udp or not to udp???

lucius · Post by **lucius** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:55 am

Was debating getting a UDP from well, anyone, and a good buddy of mine warned me against it. he's quite the guru on cars, so i value his opinion. his claim is that the lack of a rubber damper on aftermarket pulleys (look at your stock ones, see rubber in pulley) is detrimental in that there is no harmonic damping, which is could cause premature wear/failure of the the main bearings??? honestly, his point is valid, but i'm wondering how critical it would really be... the manufacturer of the pulley could use the tightest tolerances, but is there enough room for error in mounting the pulley that the tollerences could be null? open to opinions. thanks neon bro's

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:02 am

quite a few guys have them here, and they haven't reported any problems. I don't really know how long they have had them as that seems to be the most important factor. If there was gonna be any damage, at what point would it present itself?

so i think a better question is: how long has everyone had their udp (mileage wise) and has anybody noticed any probles so far?

as for myself, i will be installing mine this evening.

p8ntballah413 · Post by **p8ntballah413** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:07 pm

i have heard that there is no need for concern with a neon b.c that crankshaft pulley doesnt have anything to do with harmonics.......correct me if im wrong, but i swore i heard it on here somewhere, i havent had mine long, maybe 500 miles or so, no problems

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:45 pm

The point is valid. Despite it, i have yet to hear a SINGLE problem from any UDP user on any board or real life. So in theory, yes it would be bad. But it seems that people are making it work despite theory!

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:13 pm

I put my MPx pulley on a couple months ago, and I put about 25K miles on my car a year. When I take my bottom end apart to rebuild it in a year and half or so, I'll see how everything looks as far as main bearings go. It's only 1 1/2 years away...just be patient.

I'm assuming it would take a LONG time (like 100K miles or more) for the lack of rubber in a pulley to cause enough consistent wear to significantly damage the main bearings.

lucius · Post by **lucius** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:36 pm

gonna have to say my instinct is in line with what you guys are saying. on the engine rebuilding note, i could justify a new udp now, and when I do the rebuild on my motor any excessive wear will be evident. all for the sake of RESEARCH! ...it is the honorable/scholastic thing to do

SilverSRT05 · Post by **SilverSRT05** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:54 pm

aftermarket UDP are for the most part balanced very well. This would not be one of the main causes for main bearings going bad. The rubber does dampen some but not enough to really do anything critical.

Heres the deal. No 2 cylinders will have the same amount of compression due to varing amounts of blow-by(air and fuel blowing by the piston rings and into the crankcase) and the condition of plugs and the amount of "spark" they are getting. so the pistons that are having the least amount of blow-by and the greatest amount of spark are getting the most compression and therefore pushing the piston and rod down with more force and thus causing more wear on the bearings. so a UDP realy has noting to do with the wear on the bearings. It may help the oil pump bearings some but thats all I can see it doing.

Post by **Diablo0** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:57 pm

Well... people have installed UDPs on 1st gens and I have yet to see or hear any problems with them... I've even heard that neons don't really need the the rubber insert as much as other cars do. Sure it helps but it's not as high of a issue as with other engines.

Me personally I've had mine installed for probably a little over a year now and probably put a good hmmm... 10-15K on my car with it with absolutly NO engine problems.

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:16 pm

damn it...... no time to install mine, this sux

quicksilvr · Post by **quicksilvr** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:22 pm

03GraphiteMetallic wrote:aftermarket UDP are for the most part balanced very well. This would not be one of the main causes for main bearings going bad. The rubber does dampen some but not enough to really do anything critical.

Heres the deal. No 2 cylinders will have the same amount of compression due to varing amounts of blow-by(air and fuel blowing by the piston rings and into the crankcase) and the condition of plugs and the amount of "spark" they are getting. so the pistons that are having the least amount of blow-by and the greatest amount of spark are getting the most compression and therefore pushing the piston and rod down with more force and thus causing more wear on the bearings. so a UDP realy has noting to do with the wear on the bearings. It may help the oil pump bearings some but thats all I can see it doing.

Well, it does still have some to do with wear on the main bearings. To think about it, exaggerate everything alot. Say, the UDP is so far out of round and unbalanced it looks like an egg. Imagine belts could actually run on such a pulley. Then think about the uneven forces that are being tranfered through the crank on every rotation and being soaked up for the MOST part by the main bearings because the pistons still have to go up and down in the cylinders and the cylinder walls are a lot less forgiving then the bearings. Obviously this is a very exaggerated scenario, furthering the point that UDP's with no "harmonic balance" aspect to them should never really play a role in main bearing failure.

SilverSRT05 · Post by **SilverSRT05** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:21 am

Yeah that would be one funny looking pulley. BUt if you did have a main bearing failure I would not blame it on a pulley and it would take years and years for a slightly out of balanced pulley to cause any damage.

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:57 am

How about a batman logo shapped pulley?

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:05 am

nodestiny wrote:How about a batman logo shapped pulley?

that would LOOK awsome

Datoyminaytah · Post by **Datoyminaytah** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:44 pm

I believe the rubber in the stock pulley has more to do with reducing NVH than protecting the engine.

Floyd · Post by **Floyd** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:00 am

Ive had my MPx pulley on the car for like 2 months and 2000 miles with 0 problems.

it's an 04' SXT

oklamopar · Post by **oklamopar** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:24 pm

ive heard that you get a c.e.l. on 02 magnum engines. any truth?

BlackRoseRacing · Post by **BlackRoseRacing** » Fri May 26, 2006 7:02 pm

Holy post resurrection batman...

J-Villa · Post by **J-Villa** » Fri May 26, 2006 7:27 pm

oklamopar wrote:ive heard that you get a c.e.l. on 02 magnum engines. any truth?

cel on any 02 regardless of model

oklamopar · Post by **oklamopar** » Fri May 26, 2006 11:12 pm

Ok, So what is it ? does it have to be reset? I have access to snap-on scan tool but i dont want to have to clear it every day. is my best bet not to get one?

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Fri May 26, 2006 11:15 pm

No, the code may or may not show up - depends on certain things - 1st, mine did not show up until I got up to 120+ one time, then another time it happened when I spun out in the rain and bumped the rev limiter - both times it only flashed at me. then, one night on my way into work, I hit the straightway to the parking lot and I gunned it and in third gear at 5k rpm it flashed and I did not let off and the bastard stayed on. I just pulled the fuel pump relay and positive connection on the battery and for about 4 hours, it stayed that way - then it completely cleared - no codes now

It will flash you some, and eventually, it will stay on.
Unless you hit 5k rpm or more all the time, dont worry about it!

oklamopar · Post by **oklamopar** » Fri May 26, 2006 11:26 pm

Thats just the thing in in my upper rpms alot. atleast 5k once a day

DodgeNeonUS · Post by **DodgeNeonUS** » Mon May 29, 2006 11:53 pm

I bought the Mpx udp for my 02 rt as soon as I could (about four years ago) I have just learned to ignor the constant flashing (I beat my motor every day. I can't help it. It likes it). My dealership looked at it long and hard. I even told them that it didn't do it before the UDP and it started right when the UDP was installed. They said it was giving an "Intermittant mis-fire" code, and that it wasn't causing any harn to the engine. I have had the UDP for over 70k miles. My motor is still strong, in all its clacky wonderfulness... I have thought about going to an UR pulley. Word is, that it's a higher quality peice. Made to higher tolerances. Which equates to fewer CELs. Haven't tries it though. It is alot more expensive. Makes me wish I had bought that UR unit first though...

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:31 pm

I got the UR... I like it lots - get the UDP!