Pulley Tech (and what not)

[Epiphany]

So now that my 2020 GT500 is out of warranty I figured it may now be time for a few power mods. I avoided anything along these lines while still covered as I didn't want an issue at the dealer should I not be covered because of something they didn't approve of.

So...while I had "Whippled" my last GT500, I'm not interested in going that far this time around. I don't need that kind of power just to go to the urologist, my neurosurgeon, or the pharmacy. Just a little bump will do. So I'm headed in the direction of ported blower, larger lid/intercooler, injectors, larger throttle body, pulley, and obviously, a tune. I learned that the Raptor R blower assembly is identical to that of the GT500 save for the pulley and the badging. For whatever reason, take-off Raptor R blowers can be found for less than take-off GT500 blowers. I tracked down a nice R blower for $2300, delivered. It'll be either Jokerz or Kong that I'll tap for porting, not sure which as of yet.

Again, I'm not looking for mondo power here but rather something that can handle 93 octane gas (91 in a pinch) without issue. Zero interest in E85 even if I could find it in my area.

When it comes to the pulley, I am definitely a fan of the clutched design over that of a typical aftermarket, lightweight, anodized, clutchless design. I want to retain the coupling/decoupling feature that comes from the factory on the GT500, Raptor R, GTD, and Dark Horse SC. The factory pulleys are produced by Litens and here is their take...

Ford doesn't list the effective pulley diameters but they can easily be measured with the belt off. You measure at the tallest point of a given rib, not the round portion at the front of the pulley.

So here...

Not here...

I have an extra factory GT500 shaft/housing/pulley assembly so I pulled that out of the box and measured.

So, factory '20-'22 GT500 pulley diameter comes in at 3.078". The Raptor R is slightly smaller at 2.857". Note that my unheated shop was an icebox, so Seinfeldesque shrinkage is to be expected when measuring anything in there.

Note that Litens' aftermarket side offers a 2.9" pulley (and a 2.7"), effectively the exact same thing as the R pulley (forgive any cosmetic deviations therein) but it isn't exactly inexpensive.

Problem is, you can't buy the Raptor R pulley alone from Ford - you pay for the assembly. So the shaft and housing come with it. The respective part number, NR7Z-6J022-B, has a suggested retail of $1,694 as of April, 2026. Crazy. May as well buy a whole takeoff blower at that point!

Note 6J022

So I wondered about the GTD and the DH SC. Could they be using the R pulley or possibly an even smaller pulley? Ford shows, for what ever reason, the pulley being offered for sale by itself, and most importantly, they show some photos of it with the cap off such that you can see the engineering number! The GTD listing from Ford...

Note 6J022

So you can see the engineering number (which is not the part number) as NR7E-6J022-AA. Armed with that, I popped the protective cap off of my R pulley to see what the engineering number was...

Son of a bitch...the GTD is using the exact same pulley as the Raptor R, a ~2.9" pulley. Ford's Raptor R price $1694, Liten's price $899 and the GTD pulley price from Ford is $456.36 (all prices are retail). All the same Litens pulley from each. So hurry on down to your Ford dealer and negotiate before they wake up if you want a 2.9"pulley that can be decoupled. GTD pulley part number is NR7Z-6J022-C.

I had a number of conversations my my Ford Parts guru about this today. He went through the Bill of Materials for some known Dark Horse SC VIN's and verified that the SC will use the exact same 2.9" pulley as the Raptor R and the GTD as well. Part listings are still not up for the DH SC so the only way to delve deeper is by using a VIN and then searching through the HVBOM.

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[Cobra99]

great job. Is it safe to say the power bump of the SC is just a pulley and maybe tune?

 

[robvas]

None of the GTD guys that are modifying their cars want to let the stock pulley go? Maybe the Raptor guys would

 

[Epiphany]

great job. Is it safe to say the power bump of the SC is just a pulley and maybe tune?

I believe it is. The calibrations are no doubt similar and Ford did exactly as we thought they would. At some point they'll say the exhaust system and intake tract contributed to the GTD's slight power advantage but we knew there was no way they were going to have more power in the "lesser" car.

 

[OX1]

So now that my 2020 GT500 is out of warranty I figured it may now be time for a few power mods. I avoided anything along these lines while still covered as I didn't want an issue at the dealer should I not be covered because of something they didn't approve of.

So...while I had "Whippled" my last GT500, I'm not interested in going that far this time around. I don't need that kind of power just to go to the urologist, my neurosurgeon, or the pharmacy. Just a little bump will do. So I'm headed in the direction of ported blower, larger lid/intercooler, injectors, larger throttle body, pulley, and obviously, a tune. I learned that the Raptor R blower assembly is identical to that of the GT500 save for the pulley and the badging. For whatever reason, take-off Raptor R blowers can be found for less than take-off GT500 blowers. I tracked down a nice R blower for $2300, delivered. It'll be either Jokerz or Kong that I'll tap for porting, not sure which as of yet.

