I have an 03 z and saw someone selling a used but like new Crawford Ver. 1 plenum. I instantly bought this sucker for $375 and am supposed to be getting it tomorrow. To my dismay I just learned that I cannot use the stock front strut bar or engine cover, BUT I can live with that.

I just read a review on the Kinetix ver 5 and I am thinking that I am going to be not getting as much poss. HP gains.

Did I pay too much?
Am I going to be happy with the vers. 1?
and is this thing an eye sore when you cant cover it with the stock plastic engine cover?


Thanks.

Dave

dm350z@msn.com

 

$375 isn't too bad of a price if you kept your core. I, however, would not have paid it. The Crawford v1 is incredibly ugly (no offense guys, just the truth), and I would never put that on my car. I say install it, drive with it for a week, then decide if it was worth it or not. If you decide it wasn't/isn't, sell it.

 

Dave,

I'm really sorry you feel that way. I think $375 is fair because you get to keep your stock plenum, which is a $200 savings. If you kept it with Crawford V5, it would be $575. And there is no major difference between the Version 5 and the first version, the new one is just a little more clean.

And about the strut bar, crawford does have a polished strut bar they sell as a replacement if you wanted. And I've seen a member on here cut their engine cover so it did fit over the crawford plenum if you wanted to do something like that.. I had it shipped yesterday.. you should get it tomorrow - I sent it FedEx. I'll email you the tracking number..

 

V1 fuly as hell and I still love it. I hate pretty *** engine bays anyway... It's all about business in my book - screw the show.

 

That's exactly how I felt when I bought it. Engines there to make power, not look pretty. Oddly enough, I'm now trying to do more of a clean look because I'm entering the car into shows over this summer

 

I have a V1, I don't think it looks that bad (I added a Crawford sticker), personally I could careless what my engine bay looks like, as long as it is faster. I must admit, I don't hang out with my car parked and my hood open either, just depends on what you do with your car.

 

I think once you feel what the performance is like from the Crawford Plenum, you'll forget how it'll look in your engine bay .

Besides, here's a pix of what it looks like with some creative sticker/emblem placement.

 

That's pretty neat, but is the KN sticker really necessary on the tube?

 

Hehehe, got carried away with the sticker thing

 

Yeah, I got the drop-in and was about to put the sticker on too (same place!), but my Z said she didn't like it.

 

Yeah. $375 is a lot of money but when you notice the power gains and how different it makes the car feel, I think you'll be happy. I hope so atleast

 

Well, if you are not happy I guess you can put it up to no research, you shouldn't have been surprised by the engine cover and strut bar issue, that has been discussed or mentioned to death whenever plenums are discussed and pics of the different versions of the Crawford plenum are a plenty on this forum. If you are not happy with the esthetics you wont be even after installing it, you should go with your first impressions and try to sell it.

 

If you really want the looks, you can always have it upgraded to a V5. We do take trade ins!

 

I like my V1

 

I just ordered a v1 intake. After the overwhelming evidence that the factory intake plenum is causing the #5 and #6 cylinders to go lean in some cases blow the motor with F/I that was enough for me.

Boulder Nissan has built two vq35 motors with forged internals so far and both showed signs of seriously lean conditions in the #5 and #6 cylinders when they tore down the motors.

They are going to run 25 psi through the crawford plenum on these motors.

Any way about the strut bar first of all crawford makes one that will fit second of all unless you are track racing your z car on a regular basis most everyone ive talked to thinks they are more show than go. but yea it still sucks to loose it as it looks pretty cool.

 

I have the V5 but I think the V1 looks cool. I like a all business look also ...

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SQUILL
[B]I just ordered a v1 intake. After the overwhelming evidence that the factory intake plenum is causing the #5 and #6 cylinders to go lean in some cases blow the motor with F/I that was enough for me.

Boulder Nissan has built two vq35 motors with forged internals so far and both showed signs of seriously lean conditions in the #5 and #6 cylinders when they tore down the motors.

They are going to run 25 psi through the crawford plenum on these motors.

Any way about the strut bar first of all crawford makes one that will fit second of all unless you are track racing your z car on a regular basis most everyone ive talked to thinks they are more show than go. but yea it still sucks to loose it as it looks pretty cool. Anyway if you go F/I in the future i wonder if the kinetix plenum since its plastic would have to be replaced anyway???