Acadiana Sports Car Orphanage is proud to announce the release of our Intake Manifold Spacer Kit, our newest product for many Nissan VG series applications. Developed as a result from active demand from customers purchasing our Z31 300ZX Gutted Intake Plenums, our Intake Manifold Spacer Kit comes with everything you'll need to help battle heatsoak (and as a result increase performance) on your VG powered vehicle!

First off, our spacers are waterjetted and machined pieces of Garolite G10/XX phenolic material, offering thermal barrier protection of the upper intake manifold from heat transmitted to it from the lower intake manifold (and thereby the rest of the engine itself). Inserting a thermal barrier here is a tried and true way of reducing the temperature of the intake air charge, improving power efficiency. The spacers themselves come in a 3/8 inch thickness for a strong balance between thermal functionality and increased port runner length, while still able to fit without hood clearance issues. Also, these spacers are designed to eliminate the use of a plenum gasket, and comes with silicone adhesive included with your purchase.

Our kits also include longer replacement socket head cap screws for those using a stock plenum (customers who have purchased an ASCO Gutted Plenum can simply reuse your stock length screws), silicone adhesive, coolant passage hose and clamps, and paper instructions, as well as a free Acadiana Sports Car Orphanage bumper sticker.

We are also pleased to offer a specialized spacer kit for Pathfinder and Xterra owners who have log-style upper intakes on their VG30 and VG33 powered vehicles. The Pathy/Xterra kit comes with the appropriate bolts for those style manifolds. Z owners using a Pathfinder or Xterra upper intake will need to purchase the proper kit for proper fitment.

Z31 kits run 68.95, and Pathy/Xterra kits are 73.95, and can be purchased directly from AllThingsZ at:

http://www.allthingsz.com/store

Hey guys -

I've been really happy with the positive response we have gotten concerning these spacers.
I was answering some questions at ClubXterra and had been asked a few of these questions here, and a few other forums, so figured I'd post this to help everyone out:

"We chose the Garolite XX compound due to its excellent thermal barrier capabilities. Garolite also has better moisture resistance compared to other types of thermal spacer material, which is important due to the diversity of climates these may be pressed into service.

The spacer itself has 2 main functions, the first being to isolate the upper intake manifold from the lower intake manifold. Obviously, with the coolant passages throughout the lower intake, heat is transmitted directly into the LIM. With the upper plenum being bolted directly to it, this causes the upper manifold to warm up, and cause the incoming air to heat up prematurely. Of course, you are trying to have as cool and dense an air charge as possible funneling into your engine, so this is a bad thing. Inserting thermal material between the LIM and UIM will help that out a good bit.

Secondly, with a 3/8 inch thick spacer, you are increasing runner length by the same 3/8s of an inch. The longer your runners become, the more your low end torque figures should be positively affected. Ask a LT1 Chevy guy about the difference between a short runner intake and a long runner intake, and you'll find out just how huge a difference runner length can make. Obviously, 3/8s of an inch is not going to cause you to have enough power to reverse the rotation of the earth when getting on the gas, but it should provide a modest bump in your low end TQ numbers. We decided on 3/8s inch as a good all around size for thermal protection, runner length increase, and clearance requirements for the different vehicles powered by single cam VG engines."

Thanks to all who have shown interest thus far, and if there are any other questions you might have, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to answer them for you

-Zack