Cooling Spacers

[SSS_Hoon]

Just wondering does anyone know of a place that makes the thermo bloc spacers for the intake.

you know the gasket type things that keep the heat down and help with keeping the intake cool.

i found some on outlaw engineering for the sr20de but not for the rb26dett

SSS_Hoon

[Sydneykid]

Waste of time and money

cheers

[gt-t_r34]

if there what i'm thinking of you get get them at auto barn, they have them on ns.com in the trader section where autobarn advertises.

there made by gizzmo...

http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=137329

[T04GTR]

sik

[SSS_Hoon]

i didnt want to know if they were a waste of time.

they are for a race car where every bit helps so no for that they would not be a waste of time.

thanx gt-t r34 for a helpful reply.

SSS_Hoon

[R31Nismoid]

rofl

what a load of sh|t

[Busky2k]

I don't see whats so funny about phenolic spacers? Anyone want to put some input instead of saying "POS" or "Junk" with no substantiation?

Its not hard to burn your hand on the plenum on a warm day. Makes you wonder how hot the air becomes again before entering the cylinder.

Here's some info;

http://www.outlawengineering.com/index.html

[pkblade]

Not disputing that it doesn’t work, but Outlaw Engineering’s R&D seems limited to me. The extent of their reported testing was limited to inlet manifold temps & for short burst of power from the engine (ie. dyno runs & 1/4 drag). There's no mention regarding engine temps or manifold temps after a track session or daily city driving.

My initial & main concern would be where does that excess heat go??. Their response in the FAQ, implies the trade off is an increase in water temps.

Personally if your after a cooler air intake mod which, primarily what this gasket is, a well thought out CAI &/or intercooler water spray kit would be a better bang-for-ya-buck for performance gains....just my 2c.

[Busky2k]

Yeah but it makes you think twice about intercooling. I mean you can have the best intercooler in the world to give you ambient charge temps but if the air still increases by 20-50 or more degrees before entering the cylinder due to the toasty plenum and runners, then it makes you think doesn't it?

I don't think the excess heat is an issue. As if the plenum would radiate heat effectively anyway. Thats the coolants job.

[R31Nismoid]

How does a gasket stop radiant heat?

Thats why i say - load of sh|t.

You cant stop radiant heat just by using a gasket. You would be very silly to assume that would be the case.

On thier website... thier "racing" results of...

To summarize, the car was ~0.1 seconds quicker and ~1 mph faster, all with a .073 second slower launch.

Are a total load of crap man. Come off it. Thats a as much affected by driver than anything else.

Laying claim to a "bees dick" in performance on something thats driver dependant is absolute crap

[Busky2k]

Cmon Nismoid. Have an open mind. This stuff isnt black magic like pills in the fuel tank or some magical spark plug. You haven't tried them yet so the way you laugh it off is bees dick theory too. Nothing wrong with thinking a gasket can help insulation. Think about a polystyrene vs steel cup. If you google phenolic spacers theres plenty of info to be found. Here's one such article;

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_0401/article.html

(Yes seems the performance data was taken from here but the Manifold Temp data is what is interesting).

The relationship of how the plenum's temperature affects the air of going into the cylinder is what interests me.

Edited September 16, 2006 by Busky2k

[R31Nismoid]

I have an open mind, but i can see a gimmick when presented infront of me.

If you think that a gasket will alter intake temps, good luck.

If you also think on a turbo'd car that heatsoak is a super massive problem, good on ya

The article you linked has excatly the same poofteenth of gain as the original link... surprise... as its the same "data" that they are using.

Its interesting because if you look at the bottom of the article, it links you to the outlaw website

Funny that.

As this is ALL based on ONE website thus far.

Do you have any original links? Something that isnt a direct rip of the outlaw site?

[Busky2k]

As I mentioned, google phenolic spacers and theres plenty of info to be found. They are quite popular mod on some cars like the MX6 etc where the N/A boys are looking for every last hp. Also it seems you can get spacers for even carby v8s etc. I'm gonna do a search tomorrow to see if I can find any independant links/forum reviews. Oh and btw, yes heatsoak is a problem in turbocharged cars, why would you say its not??

