the pulley into the oven and heated it to 400 degrees, and got it on the second try. Metal dust is everywhere in the engine bay...another downside of sanding I didn't think about. Re-attached everything including a new belt, and blew the engine bay out with a leaf blower. I have already upgraded the intercooler pump to the Bosch 010 model, as well as flushing the coolant. 3 a.m. and the job was finally done!

If the 12 hour job wasn't icing on the cake, the first "acceleration test" was performed once the traffic light turned green, but with an undercover police officer behind us. Of course, I thought my passenger was keeping an eye out, but he was "listening for knocking sounds" 😂. We were here, there, and gone. So much so, that we left the cop struggling to keep up, so he switched on his sirens "pursuit style". I'm pretty sure he liked the Jaaaag, because we were let off with just a warning (Btw, I have full 3 inch pipes from the cats back, so she is incredibly loud). But oh boy, those 12 hours of pain and suffering were well worth it! I've never been thrown back in the seat like this, other than in a Tesla. I still highly recommend going with the Powerhouse pulley, because just by holding it you can just feel how high quality that pulley is. Wow what a difference it makes, all in all super happy with it. If you are thinking about installing an upgraded pulley you should do it! But, what you definitely need for this job is 1.ribbed pulley puller 2.fly cutter 3.your drivers license, insurance, and registration.

 

hi JagWRLD!

I hope you are well. its some time after you have installed the 10% pulley. how have your JAG been with it? I was just about to make the same, but am now put down by some people that 10% pulley will make too much heat and in the end it can even damage the engine...
Other question rised was - that indeed you can accelerate once, but just after if you want to repeat it the engine and air inside is too hot and you loose the power instead of getting it... can you comment as a 10% pulley user?

 

I also run the supercharger on my 2000 Xkr with the Powerhouse 10% pulley. Just love it. Adds lots of more torque midrange, some hp at top end too but its the grunt midrange that really made the difference. Havent noticed any heat problems

 

hi Higgins! yes you have a 4.0 engine and its a little bit different then on 4.2... anyone who has 4.2 has this 10% pulley installed?

 

l went the larger crank pulley route, very happy as l believe the smaller blower pulley can have reduced surface area issues. Mine is also on a 4 litre, no heat issues.
The heat situation on a 4.2 litre car may differ as far as the smaller blower pulley is concerned due to the fact you already have a larger crank pulley than the 4 litre.