Now most of you are thinking "I bet he's getting a turbo".. Hah.. I wish. Something a little less than that.

Tomorrow I'll have sold my Crawford Plenum, and have installed a brand new Kinetix Version 3 (Yes, the first [I believe] Version 3 which is made for F.I) installed, as well as a Carbon Fiber engine cover by Evo-R.

I'm also going to be converting my Injen Cold air into a short ram. It's nothing TOO drastic, but I'm excited, and just wanted to share. I'll take pictures and post review tomorrow.

 

How much was the Version III for FI? I wonder if it'll offer any performance gains. If so, I'd get one and have Rob (ZPRESENCE) paint that baby up in the MiraChrome paint and it would look awesome!

 

Mr Bonz, I'm not sure how much it costs retail since LSD gave me a special pricing being it is the first FI one out there. I'm sort of the test car for it, even though I don't have FI.

I wish I could have given a review on how well it does with the F.I, but sadly I don't have any F.I system yet. If you are interested, you might want to consider talking to Rob @ Kinetix on getting special pricing on it to test it.. I'm sure he would be willing since you'd be the first F.I car testing the plenum.

 

WHAT?! I've been waiting for Kinetix's FI plenum forever...its not been offically released yet or what?

 

"Yes, the first [I believe]"

Actually, I will have mine on my door step tomorrow too The V3 version as well.

 

No offense, but why would he give you one if you don't have FI?

 

It is built to be able to withstand FI, not specifically FOR FI only.

 

jason,
when did u order the plenum??
btw, your pm box is full.

 

I understand, but why wouldn't they test it out on a car with FI?

 

These are not for testing purposes. These are final production V3 Plenums and they will not be shipping out any of the V2 anymore.

 

Oh and, what happened is I bought some HF cats quite some time ago and they ended up cracking on me. So I had to take them off and they are sending me the Plenum free of charge so I go bumped up to first priority.

My PM box says only 50% full?

 

nice ricky, i will have to take a look at it once i get back in the MD/VA/DC area....i am also considering that plenum if it does give performance gains that is...

Ben

 

Plenum is out for delivery!

However, I have this odd water running noise going on in the dash area. ( Some mechanic said it wasa restriction in the heater core? ) Soo I have to take my car inot Nissan on Thursday and was advised not to install it until after then.

 

will one of you be testing this on the dyno?>

 

I will be getting a dyno but not until I get a set of HF cats on the car again. So it will not be a dyno for just the plenum but for all of the mods listed below.

 

OK!

As for the inbox thing, you still need to clear out the "sent messages" folder and you have to end all of the message tracking too. These all count toward your PM total.

 

Cool, thanks.

 

Mr Bonz, allow me to clarify.

The V2 had problems of cracking. Not to mention it wasn't strong enough to handle any FI. Kinetix saw this and decided to make a V3 to prevent the cracking. When creating the new plenum, they decided to also make it strong enough to handle FI. It's not meant only for FI, but strong enough to handle it. The orginal reason the V3 came out is to fix the problems in the V2, which was the cracking of the plenum.

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Review.
Old Plenum: Crawford Version 1
New: Kinetix Version 3

First let me say one thing. This is the first crawford plenum. They have a new version 5 which is a more clean cut, and has some other differences than my version 1.

Look:
The Kinetix plenum looks nice. It's a faded black look, matchs well with the engine cover and hoses very well. The only thing about the look of the plenum I did not like is it is not smooth. I took a towel to clean the top to get all dust off, and it ended up pulling some of the threads off the towel.

Fitment:
The fitment of the plenum was pretty good, but it did have very minor problems. The new Version 3 has a rubber seal around the edges which are used to help create a tighter seal around the lower plenum. This is used with the gasket to help prevent any air leaks. It turns out some of the rubber goes over the holes to screw the plenum down. I didn't notice this when installing it, so I had some problems screwing in a few bolts. I then removed all the bolts around the outter edge of the plenum and took the plenum off, took a knife, and craved out the rubber around the holes. It then fit perfectly.

Performance:
Dispite what people say about disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting it giving more power, I always felt a slight difference in power while doing this. So during the installation the battery was disconnected.

After reconnecting it and turning on the car, I noticed the first big difference. The sound. Crawford has said they have a "woo-woo" sound coming from the plenum, which I never could hear, but on this Kinetix, it was VERY noticable.

I took the car out for a test spin. I was very easy on the throttle at first just to make sure it had no cracks and such. I then slowly started to use more gas, and testing the plenum at higher revs. When stopping completely and doing a launch, the car did feel faster and more powerful. I could see a difference right away.. now to say how much power it gained, I have no idea. It really made the car feel more responsive. I'm guessing the reason there is a difference is because the Kinetix plenum does not have 3 pieces of metal going through it as my Crawford V1 did. It's hard to describe, but these pieces of metal I'm talking about are where the 3 screws went from outside the plenum, through the plenum, and screwed into the lower plenum. The biggest difference though is the sound. The "woo-woo" sound is very loud on the car, it's not annoying, but it is a very different sound than I'm used to hearing.

Conclusion:
For the money, I'm glad I did this. Now I'm not sure how this plenum would compare to the new Crawford Version 5, since there is a lot of difference between the version 1 and 5. Crawford V5 is very nice, no doubt about that, and it does have the security of being a metal plenum so you don't have to worry about any cracking, but it's also a few hundred dollars more. Personally I'm happy with the change from the Version 1 Crawford to the V3 Kinetix.

As far as the engine cover and strut bar is concerned (Kinetix V3 allows you to use both stuck engine cover and strut tower), I don't know how they fit, as I was a dumbas* and lost the bolts, and couldn't find them anywhere (Not even 2 nissan dealers had them!). Soon as I get my hands on them, I'll slap them on and tell you how it fits. By the look of it, I think the stock plastic cover will fit (Kinetix provides 2 spaces for the front 2 nuts to raise the engine cover about half an inch to clear the plenum). I have a carbon fiber engine cover, which I'm not sure will fit, since the plastic one does flex.. I'll let you guys know how that turns out.

Finally.. I have contacted Kinetix twice since I've gotten the plenum. They have by far the best customer service. I talked to Rob, and he even went out of his way to help me fit my carbon cover on. I informed him I made the switch from Crawford to Kinetix so I can use my carbon cover and strut bar, and that the carbon cover does not flex. He was nice enough to even offer cutting me a larger spacer, so the carbon cover doesn't have to be flexed at all. A+ for customer service.

Any questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to help. I'll take pictures soon as I get the cover and strut bar on. Thanks guys.

 

how about them pics?

 

Soon as I get those damn bolts, I can try putting them back on. I'll take pics when it's done completely.