This is the best suggestion I've heard yet and it is the only way anything will truly be learned.

What I'm thinking is this... we need two 350Zs... one basically stock and one that's heavily modded, but still NA (since the Kinetix plenum is billed as an NA mod).

Those two cars would need to go to the same dyno and do three sets of pulls each... one with the stock plenum, one with the Crawford Plenum (not version 5... the version with the central bolts that most are running), and one set with the Kinetix plenum.

I'd be willing to throw my hat in as the heavily modded NA car if we can get one Charlotte area-based 350Z that still is running basically stock (with stock plenum). I already have the Crawford on my car. We could do runs as the cars are now, then swap plenums and run again.

The other piece necessary to make this happen would be getting a production spec Kinetix plenum delivered for the test. Are the Kinetix guys willing to do this?

I will not buy it... I've already bought my plenum and will stick with it. It can either be returned after the test or maybe the stock plenum Z-owner would buy it if interested after the test.

How does this sound to everyone? Based on this scenario, our list of needs are...

1 - A mostly stock 350Z (the more stock the better, definitely with stock plenum)
2 - A Kinetix Plenum
3 - Collectively $300 for 6 sets of dyno runs (sorry, I'm ponying up my car... I'm not paying for dyno time as well)

 

The only real way to see what plenum shows better gains, is to do it on a totally stock car .Then if you wanted to see what each would do with mods, you would have to add a mod, [say...cats] and then run dyno's with cats and crawford, then take the crawford off and put on the Kinetics and run another dyno .Then each mod has to be added and each plenum dynoed with the added mod .To do a real comparison it has to be done with the same [stock] car and the same dyno .

 

Hopefully I'll have a Kinetix plenum out here by March 13th. Then I'll return my car to stock and do the back to back to back dynos. For much less than $300. I don't know where you go but that is highway robbery for 6 runs.

If there is a heavily modded Z at the dyno day we'll hack apart his car as well.

So my list of needs is:

1) A kinetix plenum.

I'm not asking for any money from anyone, and I don't care about giving up my car. I haven't even contacted LSD yet about this, so I'm not sure if it is even possible. He is very forthcoming when it comes to testing his parts though. I'll be doing tests on his high flow cats and test pipes in the near future.

Dan

 

Exactly what I thought. The problem with the long time between the test and the release of the mag is that there may be more competitors in the market.

 

I own a dynojet 248c just outside Chicago. I am completely unbiased, as I have ZERO interest in either of these plenums for my car.

if it would make you guys stop taking up all the damn bandwidth on this board, slowing down my viewing of the forum, with all this plenum talk...

someone bring a stock 350z here. someone bring the plenums here... ill bring the grill and the boxing gloves. lets do it. ill dyno the car for free, just for the attention, and the time(=money) i save being able to view these forums without all this plenum stuff slowing me down.

-charles

 

Well said. A bit bigger data sample would be nice for each product.

 

Someone HAS to take him up on that offer!!

 

That's a great offer. Except for the fact that he doesn't have a Z or either of the plenums. There are 5 threads on the plenums. Deal with it. It's not slowing you down.

 

actually, i have a Z... but i dont think you want me to try the plastic plenum on it....

and im definatly not gonna argue the consistency of plenum related posts... theres no grounds to say its not very, very thick.

anyhow, the offer stands. perhaps we can do it at our first 350z dyno day this spring.

 

I understand. I figured you had a Z if you posted here. I meant you didn't have a Z to do the tests. Should have articulated myself better. Ultimately this is all theoretical at this point since the Kinetix peice is not out yet and alot of them are spoken for. Hopefully we'll get to do it in the future.

Yea there are plenty of threads on the plenum, and I'm not going to argue with you about that. But that's what people want to talk about right now. It's a forum. That's what it's here for. What is wasting your bandwidth is probably all the threads started by new members asking which intake is best. There are probably 10 times as many threads on that topic.

Dan

 

The cost for somebody to independently do this is crazy. Even if the plenums are loaned out for the test, the cost to Remove the stocker, install the LSD, remove it, install the crawford and remove that one (or possibly just leave it on lol) would be alittle much.. then the cost for the dyno pulls? I dunno, my Z is bone stock as we speak.. I'm looking to start tweakin it and I'd be willing to use my car as the guiney pig to end this madness, but not at that cost lol. If we can work something out I'll do it, although neither company seems too interested to do this.

