Lightweight pulleys: reliability & smoothness

[MyBlueYar]

Hello all you Yaris enthusiasts. I'm a recently new Yaris owner, having bought an '09 Yaris hatchback. I've enjoyed the car thoroughly up until now, but am just now dipping my toes into the waters of the vast depth of knowledge this site offers.

My first upgrade was ditching the stock steelies in favor of a set of lightweight wheels from a Mini Cooper. I was lucky enough to find a set with new tires already on them, and the guy gave me a very good deal in the process. The wheels were the 5 star spooler wheels (R100 I believe), and if the online published numbers are to be believed, they are 13.7 lbs each, an improvement over the original steelies. The vast improvement in the interior sound levels just from the tire change was very noticeable.

I've scoured this site about NST lightweight pulleys (and to an extent MI as well) in my search for my next mod. Mind you, I'm probably one of the few people who is mostly content with the stock hp of our mighty Yaris. While I think another 5-10 hp would be ideal, I did not go into this purchase with high expectations in that regard.

On NST's website, they address one of the most common concerns about engine balancing (internal vs external) and dispel the myth of lightweight pulleys destroying the modern day engine that is internally balanced.

My question to those of you who have already modded your Yaris with one or more of their lightweight pulleys is this: I'm not after crazy hp gains with a simple pulley upgrade, that much I am realistic about. My bigger goal with this car and the incremental improvements is to make it somewhat quieter, and if possible, smoother in its daily operation.

So for those of you with NST pulleys installed, how did it affect the engine smoothness in terms of day to day driving? And secondly, I believe I read a post about someone who installed the crank pulley on their car, and found it made it a bit more jerky in taking off. What was your experience?

Any feedback on these lightweight pulleys from those of you who have a before & after would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance -