Prototyping v2: Real Phenolic Spacers!!

well we at GrimmSpeed listened to your concerns and decided to get the ball rolling on these bad boys. a first of its kind for the subaru crowd...TRUE phenolic tgv/head spacers. these arent those fake plastic ones you see made by other companies...these are the real deal.

for those of you that dont know what these bad boys are....what they are used for is to lift the intake mani/tgv's off the super hot engine so the heat of the engine doesnt transfer straight to the inlet air(which you want to keep as cool as possible). never before have these been offered....but the time as come.

we just got the protoypes in today so the testing will start tonight. its a rather simple product so i dont expect any issues.

enjoy!!!

Justin
www.grimmspeed.com

 

i think they need to be double that size

 

anything over 1/8" you will need longer intake mani bolts. also the bigger they are the more it mis aligns the tb>tmic connection. we would have to source some longer bolts if we wanted to make some thick ones for guys with fmic's.

 

watch out when you are torquing the intake down, less threads in aluminum means strippy strip strip

 

yeah..thats why we are only staying with the 1/8"ers

 

oooh good hting you mad them i was just about to order some! now if you make them i can get em form you guys

 

oh we will be making these for sure. just need to test them first before ordering a ton.

 

I'll take a set and be the gunnia pig!!

 

that thing looks nice who engineered that for you??? winkwink

 

I'm sure Justin is not going to tell u all of his secrets...

 

i think the wink wink means he knows.. lol

 

i know...I was just elaborating on it...

 

Please make sure these seal well before selling them. I have seen quite a few from other companies that didn't seal and caused major tuning problems.

Also- let me know when they are up for sale.

 

lookin good.

will these also work kinda like a TB spacer? by having a longer straight area for the air before it enters the motor?

speaking of TB spacers, any chance of getting a grimmspeed Tb spacer for the phase 1 EJ22e? there are alot of people on RS25 dieing for these.

 

yeah..what are your thoughts. i'm trying to figure out what is the best way to install these....

no oem gaskets or
1 oem gasket below the spacer or
1 oem gasket above the spacer or
2 oem gaskets, one above and one below.


your thoughts?

alot of american car high performance shops sell these so there has to be a correct way to install w/o leaks.

if you would work with me on the TB spacer for the phase 1 we can get something out. feel like being a rep for us over at rs25 if we were to do it?

 

Doesn't Hondata already make these sort of isolator spacers out of UHMW?

 

Here's a link to an install

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=609584

 

they make it out of the same stuff that plastic cutting boards are made out of. phenolic has better heat retaining properties.

 

isn't the whole point of installing these to NOT retain heat??

 

phenolic essentially blocks the heat from transering through to the intake manifold.

what i meant is the phenolic retains the heat and doesnt transfer it to the intake.

 

Retains heat=good insulator. A compound that has insulating qualities will take a long time to heat up, but will stay hot longer, given the same constants. See water.

 

I think what you are trying to say is that the coefficient of thermal conductivity is lower for phenolic than UHMW. And it is. But I doubt you will notice a difference between the two.

 

use 2 oem gaskets to be safe...

 

lol, yes....thank you.

 

pretty nice write up i found.

 

^^ wow cool find and what a good inexpensive way to get some good power/cooling for your engine. when you guys going to be done testing?

 

i'd like to do a couple weeks of testing. i'm going to order another small batch and i'll hand a few sets out for free and as long as you do some testing for us.

also right now i'm debating on exact materials. i'm at a little loss right now because alot of american car performance shops use this type of phenolic for their spacers but this phenolic has a max operating temp of like 260-280. well not that doesnt make sense because i think our engines get hotter than that on the outside...maybe not though. i'm going to have to get a laser thermometer and test out how hot they get, unless any of you know

 

Glad someone's stepping up. I know there's been mention of these mixed with discussions about the throttle body spacer. Geddesk2 over on RS25 and Nasoic stepped up for the TBS and we now have availability through Turn in Concepts (TiC). A nice phenolic spacer would round out the package nicely. Ever think about offering it through TiC?

 

offer it for n/a or turbo subies throttle body and intake gaskets as a kit

 

^ your avatar blows.... just thought u should know... ;D

 

we obviously cant get to insanely detailed with tests since we are on a tight budget. as for right now we are going to be testing the temperature of the intake mani itself and that will satisfy me enough right now until we have more cash to do some more creative testing. There has been alot of testing on other car brands and they all show improvement.

are you speaking about the intake mani spacer or tb spacer? i can definitely chat with TiC and maybe get something going. we could sell the package both on our site and theirs too. i'll chat with geddesk2 as well. i'd like to people's thoughts on this because i'm really not "up" with the rs25 scene so i dont know what their needs are as much as the wrx/nasioc crowd.

we could do that. i thought backroadrunner said TiC already has the TB spacer available though.

 

it has also come to my attention that our engines should be staying and whatever the coolant is keeping it at which is 170-200 which is definitely in the acceptable range for this particular material.

 

I think most people at RS25 and Nasioc have the same desires.

I know geddesk2 ran into issues with various years and fitment, so if you plan on offering it through all year ranges, you may have to produce a couple different designs. If you have no problems machining different designs, great. I'd expect you may need a couple test cars for fitment, so hitting up larger sites like RS25 and Nasioc may prove benificial if you happen to have a hard time finding local guys.

This should be a nice bundle with the TBS too. I've got a baseline for my car and wouldn't mind getting both on my car prior to LSE's Spring group dyno that should be coming up sometime in the pretty near future. I'm curious how both improve performance and all around drivability.

 

ok cool. i'm not expecting this to be a big hp/tq gainer...just away to manage all that heat, and maybe gain a few hp/tq/mpg's along the way.

 

You could PM PimPreza_WRX and ask if he wants to be your guinea pig. I have the manifold off his car in my garage right now.

 

picked up a thermal coupler and laser thermometer on my way home. let the testing commence.

 

lmao, your garage is becoming a regular chop shop nowadays.

I think Hrouda is getting tired of parking outside all the time now. :laugh:

 

Too sell over on RS25.com you need vendor status. i personally dont think i am well enough connected to grimmspeed to be a representative. maybe if this changed i would be up for it.


i will help w/ prototyping or whatever just let me know. if your at firestone friday we can talk.

 

i know you have to vendor. it was kinda a joke....kinda not. you just seem to have alot of old school knowledge so i wouldnt mind tap'ing it...... yes martin, i want to tap you.

 

EEEP!

 

ok. so the hottest bill and i could get his engine on the outside was about 185 when idling....that means this phenolic will work perfect because its max operating temp is 265.

 

i have alot of intrest in getting them for my 2.2... these and the TB spacers

 

btw, i am more than willing to put my motor thru the paces for testing, let me know when...