Found a few quotes here from various posts in other forums (not websites lol);

"They work good I had this gasket on my turbo civic. droped temps a good bit on manifold. After dyno runs it was still cool to the touch unlike a stock setup that gets real hot"

"My friend has one a boosted civic si. After hard runs with the car, you can place you hand on the intake manifold and it is close to outside temp. Seriously, it was cool to warm depending on how he drove the car. Before the spacer, you could not touch the intake runner near the cylinder head after hard runs. I'm sure it just helps keep the intake air temp down. seems to work pretty well."

"Enthalpy can attest how well it works. On the dyno, it was cool to the touch, even after repeated WOT runs. It wasn't even slightly warm! Try that with your standard paper or composite gasket!"

"To ground this conversation into a serious dicussion, my friend has an intake manifold spacer on his Integra.... He said it reduces intake manifold temp like 30 degrees or something, and actually shows a noticable difference in intake air temps."

"First comparision is coming right off the street and making a pass with no cool down. Before the pass, temps were at 147F and they were down to 100F crossing the finish line. Very similar conditions with the spacer, EGR delete, and TB coolant delete. Before the pass 107F; 89F after.

The next comparision is with the car being cooled for an hour. Before the pass, without the spacer, was 127F. At the finish line, they were down to 87F.

With the spacer the temps were 86F before and 77F after"

"I used the Hondata spacer/gasket on my last car (03 Civic Si) w/o problems. I'm not sure how hot the IM gets on turbocharged cars, but it helped that car tremendously. The IM was too hot to touch before the spacer, and afterwards, you could rest your hand on there for as long as you wanted."

There is a shitload of info out there. Granted some of these quotes these aren't all that scientific and are also bloody Hondas but I cant find a single post who said they are shit after buying them....

Edited September 16, 2006 by Busky2k

[SSS_Hoon]

yeah they stop the heat from the head to the inlet.

already tried waterspray not allowed to have it as it drops liquid on the ground and in a circuit race that aint good.

also tried that c02 cryo stuff that was a waste of time but prooved it would be good for a drag but not a circuit.

and in a race car that 0.1sec could mean coming 2nd instead of first and for the small outlay if it comes out to be true then it was money well spent wasnt it.

ppl that call bs and junk without even tring it are tossers and need to grow up i reckon.

the r32 gtr's already have 250awkw but restricted to 27mm inlets in the turbos so usless above 6300rpm so every bit of power helps them, already have a decent FMIC and piping, dry ice water to air setup would be good but the xtra weight might offset the gain though.

again thanx for those that actually had something to contribute.

SSS_Hoon

[R31Nismoid]

Oh and btw, yes heatsoak is a problem in turbocharged cars, why would you say its not??

Because @ 20+ psi/8000rpm... i wouldnt call the air... "idle" exactly.

You do the maths. See how much of that air actually gets "heated" in its travels... come back to us with your findings

[Faid]

This thing is a load of horse shit. do you hava any idea of how fast the air travels trough the pinping, the only reason the intercooler has so much effect on the temprature of the air charge is beacase it effectively increases the surface area of the charge. instead of using this sort of horse shit spacer youd be better off wrapping the piping from the intercooler to the plenum with the stuff they wrap house hold airconditioner pipes (insulates the piping ie prevents heat from the engine heatin up your cooled charge. even if you dont do that the velocity of the air through the pipes is way to high to pick up heat effectivly.

[Batfink]

Wouldn't they cause heat transfer throught the actual spacer thus rendering useless?

[Adriano]

These are usually used on carby motors to prevent the fuel i the carby boiling after you shut the car off. I would imagine that most of the heat in the inlet manifold would came from the surrounding underbonnet heat, not through the transfer of heat from the gasket surface, however if you could reduce your engine bay temps enough so that the head is heating the manifold then there may be a very small gain, but water/math injection would work about 50 times better i would imagine.

[CEF11E]

Guys, They are impregnated with snake oil and it prevents transfer of heat....

If you chop them up in little bits and eat them they also prevent cancer.