Tricks to free seized crank pulley (with PA rust)?
 

Doing a timing belt job and everything I've found said the pulley should slide right off after removing the 4 small bolts around the large 21mm crank bolt. I think all of those people live in nicer climates than me because mine has become one with the engine I guess.

I tried:
- Letting penetrating oil sit on it for a day
- Using a piece of wood and a large hammer
- A rubber mallet
- Lightly prying between the timing plate and the oil pan and surrounding areas (lightly b/c I don't want to go nuts on any of that stuff
- Heating the crank bolt and surrounding area

Up next I'm thinking to just remove the crank bolt w/ air. But flyin' miata's instructions and other places say you don't need to.

Any suggestions to unstick this thing?

99 Miata for reference

Do not pry if you can - you're prying on the oil pump case. If you're not going to reuse the pulley, you can try heating the outside to try and free it up some - but you'll possibly end up burning the rubber isolation. Similarly - you can try and use a steering wheel puller on the M6 bolts - you'll need to grab some long M6x1.0 bolts from the hardware store - you'll probably only be able to get 2 of the bolt holes to line up, and if it's that far gone, there's a good chance you'll strip it out anyway. Stick the crank bolt in to avoid damaging the crank threads while you're cranking down on the pulley.

Wait - am I misreading - are you pulling the harmonic balancer without undoing the crank bolt first? yeah, that won't work.

harmonic balancer comes out without taking out the crank bolt, 4 screws hold it on.
all mine slid right out after i removed the 4 10mm bolts.

if all fails, undo the crank bolt, then head to an autoparts store and rent a harmonic balanser puller, and get 4 longer 10mm bolts with the same thread, and some washers.
use the puller to pull the whole assembly off the crankshaft.

i had to remove an ATI damper once and its all one piece, pulley and timing belt grear, but the puller tool worked great to pull it all off the crankshaft.

Thanks for the replies. I placed an order at rock auto for a new crank pulley and a crank puller so I can get a little aggressive w/ the existing pulley if I need to and I can limit the downtime. I was hoping to not replace that as well but it can't hurt to replace it I guess.

I'll try the tool I ordered before I go to the last ditch effort of just removing the crank bolt and dealing with it off of the car.