The Dodge, Ram and Jeep vehicles that come powered by a member of the supercharged 6.2.-liter Hemi family all make big power from the factory, but one of the key aspects of the Hellcat Hemi engines is that they can easily make gobs more power with simple upgrades. A simple supercharger pulley swap increases boost pressure enough to add significant levels of power, but there are a few downsides to the average pulley swap.
First and foremost, swapping supercharger pulleys requires the removal of the supercharger and that might be beyond the technical abilities of some owners, so they have to find a reputable shop to do the work. Second, most pulley swaps require an engine tune, which is costly and, once again, the owner is tasked with picking a reputable shop to provide the tune. Finally, when you tune your Hellcat Hemi, it leaves a digital fingerprint in the on-board computer system that lets the dealership know that the engine has been tuned, which voids the drivetrain warranty. If you don’t mind dropping your Hellcat-powered Dodge, Ram or Jeep at a shop that you trust to pay for a pulley and tune – knowing that any remaining drivetrain warranty will be voided after the upgrade – the aftermarket has plenty of options.
However, if you don’t want to deal with a shop for installation or tuning, and you don’t want to lose your factory drivetrain warranty right away, the options for adding significant amounts of power are pretty slim. Fortunately, the team at F.A.S. Motorsports has introduced their new Predator lower pulley for all Hellcat-powered vehicles – including the Dodge Challenger, Charger and Durango, the Ram 1500 TRX and the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. This pulley bolts on over the factory harmonic balancer, adding 40-70 wheel horsepower depending on the application, and it does so without an engine tune and – more importantly – it does so without leading to any belt squealing or the accelerated belt wear that comes with lower quality pulleys.
The F.A.S. Motorsports Predator lower pulley works by increasing the size of the output drive on the crankshaft, leading to an increase of 1.5-2 pounds of boost pressure. Even without an engine tune, that increase in boost pressure leads to an increase of 40-70 wheel horsepower, as the factory engine computer can self-adjust enough to make proper use of that extra boost. As a result, you can run this pulley on your Hellcat-powered car, truck or SUV without any long-lasting effects that will void your factory warranty. If you decide that you don’t like the extra power, you can remove the Predator pulley and return to stock without any further changes.
Now, over the course of the past few years, there have been similar options on the market, so I asked Nico Mingione of F.A.S. Motorsports what makes this pulley different from the others. He explained that there are several key aspects to his product which make it unique – and better – than the competitors.
Most notably, the F.A.S. Predator pulley has a groove design that is engineered to correctly match the squared shape of the contact surface of a serpentine belt. That is why other lower pulleys are prone to squeal and cause excessive wear to the belt, but thanks to the design of the Predator pulley, Hellcat owners won’t have to listen to the belt screech on startup or worry about constantly replacing worn belts. He provided the images below, showing the obvious difference between the groove design of the Predator and a competitor’s lower pulley.
Next, the F.A.S. Motorsports Predator lower pulley is 10% lighter than the competitors, which has a major impact on the overall performance of the vehicle. Having less weight in a performance vehicle is always an advantage, but the lower pulley is connected directly to the crankshaft of the Hellcat Hemi engine. Reducing the weight of that pulley reduces the amount of effort required of the engine to spin the belt system, so in addition to adding boost, the F.A.S. Predator pulley puts less strain on the engine and that leads to more power at the wheels.
Finally, Mingione pointed out that not only does he design his products himself, but they are all produced in-house the company’s machine shop in Hanover, Indiana. This allows F.A.S. to have far better quality control procedures compared to companies that have pulleys made by an unknown third party and shipped into the United States. F.A.S. Motorsports doesn’t just stick their name on a product that is designed and produced by someone else – F.A.S. is the manufacturer and Mingione is the man in charge of design. This connection to the product allows Mingione to provide better, more informed customer service that you don’t get from companies that just rebrand and dropship products from other companies while his products are truly Made in the U.S.A..
The Predator lower pulley kit for Hellcat-powered vehicles from F.A.S. Motorsports comes with everything needed for the installation, including a new crankshaft bolt, the fasteners, Loctite, instructions and, of course, the pulley itself. The MSRP is $899.99, which is dramatically less expensive than the cost of an upper pulley swap with an engine tune, yet with 40-70 wheel horsepower gains – this is one of the most impactful upgrades a Hellcat owner can make (especially without voiding the warranty).
