Just bought a motordyne plenum spacer for my 03 Z. i've been reading quite a bit on it and most say its pointless without a tune or without aftermarket intake or exhaust or a tune. after doing my research i've decided that i'm keeping my stock intake box and for now am keeping stock exhaust. is it pointless for me to install the plenum unless i plan on getting a tune? will my ecu not respond at all in a positive way?

thanks for your input

 

Well,from what I've seen(including myself),the "normal" steps for most guys with a Z is to strap on a CAI(POPCHARGER ETC).Exhaust(catback) next.Then maybe a spacer.
At least thats what I did in the beginning with my 03 touring.For what its worth,I did not get a tune done after these mods.BUT,I sure could feel the difference in performance.
Yes,a tune(done by a shop that knows the ropes)is a good thing to have done if you want to optimize your mods.But,not totally necessary to feel the results of your mods.

 

Yes. It is pointless to buy a spacer and not install it.

 

I appreciate your input but are you 100% about this? The reason why I ask is because people on here swear by god that no matter what mod you do to the Z its absolute worthless unless a tune is involved. :S

 

Not absolutely worthless but worthless.

A short RAM or CAI would be a better place to start, then exhaust, then save $$$ and have the spacer and tune done by a shop. The spacer can potentially leak if you don't install it correctly so, unless your confident in your car skills, have it done by the shop that does the tune.

 

there is no point in installing a spacer and not doing any other mods and tune the car you wont see any gains or very minimal gains you can install the spacer and not tune but if your planing to tune your car in the future make sure u install all sporting mods and then tune and it will make a different
and by that i mean intake, spacer, test pipes, exhaust

 

I am pretty mechanically inclined. its just the science behind the install that i'm worried about. i can definitely put the spacer in no prob. through my research i have heard osiris and uprev tune are the way to go or probably the best way for that matter. but i am pretty much content on not doing an intake, and as far as exhaust goes from what i hear test pipes will throw a cel which i am not a fan of. i want to go all stock except for the spacer and maybe the tune. i don't want to shell out $$$ for minimal gains. just want something to get a lil more umph than my friends Z, but remain stock.

ps.. how much will a tune cost me?

 

You're right. You're not understanding the science behind it. The intake and exhaust basically go hand-in-hand. The stock air box doesn't allow the flow of air that you'll need to benefit from the other mod you want: spacer and exhaust. Can you install the spacer and exhaust and leave the intake alone? Yeah but they won't be functioning at their full potential. I suggest you look into intakes. Just keep the stock air box in case you want to sale the Z in the future.

I strongly recommend you get the Osiris tune. There are many more management solutions but I love Osiris. It'll be appx $500-800 for the license and custom tune. BTW, the Osiris software will cancel out the SES light (CEL).

Go to UpRev's website and check for the nearest tuner in your area. If the tuner is in another, far away state then perhaps you'll have to choose another EMS solution that can be tuned closer to you.

 

Wow, way to push the intakes guys....let me tell you some real facts:
1 all na gains will be minimal in general
2 the best na gain even without a tune is the spacer
3 on my last z my mods went like this, spacer with stock intake, spacer with 06 airbox, spacer with 06 airbox and cat-back exhaust and finally spacer, stillen intake, and cat-back exhaust.
I went to a local dyno day with my 06 air box and my car beat every single de engine car there even ones with headers and test pipes.
Intakes do not do anything except heat soak, the manifold is way too restrictive itself for an intake to really have any gains.
Every mod is better with a tune but you dont need it, on the plenum shootout they did not tune and most of them gained ~10whp that is enough for me to install it ask me.

 

Yo, I'm not pushing anything. I'm made a suggestion since you came here asking questions. Yes, we all agree with your number 1 and 2. No one is saying you're dumb. You asked about a new MD spacer and if it benefits your car without a tune. Since your 'last z mods went like this, spacer with stock intake, spacer with 06 airbox...' then why don't you just install the new MD spacer on your new Z?

Congratulations on beating everyone on the dyno shoot out. Perhaps, there was more to the story (i.e. why your car beat theirs). Perhaps not but that's besides the point.

 

Lol..I'm not the OP and I did not mean anything bad about pushing the intakes, It's just that usually everyone show up saying to keep the stock intake and today is the opposite
I dont know why my car dynoed higher and even the guys at the shop were like "do you have any internal mods" I was like not that I'm aware of....most of the guys with pop chargers did terrible. My current car came with an intake and I am itching to get rid of it lol.

 

This was actually a funny post. There's nothing to be 100% sure about: It's a fact.

IF you buy a spacer (which you have) and DON'T install it... it's pointless.

Like any and all folks above have said... You make more room to bring air in without allowing for more air to go out then guess what? You get the same amount of air- and if you don't get the SAME you'll get so close to the same that the difference you feel will be very minor.

Most guys sticking stock and putting in spacers and Z tubes and CAIs are looking for a predatory exhaust note... not really concerning themselves with performance gains.

I went with intake bolt ons / spacer before my tune and with the stock exhaust and LOVED how it sounded but I'm not sure exactly how much "oomph" I got out of it. Heck, at my altitude- with a tune, exhaust / HFC and intake mods I think I put down 224 to the wheels on a dynojet. I'm an AT, mind you...

 

Stupid me for not making sure. LOL. Your reply seemed to be directed at me and I automatically thought the OP was replying.

Weird that you b1tch slapped other people with more mods than you with nominal applications. I supposed that happens sometimes.

 

Here is a 350Z with no tune:

17. Davidv ----------------------04 Enth 6spd 13.331@105.24mph 1.947 60ft Street

 

Yeah, one guy was upset..........he had a true dual, hfc, headers, same spacer as I did and a pop charger, his car had 5whp less than mine (I had a single exhaust)
At this point his car not having a tune was hurting performance.

 

Start here:

https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-n...questions.html

Specifically here:

https://my350z.com/forum/2487452-post8.html

Where you will find:

 

After you install the spacer you will have gains...its one of the few mods you can actually feel with the butt dyno, obviously you can get more out of the mod once you get your car tuned

 

thanks for all the input! i really appreciate it. im going to do the spacer for sure. since its my dd and i am a college student (broke as a joke babay) i want to keep performance mods as reliable as possible. hopefully my butt dyno will feel something with the difference. just read that sometimes the Z will run lean without a tune so hopefully this is not the case for me at least until i get a tune in the future. (which hopefully will be worth it as i'm not going to do aftermarket intake or exhaust..(y pipe maybe but no test pipes/hfc)

 

+1. Without the tune it's just youthful enthusiasm IMO.

IIRC, after the tune I gained a good 24-25 WHP with intake, exhaust, spacer. It's not anything to go crazy over, but it IS something you can actually feel, not to mention a tuner will make your gain linear across the board. THIS feels really good on the throttle.

Search threads I've started in the Enigine/Intake section. You'll find my install write-up with lots of pics/problems I encountered/ect. The one good thing about us old timers is we wrote all the archived tutorials on DIYs...

 

vo's comment sums it up.
JCitys does not haha.

intake for our cars NA w no tune= zero point, proven to lose power and driveability.

plenum spacer w no tune= at a minumum, restores better airflow to front cylinders, so this is a reliability gain. INcrease in soudn too, very cool mod. Power, meh.

Exhaust for our cars, time and time over.. its the sound difference and thats about it.



As VO says ( and i concur from experience as well) ...All of the above shifts when a tune is added. iin the meantime, Leave your stock airbox, leave your stock exhaust, install your spacer, and buy a tune next. Hell, buy a cobb and tune it yourself as you mod.

they are cheap.