I was searching for intake manifolds and came across this:



I've reached out to a company in Malaysia called CNC Innovations, they make a whole bunch of nice billet intake manifolds for various cars, including our 350z's !
I basically wanted to get some info as I want to either replicate what Sasha did with his intake years ago or try something else (thus finding these guys), and said I wanted to share their website with the community.
I didn't really get much detailed info back in a couple of emails, so I thought ah might as well share what I found.

This is what I was looking at, strut bar does clear it, and can be front facing too if you are chopping up your hood:
https://www.cncinnovationsmy.com/pro...with-rotatable

(350z bits and pieces inc ITB's from 4AGE)
https://www.cncinnovationsmy.com/sea...&type=products

https://www.youtube.com/@cncinnovations1667/videos

Just wondering what you guys think ?

I'm clueless for 'fluid dynamics' stuff but overall this does look well designed but hey, not an expert here!
All I'm looking for is a more optimised manifold for my NA built engine.

You can see one of my threads here about my intake potential restriction 'issue':
https://my350z.com/forum/na-builds/6...na-engine.html
If I order this, I'd go with a 92mm neck, LS throttle body, as it'll match the rest of what I've made.

 

That teflon runner gasket they sell seems interesting also

 

That's a very interesting setup, expensive but interesting.
No numbers on it tho?

 

I think the price is fair, you get:
Fuel rail
Plenum
Runner (52mm)
Teflon gasket
TB adapter
Fittings

Well the numbers thing, is kind of pointless to me because it's not my set up.
So I don't care what it does for a stock engine (and most companies wont show a tuned stock) in that sense, and I don't trust numbers as such.
You know what it's like, can easily be manipulated.
I'd like to know how it flows compared to the stock set up but yeah, I guess there's only one way to find out...
Although I've got to wait until house sale/buying is done.

 

To a degree you are right, except for the way it affects the powerband.
That cannot be manipulated, kinda like how Kinetix says the velocity does 30hp on a stock engine, true or not...it does shift the powerband upward and we know the stock manifold sucks for high end power.
No amount of mods will overcome the factory manifold, but if the Kinetix shifts it up you can only assume it will work better with other mods.
From a flow perspective I have 2 quarrels with it:
1. The neck is still bad like OEM.
2. The make the runners wider but no mention as to how they mate up with the head.
IMHO the best thing they have are those ITBS, the manifold would be great for a boosted car, for NA Sasha pretty much proved ITBS are superior to a manifold.

 

Yeah I see what you're saying.
It did shift it further upwards for me but I've either got something messed up in the engine build (I doubt timing but you never know) or it's just not optimal for my build.
Hey for all I know, maybe JWT sent me the wrong cams?

I don't think the neck is AS bad as OEM, larger and it's appears shorter.
Not sure about their runners but my ones are matched to the gasket/heads.

Just for a reminder, here is Sasha's old one:

Obviously has the large taper going into the main chamber to smooth out the flow and fill it up more evenly (at a guess).
Where as the CNC version isn't wide so I'm not sure there would be much of a downside to their neck design that's filling a central chamber if you see what I mean.


Obviously you could have it facing forwards but er, that'll make for an interesting hood



I'd love to go ITB's but that does bring an extra level of complexity, and **** ton of cost (granted their set up would knock it down somewhat).

As a side note:

I did message Gareth from Racepace Motorsports (Melbourne/Aus) last year as I was keeping an eye on their facebook posts about the progress they made on their 350z (from modified stock plenum to itb's).
Their track car is largely stock but with JWT C8 intake with RZ2 exhaust cams, their headers are very similar spec as my PPE LT's (not off-the-shelf PPE long tubes).
'We cut off the back upper plenum inlet, and welded in a 3.5” inlet which was fed by a Bosch 82mm throttle body. 3.5” inlet into modified stock airbox. Also added a 2nd plenum spacer. We peaked this setup at 329whp @ 7600rpm'
We then got the ITBs from Jenvey. Most we got from the ITBs was 343rwhp @ 7600rpm.. We did gain a decent amount more torque in the midrange from the ITBs surprisingly.
Tried a few different velocity stack options, but weren’t able to get any more power. Tried revving to 8000rpm but no gains. So we found the limit of these camshafts.'