Again, I'm not looking for mondo power here but rather something that can handle 93 octane gas (91 in a pinch) without issue. Zero interest in E85 even if I could find it in my area.

When it comes to the pulley, I am definitely a fan of the clutched design over that of a typical aftermarket, lightweight, anodized, clutchless design. I want to retain the coupling/decoupling feature that comes from the factory on the GT500, Raptor R, GTD, and Dark Horse SC. The factory pulleys are produced by Litens and here is their take...

Ford doesn't list the effective pulley diameters but they can easily be measured with the belt off. You measure at the tallest point of a given rib, not the round portion at the front of the pulley.

So here...

Not here...

I have an extra factory GT500 shaft/housing/pulley assembly so I pulled that out of the box and measured.

So, factory '20-'22 GT500 pulley diameter comes in at 3.078". The Raptor R is slightly smaller at 2.857". Note that my unheated shop was an icebox, so Seinfeldesque shrinkage is to be expected when measuring anything in there.

Note that Litens' aftermarket side offers a 2.9" pulley (and a 2.7"), effectively the exact same thing as the R pulley (forgive any cosmetic deviations therein) but it isn't exactly inexpensive.

Problem is, you can't buy the Raptor R pulley alone from Ford - you pay for the assembly. So the shaft and housing come with it. The respective part number, NR7Z-6J022-B, has a suggested retail of $1,694 as of April, 2026. Crazy. May as well buy a whole takeoff blower at that point!

Note 6J022

Son of a bitch...the GTD is using the exact same pulley as the Raptor R, a ~2.9" pulley. Ford's Raptor R price $1694, Liten's price $899 and the GTD pulley price from Ford is $456.36 (all prices are retail). All the same Litens pulley from each. So hurry on down to your Ford dealer and negotiate before they wake up if you want a 2.9"pulley that can be decoupled. GTD pulley part number is NR7Z-6J022-C.

My local discount Ford dealer. Pretty good price for a more mild bump.
I wouldn't want much more tracking it.

https://www.fordpartsconnect.com/search?search_str=NR7Z-6J022-C

 

[Inthehighdesert]

Funny, I just had this conversation with my buddy that has a dyno shop here. He does all of John from Hellions stuff, been around a very long time. Ended up with a pulley and hub assembly coming from Vmp and an idler bracket, box from Jlt, and they’ll do the tune. If memory serves me right the pulley was 2.6ish, I’m at a mile in elevation and above. We’ll see but it should end up little over a hundred extra to the wheels. 91 here, but it’ll get boost every tank regardless. I almost went the route you’re going but I wanted to be able to out the car back to stock real easy. Your setup will be really slick.

 

[Epiphany]

My local discount Ford dealer. Pretty good price for a more mild bump.
I wouldn't want much more tracking it.

https://www.fordpartsconnect.com/search?search_str=NR7Z-6J022-C

That's thirty some odd dollars above dealer cost, a heck of a good price. IIRC, the guru said they showed one available nationally at the moment. I don't need another one but that price is very tempting! I agree with your comment about kind of keeping it mild if you are tracking. It's a minor increase in boost and looks 100% stock. I see some guys run it without any tuning but I'd still be careful there and do it properly with a matching calibration.

I almost went the route you’re going but I wanted to be able to out the car back to stock real easy. Your setup will be really slick.

Well, slick is the goal. I like well thought out mods and in this case a stock appearance is kind of my intent at this point. My GT500's original blower assembly will remain on standby in case I want to return to stock. Not sure if I ever will if this plays out well though. I'm thinking about getting a PBD or VMP lid powdercoated in the stock hue just to maintain a stock like appearance. We'll see. Just trying to force myself to dive back into the car and feel like I did when I bought it almost 6 years ago.

 

[kilobravo]

..and feel like I did when I bought it almost 6 years ago.

Sure doesn't seem possible that it's been six years since we were all uber excited about deliveries. And poor Earl had his hands full keeping track of all the cars. Good times.

No desire here for power upgrades but good luck with yours, Tob. Meanwhile, I'm considering picking up an extended warranty for my girl.

 

[Epiphany]

Sure doesn't seem possible that it's been six years since we were all uber excited about deliveries. And poor Earl had his handsfull keeping track of all the cars. Good times.

I sold my '16 GT350 to a dealer in Kansas City. Part of the deal was I got his first allocation on a car that was still yet to be announced or acknowledged, the upcoming GT500. He said there was no confirmation that there would be one at all. I knew they were working on development and that it was going to happen. This was in November of 2017. I still remember the day dealers learned that it was coming as he called and asked me what color I wanted. So for me, I waited a long time for this one.

