<--- See the newb icon! 2008 AWD FX35

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nealyo777

Member
Hey there!

My name is Neal and I have an 08 FX35 AWD in Autumn Copper (awesome brown leather interior) fully loaded, and I LOVE it! Live in Miami FL right now (someone has already keyed my car :-( people here kinda suck) but can't wait to move (hopefully back to Colorado).

Things I want to do:
1) Intake: Likely will go with the Stillen, although if someone wants to try to convince me of another (or sell me something) I am listening!
2) Spacer: Motordyne 5/16 copper iso-thermal
3) Exhaust: This is a "pipe" dream at this point (yes, the pun was horrible, and yes intended)
 
I see the newb icon!
Welcome. I vote for an exhaust to compliment your intake. They go well together.
 
Welcome to IS. Excellent introduction. As for your list; The Stillen CAI is pretty much the standard around here and the iso thermal version of the spacer is generally considered a waste of money. The normal motordyne spacer is the one everybody loves. 5/16' vs 1/2" is personal preference.
 
tchuck said:
Welcome to IS. Excellent introduction. As for your list; The Stillen CAI is pretty much the standard around here and the iso thermal version of the spacer is generally considered a waste of money. The normal motordyne spacer is the one everybody loves. 5/16' vs 1/2" is personal preference.
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Thanks for the welcome everyone! I have done quite a bit of reading, and was under the impression that the copper iso-thermal helps in the cold climates (granted I am in Miami right now, but that will likely change). Is this not really the case? I am all about saving money (poor graduate student at the moment), so if it isn't necessary I'll gladly not pay the extra!

I also just looked through the thread on the chip that people are using, and that looks pretty cool, might have to add that to the list of mods to do!
 
Welcome to :iS: all things FX your in the right place for excellent Mod info:tup::tup:
 
nealyo777 said:
Thanks for the welcome everyone! I have done quite a bit of reading, and was under the impression that the copper iso-thermal helps in the cold climates (granted I am in Miami right now, but that will likely change). Is this not really the case? I am all about saving money (poor graduate student at the moment), so if it isn't necessary I'll gladly not pay the extra!

I also just looked through the thread on the chip that people are using, and that looks pretty cool, might have to add that to the list of mods to do!
Click to expand...

First of all you're slightly misunderstanding the intent of the "iso-thermal" part. The idea with both iso-thermal spacers is to thermally isolate the upper and lower plenums from the intake manifold, thereby (supposedly) decreasing the chance that heat from the block will make it to the plenum. This in theory will prevent the heated plenum from heating the air passing through the plenum. The fact is that *for many people* it doesn't. That's not to say though that it doesn't work for anyone, but best case scenario it doesn't do much. If 100% of the heat that warms the plenum came from the intake manifold (conduction) then the iso spacer would work perfectly, but it doesn't. A good portion of the heat comes from the engine block in the form of radiation and to a greater extent, ambient heat under the hood. For those two forms the spacer does absolutely nothing.

The copper version is recommended for very cold climates in which *according to MD* there is a risk of the throttle body freezing. The way in which this is done is by incorporating a copper spacer between the plenum and the throttle body, and redirecting the oem TB heating line into this spacer. The thing is, the oem TB heating line connects directly to the throttle body with the express intention of heating it up. It's meant to aid in emissions but in the end it's heating the TB directly. To buy into the copper iso-thermal logic is to believe that it is more efficient to heat the TB through a spacer than it is to heat it directly, which to be blunt, is stupid. A much better idea if you are concerned with the TB freezing is to install the normal plenum spacer and leave the oem TB heating hose connected. If you want to really get into it you could install a valve to turn off the TB heating line in the summer, but as I said before in reality it just doesn't have a big effect.
 
I had the spacer but no copper, and used the valve to open and close the line to the TB.
 
Ah, thanks for the clarification! It certainly seems like the valve is the way to go (although I likely won't even mess with the valve, seems like max you would get is maybe 1hp from that).
 
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