I installed my plenum last night and the car is running fine. I don't really feel much difference, but RPMs seem to be running a bit faster. After I drive the car for a while and let the motor heat up, once I turn the car off smoke starts coming out of the engine bay. It appears its coming from all around the plenum. It isn't a crazy amount of smoke, but it does concern me a bit since I've never heard of it. Also the smell is similar to burning oil. Anyone heard of this before?

 

I drove it around a little today to see if the problem continued and it did, but also I'm hearing what sounds like heated liquid like a hissing. If anyone could help I would appreciate it.

 

I wonder if you have a coolant leak. A very few of the early Crawford plenums had some minor issues. This is written up at the Crawford website. Are all of your rubber hoses on tight?

 

is it coming from around the plenum or the plenum itself?

many new installs of parts that will see a lot of heat will smoke for the first hour or so of running as they get hot at the coatings, paint, grease, etc all burn off... i wonder how much smoke your seeing and precisely where it is coming from.

 

Yeah it is def a coolant leak. It seems to be coming from the same place they had problems with leaking before. I read the TSB and they said I didn't need the fix because I had the orange seals. I'm going to tighten the hoses and see if I can't get it to stop smoking. I'll call crawford on monday.

 

Most likley the hose on the rear of the Plenum just below the TB (anti-icing function).

If you have the Crawford "cast Plenum" I noticed that the pre installed nipple is pretty short, so you need to get the clamp all the way up against the base past the barb. Doug should have used a slighty longer fitting IMO.

 

yea, mine had a leak too. give 'em a call tomrrow. more than likely they'll suggest putting teflon tape around the fitting. however, my leak continued and so they had to replace it.

 

teflon tape??? does that really work?

 

It is definitely still leaking, but in a better turn of events I stripped one of the brass bolts on the throttle body with a 5mm allan wrench which is funny because its only been removed twice. Since the head of the bolt is round I wasn't sure how I was going to get it off, so I figured I would use this omnisocket thing my roommate had in his tool box see if I couldn't get any leverage on it. I got it on and felt a little resistance and pulled evenly and I heard a little pop. "Success" I think to myself "The bolt is loose" upon closer inspection the throttle body had cracked . So now I have a leaky plenum that smokes and overheats, along with a bill for $1049 for a new TB. I had the shop put my old plenum back on so I can fix the new one, or ship it back to crawford for replacement.

 

Teflon tape is an excellent gap filler for metal-metal connections, I usually see it on threaded connections though. We use it at work all the time to ensure a snug fit between gas lines (swagelok).

 

I just got off the phone with Doug and couldn't be happier with the service I received. I'm getting a new plenum shipped out today and they paid for the cross shipping of the old one back. Not only that, but he is going to take a look at my old throttle body and see if it can possibly be repaired. A+ for customer service.

 

that suxs about the TB! im gonna be reallllllly carefull installing my ssv cuz im reading alot about stripping bolts during any plenum/tb process

 

As long as you use a 5mm Allan wrench and don't over tighten you should be ok for like 3 removals of the TB. Just be careful and if they start to strip once they are off go to nissan and get a few more of those bolts for like $5 and just replace them because it's just not worth the headache. Good luck.

 

My plenum had the orange sealant and supposedly should have been fine, but it still leaked. I just bypassed it since freezing really isn't a factor in Vegas.

 

I wish I could say the same for VA. We get like 105 degree weather in the summer and blizzards in the winter. Keeps things interesting I guess.

 

I'm just thinking that the coolant would get through eventually. I use teflon on the compressor fittings but that's air... of course, I have no logical rationale for thinking that. haha...

neato.