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Got this in the mail today

3K views 27 replies 10 participants last post by  mchapman 
#1 ·
It took a lot longer then I've expected, but it's finally here. By the way, this is the AAM Plenum Spacer. I'm still not decided if I'm going to install it or not. Since I might be selling my car.
 

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Discussion starter · #3 ·
Frosty, what do you mean? Well, I got the spacer in the group buy, ages ago. On my credit card I was charged AU$295 that's with the US$87.80 group buy discount. I guess some of that money went to Paypal since I've used them to pay for it. On the independent dynos in USA it made around 10hp gain at the top end. I'm not sure what gains I would get since I don't have an exhaust since in the aussie Zs the exhaust is the most restrictive part.

The quality and finish of it is excellent, as you can see it's very very shiny, but when it is installed it's impossible to tell that it's there. The spacer is angled, so it gives more air to the front cylinders and it works with the OEM strut bar and cover.

What else do you want to know Mr Frost?
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
If I sell it I might temporarily get a charade like apsilon did, until I get a job. After that I'm probably going to get a Z again. Unless I get my hands on an NSX in a decent condition at a reasonable price, I always liked that car and it has a lot of the things that I want. Camber, toe and caster adjustment. Will last forever without becoming a rust bucket. Also it's easy to add mods myself (since I like all the DIY stuff). And with a supercharger kit it's a 12second car over a 1/4 mile and it's extremely reliable, but considering that there are only 150 of this cars in australia and only 70 of them are manuals, I don't think I'll be able to find one that I like.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
Murray, I don't really want to sell my car either, but some times **** happens and there's no choice.

Scathing right now I'll be looking at cars like this one http://drive.com.au/used_cars/daihatsu/cha...&pp=15&d=0&nv=1

:)

By the way, that specific NSX was a track rat, so it has been trashed a lot. I wouldn't go for it myself, since it's spent 95% of it's time at the track and the rest just driving back and from it. I would get a stock NSX myself and that wouldn't be hard since no one modifies them in australia.
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
Richie, I've decided to keep my car for a while longer after going through the figures with my accountant. As for NSX well, the expensive things in it are tires, it eats them up very very fast because of the aggressive suspension setup. And then there's valve adjustment and timing belt change. Other then that, there isn't much. If I would get it, it wouldn't be my daily driver. But since I've decided to keep the car (for now that is), NSX is out of the picture.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
Thanks guys, It's a good time, but I think I was asking too much, the market isn't the same any more, considering that there's not as many contracts as there used to be. So KY, I don't think I'll be able to have a Z and NSX at the same time :) Maybe in few years time.

And I'm going to install the spacer in the next few days as well. It looks like a quiet easy install, I'll just have to be careful with the torque specs for the plenum bolts, since some people have stripped the threads from the lower plenum.
 
Discussion starter · #21 ·
No dynos, maybe once I get a job, I'll do a dyno with the spacer then I'll take it off and do it again. As for the Unichip, of course I want it, but first I need the money :) once I've some cash in my hand consider it sold.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
I've installed the spacer on saturday, the install was very easy even tough the instructions could use some work. Also I had a leak after installing the spacer since bolt #2 has bottomed out, I had to get a metal washer to raise the bolt. Also I've stripped the thread in the lower manifold with bolt #7. The supplied M6 x 30mm bolt was to short and I had to get a M6 x 40mm bolts for the front. Also fitting the strutbar was quiet a headache, since I had to play around with it to clear the plenum and the hood. I ended up using 3 washers per bolt on the drivers side and 2 washers per bolt on the passenger side. The great thing is that it looks totally stock unless you know what you are looking for since you get to keep the OEM strut bar and engine cover.

As for my impression, the first thing I've noticed that the idle was a lot smoother. In my car at least, when the car would idle it would try to stall, I could feel two knocks coming through to the cabin at that time, then it would recover, I think . Now the idle is a lot smoother, it's not perfect, but it's a lot better. Maybe grounding kit might make it perfectly smooth.

As for performance, I can't feel any gain down low like some people have reported. But at 5,000 rpm when usually the engine started to feel a bit flat, it starts pulling quit hard all the way to the redline, I was quiet surprised. I can really feel the difference around 6,000rpm, also I've bounced it off the rev limiter first few times, since it was accelerating faster then I'm used to. Also I'm not getting any detonation like Zuff has experienced.

As for sound, it doesn't make any, but the popcharger is slightly louder and I can start hearing it a lot sooner then before. Also according to Crawford popcharger works a lot better with their plenum then any other intake and they have seen the best power gains with it.

In us people have been getting around 10-15rwhp from this mod. That's around 7-11kw at the rear wheels. I would say that it's the best value for money mod, definitely beats all the exhausts in the value for money.

There are other options as well, right now there's a motordyne spacer group buy on my350z.com, which has similar performance gains but it's not angled like the one from AAM. Also Peter P. from Sports Cars International has one some place in his workshop (and he can make some more for a lot cheaper then I got mine for), it's similar to the motordyne one, it's 8mm thick from what i recall vs 6mm from motordyne (they also have thicker ones, but they don't fit under the strut bar).

Overall I'm very happy with the upgrade, I wouldn't mind doing some rolling runs against another stock and hi-tech (or aps) equipped 350z Track to get a better idea of the performance.
 

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Discussion starter · #24 ·
Here's a dyno that I've nicked from my350z.com, it's made by xziteme. You can see the change in the power curve and the 12hp (9kw) gain.

After looking at all the dynos in the the aussie section I would guess that Richie's car would gain a fair bit of power by installing a plenum spacer with the 2005 Track's lower Plenum manifold. Since his power curve becomes a bit flat for a while at 5,000rpm before it starts climbing again.
 

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Discussion starter · #27 ·
I think the new kinetix plenum looks good as well. But because of the short and big diameter runners it's going to be more suitable in a cammed engine since it's going to move the power band up in a rev range. There would be some low end loss, but big power gains up in the rev range. So who ever is going to get it, should change the rev limiter to at least 7000rpm. It's also mainly targeted at FI. The NA results for it should be out in the next couple of days. There's also going to be a group buy for it as well.

Also 350evo are making a similar plenum that kinetix has, but it's going to be specifically targeted at N/A applications since it's for their race car, it would need a cammed engine as well and a moved rev limiter. I would be more interested in this then the kinetix unless you are going FI.
 
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