Lighter rims and light pulley

[Foot]

These would be my next mod, hopefully before the end of the year. I am thinking of going with some 12lb rims to replace my 16lb steels. And going with the light pulley since everyone recently that installed it said it was a good install.
My question, I assume the lighter rotation mass on both would be a noticeable difference in the low range?
My KN intake and new muffler has given me more power in the 3K+ rpm range that I can tell.
Rims another 500 dollars and pulley about 150... well they will have to wait a little. Some of you guys do not care for my steels painted shiny black, with chrome looking beauty rings and a nice center cap.
Thanks for any information on the lighter mods and how they effect the torque and the low end. And any negative aspects of them.

[CrankyOldMan]

Well, the crank pulley doesn't add power, it just reduces parasitic losses. There's a definite improvement in acceleration and rev speed, but I don't know that it's something you can measure on a dyno. In theory it would show up as more HP, since there's more getting from the crank to the wheels, but it could also show up as a shift to the left (more HP earlier) without increasing the peak HP.

As far as tires go, there's other things that can help besides weight. If you just want better acceleration, get the skinniest, smallest diameter tires you can find. If you want cornering grip, get the widest tires you can cram under the car. My summer setup are 205/50R15, about to go on some Mini Cooper 15x5.5 12 lb rims.

On a slightly related note, I'm also looking at a dedicated set of AutoX tires: BFG Rival 205/50R15 on 15x7 (or 15x7.5) 13 lb rims. The Mini wheels will give me better straight line acceleration and the sidewall flex isn't as much of a concern because I don't push my car quite as hard on the street as on the track. The wider wheels help to control sidewall flex under high speed cornering. There's almost an infinite combination of wheels and tires out there. It really just depends on what you want to do, and whose advice you follow.

[BEEF]

*cough,cough,header,cough*

[DJYojimbo]

The pulley helps big time! Seems like acceleration is faster. The header is my next thing to pick up. People say weapon r is awesome. I'm thinking of DC sports header.

[Golddeenoh]

if you are after performance the key is power to weight. so all the little reductions in weight will eventually add up (little by little). the trick when doing it part by part is that the gains will be slow and minor but usually noticeable. where as doing what i did and doing a lot at a time make a big difference but you don't get to appreciate the individual gains you get from part by part building. so yes reduce the weight in your rims and you gain some acceleration, remove the weight from the rotating mass of the engine and gain better rev, better acceleration, and better performance. all though you most likely wont be able to see any actually numbers from the pulley you will be able to hear the rev response and feel some slight gains in performance.

[PHXDEMON]

enkei rpf1s are the single best mod I did to mine. You wont squeeze much additional power out of the 1nz as long as its NA. Less rotating mass makes a huge difference. The driving experience is much lighter and more nimble feeling. Plus they look awesome :)

[why?]

It makes a noticeable difference. I have lighter wheels/pulleys/flywheel, and it takes time to get used to. Especially since I am as light as possible on the gas to save as much fuel as possible.

My recommendations would be to by inexpensive but good quality light wheels. And get the pulleys, and flywheel/clutch from the money saved.

And yes, you should be able to measure the difference on a wheel dyno, if you can find someone who'll actually measure the low end. Most simply won't.

Although supposedly low end torque is hurt by a lightweight flywheel, I don't seem to have that experience at all.