Yes , I do know that the OEM cover does not fit over a Crawford Plenum , I have one and tried, it rubs the hood (front of plenum to hood). The APS pelnum appears to add at least as much vertical height to the front slope of the plenum as the Crawford , if not slightly more. Unless APS changes the fundamental shape, I't doesn't appear that it woudl fit. I asked Peter this question a month or so ago, I he said the OEM cover would have to go. However , the design is in a state of flux , so some things may have changed.

 

I just brought that up cause I almost forgot about that part when I swapped mine.

Mine for some reason just doesn't sound like a locamotive. It sounds just maybe louder. It's been on about a week now - drove a lot with the windows down listening as well as reving the engine in the garage with the hood up and there just isn't that sound.

One thing I did that was slightly different than the directions was I put the two plastic O rings on top of the plenum inbetween the plenum and the bolt instead of in the inside where the bolt screws into the middle of the lower plenum. Doesn't seem like that'd make much difference. (I realized this after the fact and didn't feel like taking it all back off.)

 

According to Doug @ crawford , the two nylon washers are suppose to go on top between bolt head and top of the Plenum as you did. Thats were mine are and it makes since since the intent is to seal against vaccum leaks. I have no vaccum leakage as indicated by my vac/boost guage.

Basically as a comparo, I put these mods on in sequence last year. First to last.
a) Borla
b) " , Craw CaTs
c) ", " , Craw V5 Plenum

Of these three , with windows up and at cruise, the Plenum added the most noise inside my Cab. Basically windows down, I hear exhuaust , Window up at 65 mph cruise I can hear the Plenum. I like the exhuast note, and I don't like the Plenum note. It's just my opinion.

 

The Crawford plenum is aluminum. The only difference is that they weld the aluminum vs a molded aluminum piece. Crawford actually starts with the stock plenum, which is aluminum, and they cut the top/front portion out. Then they form some aluminum and weld it into place. Welding aluminum takes some skill. Then they polish it up a bit and poweder-coat it or like mine they really polish it up until it looks absolutely beautiful. The APS plenum is not out yet and making one from a mold is very tedious work since you have to have everything just right or you will have leaks.

 

what website have plenums for sale and which one is better the APS or Crawford

 

You could pre-roder an APS plenum now , but you woudn't receive one until well into Q1-05. The Crawford is available now and would ship within a months. It all depends if you want. I will be selling my Crawford V5 before X-mas (powder coat black, used for about 5k miles on a G35C). If interested give me a pm.

 

They are accepting pre-orders already? I guess then they mention how much these go for? I know that their website says the release date is somewhere around Feb 05.

 

I'm sure one of the dealers would be happy to take your money early , if you don't need it to buy X-mas presents For example SGP racing has it listed on the their site.

 

looks so pretty

 

what rims are those?

 

They look like Racing Hart J8's.

 

Nope , look like "J5s"

 

Exactly.

J8s in my sig.

 

someone PM'ed me asking about the crawford plenum and I thought I'd share what I wrote with everyone:


for me it wasn't as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. I've heard all sorts of people on these boards say it's been the biggest single improvement on their Z in comparison to any other mod.

Here's a couple factors with what happened with me anyway. I didn't reset the ECU - that might make the car react better with it than waiting for the ECU to adjust over a few days.

I also didn't get a real opportunity to do a bunch of WOT after putting it on because it was like 5am and cold outside so the roads were slightly slippery and kinda made me nervous of hitting it hard.

It's been a week or so now though and it seems to make a louder noise at around 4-5k rpms and up than with the stock plenum. It also seems to pull maybe a little more in that area also.

The sound on mine has been nothing but possitive. I'm not quite sure how my setup or plenum is different but it does not make a "WOO WOO" train sound at all - not even close. Just a louder version of the stock one. Maybe you could compare the sound difference as being blowing air into a soup can vs a big coffee can - sounds a little more hollow sounding.

as far as gains, the only other real power mod I have at the moment (many to be installed in 2 weeks) is the JWT popcharger and I'd say it adds the same if not slightly more power than that did. The popcharger for sure makes a more noticable sound than the plenum. My girlfriend who is in my car at least every other day didn't notice a change in sound with the plenum at all.