 

ITB's are sick. I made a custom set for a T8D motor(2001 kia sephia) way back in the day with 1000cc motorcycle throttles. The intake sound was epic, but the car was leaning out above 4k and I wasn't knowledgeable at the time about tuning

 

I thought you were referring to the composite manifold, for NA the radius of the bend matters as much as the diameter.
Have you checked out Michael Gardner's build on YouTube?
He had/has the highest powered DE on paper and uses a modded plenum like the one Sasha had, notice how they change the radius of the bend?
That's not just a byproduct of size, it's intentional, but if a modified plenum meets your need just go with that.
If you want more, i just can't see an argument to spend about $1500 on a manifold that doesn't show proven gains vs ITBS which we know do.

 

I did check that carbon fibre one a bunch, as well as 350Z247 make his version on youtube many years ago.
Yeah MG's is Sasha's old one & engine (curious to see how his refreshed built engine turns out)

I was going to get my old plenum modified like Sashas\MG's just to see what it did, and then just spotted this CNC one and posted it up

The Jenvey ITB's setup is probably £3.5k or so (no idea on the 4AGE ver)
As I also had thought about putting the HR plenum on it but once again, the G4+ ecu won't run dual throttle bodies (so once you get an ecu that can + aux bits, you're back to similar-ish ITB money heh).

 

This is why I chose to not go NA lol.
if you decide to be the guinea pig, let us know hoe it works out!

 

Just curious if anyone has actually gone ahead and ordered and installed this intake plenum.
It would make a great show piece and i wonder what kind of results I would get with a 75mm throttle body
and changing to a Gruppe M conical super cleaner intake would have.
I am not planning to go with a supercharger, just a ram air intake like the Gruppe M super cleaner

 

$1000 for an intake....no thanks, I'll do custom for that money.

 

Blast from the past for me, since I haven't been active in the z community for YEARS but I guess this will be my chance to resurface.
I placed an order with them last week. When it arrives, I'll finally bring the Z back from its 5 year hibernation and swap out the MREV2/Crawford upper plenum/ 350evo 72mm throttle body combo.

 

OT: I see you had a TBSS, and in my favorite color. I had a black RWD '06 with a bunch of bolt-ons. Got stolen years ago. I really miss that truck. Do you like the Trackhawk better?

 

I do miss the rev-happy pushrod feel of the trailblazer but the instant near-diesel torque of the Trackhawk is great.
The Trackhawk likes to wheel hop a lot compared to the solid axle trailblazer but the power level isn't even close. Trackhawk also makes tremendous gains off of bolt ons. 800+ HP is easy.
Trackhawk tows wayyyy better. The fragile 4L70 on the trailblazer just can't do what the Jeeps overbuilt trans can handle.

 

Curious to see what it does, any plans on hitting the dyno?

 

Probably but strictly for tune purposes. I won't be promising any dyno gain runs.

As it sits, it already has a rare set of SG Motorsports longtube headers so any dyno runs I get won't be comparable to most setups.

 

I got you, should be similar enough. We all know the DE is more intake restricted than exhaust restricted.

 

I was also looking at manifolds online and stumbled across this:



This is from a Renault Megane Trophy race car, but it must be an early version though, as all the others I have seen have a custom carbon plenum. I was looking at the race versions of the VQ that were used Europe to see if there was any interesting NA mods that I could apply to my build. Almost all of the hot VQ’s used for racing are running ITB’s, except for this version in the Trophy. This version was rated at 360bhp. They all seem to be running some version of dbw throttle body(s), (some have a large single unit.) This got me thinking, the Cosworth design, to me, has always seemed to underperform. I think because it has the same neck/TB restrictions as most other manifolds. Perhaps there is some performance to be unlocked in the Cosworth design if it were modified similar to Sasha’s or the Racepace Motorsport version.



The Cosworth intake internal design imitates the shape of ITB trumpets.

Perhaps this could get close to ITB levels of flow wit the right modifications and throttlebody size. The only issue is that the Cosworth manifold goes for almost as much as a set of ITB’s, but I suppose you would save the cost of having to go to a stand alone ecu. Just some thoughts.

 

Shocker, lol.
The stock manifold is terrible for NA power, I don't even think that racepace will make a difference.
The radius of the elbow is just too tight, I think the best solution is either a twin TB conversion or build a custom, better version of the Kinetix Velocity.