Intake Manifold Spacer

[eric333]

I saw a couple threads about this but they seemed dead so I was wanting to make an ims for my first gen x but wondered if it was worth it. Was going to make it out of 6061 like the ims for the second gen x
http://extremetruckperformance.com/?page_id=6
I was also not sure how thick to make it so anyone with one your input would be greatly appreciated

[intender]

In all honesty I wouldnt waste my time. 6061 isnt going to stop heatsoak into the intake plenum, and on any modern engine things like spacers for the throttle body or intake manifold dont serve the same purpose they were originally designed for. I am not trying to say the guys with the page you linked to lied, but more than likely took the worst dyno from the truck before the install and put it up against the best dyno after the install.

On older vehicles that were either carbed or had fuel injection to took place either in the intake or in the intake manifold these things served a purpose because they lengthen the intake and increase the swirling turbulence in the intake. They gave the fuel more time to mix with the air that was available and atomize and actually served a purpose. On our more modern engines the fuel is just injected too close to the combustion chamber for them to really make much difference. That and each port has its own injector so there is no need for mixing the air and fuel going into the plenum.

If you really want to do it just for the heck of doing it, I say go for it and see if it helps. I would imagine at best you would get slightly better atomization of the fuel going into the chamber which may let you run a bit more advanced timing which would improve you torque numbers a bit. You would probably be better served by giving the fuel system a good cleaning particularly the fuel injectors. God knows I am constantly doing stuff to my project cars that really makes no sense, but I get bored.

[eric333]

Ya in all honesty I totally agree I don’t think it would change anything to add 1/2" to the intake manifold but I figured what the heck I will c what other people think. Any ideas of other components that I should try and make. I have a full machine shop and do allot of Lathe and mill work and would like to make some cool x parts

[robcarync]

I had thought about this too...

I had looked into buying some phenolic heat resistant material, tracing an intake gasket and taking a dremel to it. I had wondered...even if the heat resistant material reduced the temperature of the intake manifold....is the air even in the manifold long enough to benefit? Someone posted a link where the actual math and thermodynamics and heat transfer was solved out for a different kind of car...basically concluded that the temp of the manifold has very little effect on the temp of the air since it moves fast enough through the manifold. I didn't double check all of their analysis or anything, but reading through it, and remembering heat transfer from MechE...it looks like their results should be ball parkish OK.

So I had kinda given up on the idea...didn't think it'd be worth it and after seeing the math, I agreed with it.

Another debate could be had about atomization by lengthing the plenum and longer runners blah blah blah....but I doubt the effect would be worth mentioning

http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38801