I was wondering if any of you had any experience with phenolic spacers? For those of you that don't know what these are goto http://home.san.rr.com/scmorgan/spacers.
I know alot of probers have them and like them (2-5 hp boost isn't bad for $60) but I have not heard from any 6ers.
Also, any info on the installation process, and whether a non-mechanic would be better off having it done for him, would be appreciated...
Since the probe/mx6/626 share the same block KL03(the 2.5L's Im referring only to the 2nd gen 2.5L's here)the same performance gain you get from the probe, you will also get on the mx6 and the 626. As far as the installation, if you have never taken your intake manifold off before, set aside an average of 6 hrs. That is how long a lot of the probers are taking to do this mod. If you take your car to a pro and let him do it, he can do it a max of half the time for sure. Anyone who helps out the probe/mx6/626 community definitely deserves a pat on the back, especially sean morgan, his spacers are well worth the money. Also, Probesport sells some stuff that is universal with the mazda's like the short shifter, and soon the antisway bar, its prototype is in testin at the moment, and also the rear strut bar. If any of you guys are in the market for any of this stuff, I highly suggest you buy the products from these guys, people that are in the probe community.
The gains are very good for the money the install is not that bad either. Just to give you an idea when you run the car hard in the summer and pop the hood you can leave your hand on the Intake Manifold! Try doing this with out the spacers installed you will burn the F*^# out of your hand. As for real data look at this info on temps bellow:
Location Temperature
Head 90C
Flange of intake 55-60C
Intake runners 45-50C
Top of the intake 45
Throttle body 50C
You can clearly see the spacer is doing a tremendous job insulating from the head. You also see that the heat generated by the cooling system flowing into the Throttle body to the intake is not significant.
As far as performance is concerned, the HP loss seems to be a lot lower with the spacer. My favorite method of doing comparative tests (don't have a G-Tech Pro) is to time 20-100Km/h sprints in second gear. This method as lots of advantages: clutching, shifting, wheel spinning are eliminated from the equation.
So I did a bunch of runs with the engine cold and some more when the engine was red hot. The difference between the averages of the cold and hot runs was only 0.1sec. compared to 0.2-0.3 seconds (0-100km/h)
I've got one of the original production sets from Sean before he moved out here to the west coast and love them. The week after install I gave them one of the true tests, took them to the drag stripand ran against a similarly modded Probe that I had run with before. Before install we ran pretty close to the same times with him beating me more often than not. After the spacers I usually was able to take him. Not a really scientific test but it felt good. After about 4 runs we both ended up in staging at the same spot so we popped the hoods and i could actually touch my intake, his was too hot to even touch for more than 1/2 a second without burning yourself. Definitely a good buy and as Touring said it's better to buy from the community than normal vendors. Been waiting on Ken's rear sway bar for a year, but adjustability is what I want.
ve heard nothing but good things about the Phenolic Spacers. The only downside is that with some engines, if you have a front strut bar, you'll have to either remove it or modify th eunderside of th ehood in order to have it fit properly with th espacers on. Th espaers will raise th eheight of your intake manifold a little bit, Don't know specific height. So if you have a front strut bar and see that there is like 1/4 inch clearance between the manifold and the bar, then you're in for some modification on th ebar and the underside of the hood in order to fit properly. Other than that, I would recomend them to anyone. I'm actualy getting them next year after I get a ZE engine and have it port and polished by RAW POWER.
I copied this directly from the probetalk BB... http://home.san.rr.com/scmorgan/spacers If it does not work go to http://www.probetalk.com and perform a search for phenolic spacers. Sorry the first address was a dud. (it was the period after spacers that did it)
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