This Thread has been beat to death....I have done exhaust, cats, and intake. I want to get a Plenum, and dont care about price to much. Which one is more reliable, and which one has better power? Is the Plenum a noticable difference? Better 1/4 mile times? Help me out I need my fellow 350z owners help!!

 

reliability goes to crawford, the kinetix showed good gains across the board while the crawford had better gains up top. price goes to kinetix. it might shave a .1 off your times, maybe less. if you want some really good info call up the reatailers, kinetix has great customer service, as does crawford and both of them would like to give you their info on their products.

 

Ya, but if I call them they will tell me theirs is better. I like to know what you guys think..Can you tell your car goes faster with this mod?

 

Both will provide gains, both are noticeable.

The biggest knock on Kinetix thus far is reliability, this seems to be fixed with V3.

The biggest knock on Crawford is looks, inability to utilize the engine cover/strut bar and it's a bit more expensive and requires your core .

Choose which you can live with/without and go from there.

--wes

 

I would have to disagree w/ wesman regarding the looks of the Crawford plenum. I had mine powder coated blue, it looks great IMO.

 

Just because you had additional work done to yours to make it look better doesn't change the underlying fact that the piece as it ships from Crawford is regarded as many to be subpar in the looks departments. In addition, you just added to another negative of that piece....the price.....it went up even more with the powdercoating.

The polished version looks a lot better....but again, much more expensive.

BTW-I have both a Crawford and a Kinetix plenum, I'm not biased to either...unfortunately I've noticed that most in the Crawford camp will argue until their dying day to defend the product regardless of the truth.

--wes

 

I tend to think the plastic Plenum stays cooler than the aluminum (heatsoak), therefore delivers cooler air to the cylinders (denser charge / more HP).

 

The V3 is a much improved version. I like the fact that I keep my stock if I ever have to revert back for any reason. i.e. Warranty work! Price wise the Kinetix is approx $400.0 vs the Crawford about same price but you need a new strut bar $180.0 plus loosing your stock..The big question is will/how long will it last? The design differences between V2 and V3 seem to address the problems with cracking. Larger center bolts (2) surface area to reduce peak loading as well as an increase in overall structural stiffness. Almost no deflections under load.. Time will tell...Customer service is unbeatable. I e-mailed them on a monday and they shhpped the V3 the same day..Power wise it pulls strong beginning around 3500/4000 in 4 th

 

It was only $20 to have it powder coated. I think that is very reasonable. As far as looks, that is subjective. I honestly think the Crawford plenum looks great under the hood. Just because you don't like the way it looks, does not make it fact.

 

Oh Yeah, Crawford shipped the plenum already powder coated. The version I'm speaking of is Version 5. I agree that the V1-V4 are not pleasant to look at.

 

V1 - the original (humps and all)



V5 - Refined

 

So Crawford only charges $20 to powdercoat the plenum ? I'd say that's a heck of a deal. I certainly don't think that one would be able to go to the local powdercoating and expect to pay $20 bucks to get theirs done.

I suppose you could argue that it is not fact that the Crawford isn't attractive. I do however think it's safe to say that according to polls I've seen here and random posts that the majority of the people feel it's not a show piece, and could use a touch up (which they've seemed to do in V5, looks much much better)

As long as you're happy with it that's all that matters...and BTW I was speaking more of V1-V4 as well.

--wes

 

BTW-I have both a Crawford and a Kinetix plenum, I'm not biased to either...unfortunately I've noticed that most in the Crawford camp will argue until their dying day to defend the product regardless of the truth.

--wes [/B][/QUOTE]

Defend what? That it works? What is the truth? That it works and is reliable and is properly constructed? And that the latest version looks good, if not great?

And to get the grey one pictured in the post above, there is NO additional charge for that color powdercoat. The $20 upcharge applies only to custom colors (red, blue, black).

See www.crawfordzcar.com for the truth.

 

Personally I chose the Crawford V5 since I intend to boost over 8psi. I would not trust the Kinetix plastic plenum under pressure.
Crawford even offered to beef up the welded seam for an extra 20-40 bucks to guarantee robustness under pressure. But either way both plenums seem to adress the poor OEM design for the NA apps.

 

Here's a pic of the blue Crawford V5

 

Defend what? That it works? What is the truth? That it works and is reliable and is properly constructed? And that the latest version looks good, if not great?

And to get the grey one pictured in the post above, there is NO additional charge for that color powdercoat. The $20 upcharge applies only to custom colors (red, blue, black).

See www.crawfordzcar.com for the truth. [/B][/QUOTE]


Lmfao.....this post pretty much illustrates my point. Sorry, but the V1-4 are pretty damn ugly......that's the truth!

I don't recall questioning if it worked,whether it was reliable or if it was properly constructed. You folks in the Crawford Camp love to read into things and are always defending things that were never even in question. The only thing that was being discussed were the looks of the unit, sorry you read too much into it. You may want to read back through and read it all, instead of skimming for a negative word about Crawford and having a hissy fit.

Calm down, drink some whiskey and enjoy your plenum.

--wes

 

wes, I agree about Crawford product owners sticking it out until they die (dying words, Crawford RULES, lol).

I just don't like the way the Kinetix Racing looks, and Crawford should've figured out a way by now to keep the engine cover on and some strut bars work over it. Looks like i'm gonna have to wait until someone else can make a decent plenum for what i'm looking for. Crawford makes great products (gains), but their looks are negative (their headers look like they're cheap and not made to be shown to anyone), but hey, some people like performance more than they care about looks. But then again I remember Dave posting up links to their video when they just started making this stuff for the Z and being so excited because their products sounded awesome in the video. I want looks and performance, so i'll just hope someone will make one I like. That's just my .02 cents, take it for what it is...

 

Lmfao.....this post pretty much illustrates my point. Sorry, but the V1-4 are pretty damn ugly......that's the truth!

I don't recall questioning if it worked,whether it was reliable or if it was properly constructed. You folks in the Crawford Camp love to read into things and are always defending things that were never even in question. The only thing that was being discussed were the looks of the unit, sorry you read too much into it. You may want to read back through and read it all, instead of skimming for a negative word about Crawford and having a hissy fit.

Calm down, drink some whiskey and enjoy your plenum.

--wes [/B][/QUOTE]


The looks were never in question-what you saw was what you got, and yes, the appearance has greatly improved. There was never any question the factory strut bar would not fit, thus the Crawford bar was offered as an alternative. Some people have devised a way to use the engine cover (partially). Therefore, it seemed to me that you were questioning the performance and reliability of their plenum, not just alluding to the appearance when you mention the "Crawford Camp" and "The Truth."

Didn't mean to revisit all those issues that have been beaten to death in the past.

By the way, I wish I could get one to work on my 240Z.

 

Here's the Crawford polished plenum.............. pretty good quality if you ask me...........

 

Again, I thought the quality was excellent. And I would be proud to show them off....but they're hid down in the bowels of the engine bay - ha!