 

I'll see what I can work up. I don't understand what you think the cost would be? The dyno shop wouldn't do the work of removing and installing the plenums.

 

yea, doing this side by side test could potentially be very risky for the manufacturers of the products. so getting test unit for this may not be likely.

as for cost of install... well at a dyno day here or something i figure i would help the owner of the car do it themselves. The plenum is right on top, not too big of a deal.

 

I'll do it...since you are right down the street. But I need the Kinetics plenum at a really good price, and possibly a money back guarantee if the gain isn't there. All I have is the Injen SES. That should be stock enough.

 

You'd need a Crawford plenum and a Kinetix plenum.

Dan

 

Did you even read my proposal? That's is 1/2 of what I'm proposing. It has been suggested (and it is accurate) that you will see different gains on a stock car vs the gains seen on a heavily modded car. I offer up the heavily modded car. Someone else needs to bring a stock one.

EACH car would do 3 runs with the with stock plenum, crawford plenum, and kinetix plenum. The stock car would have the stock plenum for testing. The modded car (mine in this case) would have the Crawford plenum. We would need to obtain a Kinetix plenum to test on each car.

Again... did you even read my proposal? 18 runs... not 6. Three on stock car/stock plenum; three on stock car/crawford plenum; three on stock car/kinetix plenum; three on modded car/stock plenum; three on modded car/crawford plenum; three on modded car/kinetix plenum.

If you have a connection at a shop that will let you do 18 runs for cheap or no cost great. Otherwise... I see 6 sets of runs @ $50 per set of 3. 6 x $50= $300... no charge for the participants time (all day) or the labor involved by the participants in swapping plenums on 2 cars, 3 times each.

AND
2) a heavily modded 350Z
AND
3) a crawford plenum
AND
4) money to pay for 18 dyno runs... though it sounds like your willing to do this out of pocket.

I beginning to think no one here really wants answers because if they're were a set of indisputable facts, the most vocal complainers would have nothing to B*tch about.

 

i thought stock meant "no mods"...if you are going to do it then do it right so that there is no doubts

mcduck...i applaud your efforts and good luck with everything...i personally think there is enough info out there already to make a good decision

 

McDuck -

Sorry for the misread of your post. I have a Crawford plenum already and I am willing to foot the bill for whatever my tuner charges, and I will get a great deal because I set up a dyno day for him, which I don't mind paying anyway, because I want to know as well as you and taking donations just complicates the process.

THe only thing I am not keen on doing is buying the Kinetix plenum because I won't use it. I also hope to have a Perfect Power ECU installed by that time as well. This will be great because it has a bypass plug which will allow me to test the plenums with the base Z map, then with my map without changing cars or even unstrapping the car from the dyno.

All in all, I think it would take me and a friend, less than 2 hours for all the labor involved, and less than an hour to take the however many runs that would be. I guess 18 if I have the Perfect Power ECU by then.

I contacted LSD to see what he thinks about it, because judging from the buzz, it is going to be hard to get a production plenum for a little while. I'm assuming some people who say they have moeny in hand will ***** out at the last minute, but the buzz is huge so I'm sure there is a host of real customers in line.

So ultimately all I need for a pretty conclusive test is the Kinetix plenum as I said before. Let me know what you think.

Dan

 

Or a highly modded Z with the Crawford, in the area that will dyno with me. Then we could swap plenums around all day.

 

Alright I spoke to LSD. He's all for sending me out a plenum, but obviously he's very busy with the release of his new product. So, what we can do now is this: we can come to a consensus on how we want the tests run, so when the plenum gets here down the road, we are all in agreement that the tests went as planned.

I think it would also be great if we could get McDuck and sschmuve up and running as well. I think that three separate tests on the same day would put any debate to rest and really give the community a good foundation of knowledge to work with in regards to purchasing a plenum and what the benefits of that purchase will be. So I propose that McDuck, sschmuve, and myself get the preliminary logistics worked out and then each go about organizing the resources we need in our respective areas.

Personally, I think McDuck's plan is very good. Having a stock Z and a heavily modified Z both test the products, however I think it is too much work for any one person. I think if there are three of us that can get the resources together, McDuck should handle the dyno of the heavily modded car (because you have one), sschmuve can handle the stock car, and I will do the stock car and hopefully also get an idea of the effect of a piggyback ECU as well.

What do you guys think?

Dan