On edit

I think we all knew that engineers tweaked the calibration for the additional 35 hp that the Dark Horse SC received. But it was yesterday when my hombre with Ford Parts verified that the SC was using the Raptor R pulley as well. That motivates me, as I remember when Widmann said that traditional power mods such as smaller pulleys, etc, weren't going to do anything on the GT500. That they had eeked out all the power to be had (remember the idiotic HP puzzle we had to suffer through in order to learn our cars were getting 760?). So my motivation lies in the lies. I refuse to be outdone by a GT500 v2.0 for, in some cases, near double the money.

 

[Epiphany]

I know many of you have been losing sleep over the fact that the cap/plug for the front of the supercharger pulley not being available for purchase. Visions of corrosion being welcomed in or worse yet, a Ford tech spotting a missing cap and deducing that you just voided your warranty by sneaking in a smaller pulley for more boost. Fear not my fellow gasoholics, with the advent of the GTD, Ford has finally made them available through Ford Service as a separate item.

Why did I buy two, you ask? I'll answer that after my blower gets ported (Kong) and I go to reassemble everything!

 

[mw6886]

I know many of you have been losing sleep over the fact that the cap/plug for the front of the supercharger pulley not being available for purchase. Visions of corrosion being welcomed in or worse yet, a Ford tech spotting a missing cap and deducing that you just voided your warranty by sneaking in a smaller pulley for more boost. Fear not my fellow gasoholics, with the advent of the GTD, Ford has finally made them available through Ford Service as a separate item.

Why did I buy two, you ask? I'll answer that after my blower gets ported (Kong) and I go to reassemble everything!

So this whole time, we could have been buying this from Ford as an Alternator pulley dust cap?

 

[Cobra99]

here they say the stock pulley is 3.085" and a 2.85" add 2ibs of boost
https://www.texas-speed.com/brand/metco-motorsports/p-mtc-msr-metco-2020-gt500-supercharger-pulley/

Also note a tool to reuse your snout
https://jonbondperformance.com/prod...y-gt500-supercharger-pulley-pin-holding-tool/

I'm seriously considering this

 

[Epiphany]

They measured .007" larger. I see everyone comes up with a different number, I'd like to believe they all know what they are doing such that it is temp and tool accuracy responsible for any deviance.

I like the appearance of the Metco vs typical aftermarket pulleys. I prefer the stock design however because it can decouple and go easier on other driveline components under use.

As for tools that allow easy pulley changes, I like what Jokerz sells (GripTec) as it holds the cartridge/pins and not just the pins at the end.
https://jokerzperformance.com/product/griptec-install-removal-tool-for-2020-gt500/

I'm seriously considering this

Do it! I sent the lower half of my takeoff Raptor R blower to Kong for porting and am on hold until I get it back. Still deciding on a lid and larger brick too. Kinda fun to work on. I have to say though, the assembled supercharger unit is heavy. Not optimum for a part that is rather high on the center of gravity scale.

 

[Cobra99]

They measured .007" larger. I see everyone comes up with a different number, I'd like to believe they all know what they are doing such that it is temp and tool accuracy responsible for any deviance.

I like the appearance of the Metco vs typical aftermarket pulleys. I prefer the stock design however because it can decouple and go easier on other driveline components under use.

As for tools that allow easy pulley changes, I like what Jokerz sells (GripTec) as it holds the cartridge/pins and not just the pins at the end.
https://jokerzperformance.com/product/griptec-install-removal-tool-for-2020-gt500/


Do it! I sent the lower half of my takeoff Raptor R blower to Kong for porting and am on hold until I get it back. Still deciding on a lid and larger brick too. Kinda fun to work on. I have to say though, the assembled supercharger unit is heavy. Not optimum for a part that is rather high on the center of gravity scale.

What are you considering for a belt or the stocker will be adequate? I know you are porting but would this need a aftermarket tune or can the speed density handle the 2+ pounds of boost?

 

[Epiphany]

What are you considering for a belt or the stocker will be adequate? I know you are porting but would this need a aftermarket tune or can the speed density handle the 2+ pounds of boost?

Here's the stock factory listing for both Ford and Motorcraft...

Here's a cross to a number of aftermarket belt part numbers. I highlighted what I show up above plus a listing from Bando for an 8PK1775 belt...

If you then look at Litens' 2.90" pulley product page, you see they list supplying an 8PK1775 belt which crosses to the original factory belt, an excellent match if you are using the GTD/DH SC/Raptor R pulley.

TLDR: I can use the stock belt.

Regarding tuning or not I can only say that I'd like to do it right and match the tune to the components I plan on using. Optimizing it all is what I'm aiming for.

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