Just recently installed the Kinetix SSV UIM and Nissanworks Phenolic Spacers. First, let me caveat that my original intention was to only install the spacers since I was already changing spark plugs. The Kinetix install was a result of cracking the stock UIM and needing to find a quick replacement. I’ve seen the various reviews of the Kinetix manifold and the even more abundant opinions. Bottom line, I needed a quick replacement and Kinetix was the most readily available.

Parts Inspection
Nissanworks Spacers – Very pleased with the precision of the spacers and with the extra attention paid to packaging and labeling of all the parts. Kudos to Aaron!
Kinetix SSV UIM – Disappointed to find that the manifold came with no invoice or instructions. Going to contact Kinetix to see if this was intentional or a result of the quick turn around. Manifold itself was impressive. My biggest gripe is that the design did not account for all of the electrical connections that are supported via brackets on the stock UIM (e.g., the blue and green electrical connections near the firewall on the passenger side).

Install
With the instructions provided by Aaron and the help of http://www.greghome.com/Greg%27s%20G...eplacement.htm the removal of the UIM, elbow, TB, LIM, etc. was fairly straightforward, even for a first timer. I even took the extra time to apply anti-seize to all the bolts as well. A few helpful hints …
- Unbolting the fuel rail and slightly moving it aside makes access to the LIM nuts much easier, thanks soonerfan.
- Some of the bolts/studs were frozen. Do yourself a favor and grab some Liquid Wrench.
- To save coolant from spilling and making a mess on your garage floor, connect the input hose to the return port until you are ready to install the bypass.
- If you are going to use the above link as directions ALWAYS double check with the instructions included with the spacers. I wasn’t as careful and had missed the part where you remove the bracket (near the firewall) that supports the UIM at the elbow. If you don’t remove that bracket the UIM won’t sit flush and you’ll end up cracking the UIM like I did. Lesson learned.
- Resist the temptation and don’t move the TB plate, thanks again soonerfan.

The Kinetix UIM install was fairly straightforward having already gone through the process with the spacers. I had to make some guesses as to where some electrical and hose connections needed to be made, though. Again some instructions from Kinetix would have been helpful.

Did the Accelerator Released Position Learning and Throttle Valve Closed Position Learning procedure. Fingers crossed and started her up. Initial idle was a little high but gave it a few minutes and it settled back down to normal range (no IAV learning needed).

Initial Driving Impressions
With the Kinetix/spacers the car idles very quiet now, almost too quiet but I’m not going to complain. However, the nicest surprise is that I don’t get that annoying bucking at low speeds when you let off of the gas. It’s still there just not nearly as noticeable. Overall, the car drives much smoother. Also, with the Cattman CBE, the car has a lower rumble and there is a nice resonance from the intake/UIM that’s more prevalent. I’ll have to give it more time to see if it’s just my imagination.

Gains? Without a dyno or timed run there’s no real good way to tell. However, the RPMs do seem to rise much faster all the way to redline after 4000. After a spirited 20-min drive I opened the hood to inspect the intake. With heat soak being a concern on the Kinetix it was nice to see that you could touch the manifold without getting burned. Same went for part of the LIM that was exposed as well as the TB.

Knowing what I know now would I do it all over again? The spacers, absolutely. The Kinetix UIM, was done out of necessity. Could you accomplish the same performance for much cheaper using, say, the SSIM … probably. But at this point I don’t regret buying the Kinetix UIM.

Customer Service
Service from Aaron at Nissanworks was awesome. He even took time out of his personal schedule to talk with me when I was having install trouble. Again a BIG THANKS goes out to Aaron.

I’ll hold-off on my assessment of Kinetix until I resolve the missing instruction and invoice.

BTW, still haven't figured out how to post attachments. Aaron, please feel free to post any/all of the pics I sent you.

- elcid98

 

Any dyno time planned?

 

Nice review and install tips. I'm sure others will find it helpful.

Also, its too bad I wasn't aware of your situation with the IM because I have a spare with me and I'm not too far from you.

 

That would be nice huh? He should come with me sometime.

 

Yes, you dynloess members you. Oh yes, I do forget, the torqueless wonder

But I agree, another thread that reinforces the fact that taking your time, going over everything 2 or 3x, always pays off in the end.

 

I appreciate the positive review.

I'll host some of the pics you sent me. Here they are:

 

man i wanted to be the first to do this, maybe ill be the first to do the Kinetix IM, Nissanworks spacers, cattman headers and exhaust!

or have I be beat to that also????????? lol

 

Don't forget AFR software.


Make sure to get a baseline dyno &/or ET.

 

I would definitely suggest getting on a dyno for tuning asap. Purchase either a greddy emanage or apexi-safc and tune your a/f on the dyno. You don't know what your numbers are like now, most likely a little rich but good tuning will make your curve more linear and you'll get the most out of your mods. I would also suggest buying a technosquare Limited-Spec ecu tune so you can tap that top-end power that you have now. I'm glad to hear some feedback from these manifolds, I think we all have wondered how they perform. Now GO GET US SOME NUMBERS!

 

Glad you found this review useful guys. No dyno plans on the books. If there is a local dyno meet close-by I'll try my best to make a showing. However, there's no obvious signs of running rich just yet, i.e. little to no carbon deposits on the exhaust tips and no significant change in gas mileage yet. Don't get me wrong, I'm just as curious about the numbers but it might be a while.

puppetmaster, I thought about contacting you but I was under the impression that your spare was already being worked on. Oh well. Good to know there is local support

opanick, didn't mean to steal your thunder. No headers yet and probably not anytime soon so there's still a chance

 

This statement seems like a contradiction to me. We don't know what this manifold is capable of after 6k.


I think the point he was make was that the general consensus is that these cars run rich from the factory. Most opinions of 'running rich' on here are 13.5 AFR or richer.

 

naww just messin' with ya, just have a lil competition going on b/t some guys in my area

 

Thanks for the clarification, NmexMAX. I need to do more homework and re-read your AF tuning and larger MAF housing threads.

 

nice thread
i live near you and would really like to check this out in person. i have thought about getting the IM (already have the spacers).

ps. your engine bay needs to be cleaned!!!!

 

Grotesquely offset by the Kinetix bling

 

I might beat you to that depending on how soon I can get my payment done to get the headers. Oh wait I don't have the kinetix IM but I do have the SSIM

 

headers should be sitting in my living room floor by next friday haha

 

What about all the other stuff?

 

[QUOTE=NmexMAX]This statement seems like a contradiction to me. We don't know what this manifold is capable of after 6k.

I just looked through the altima forums and many of them said it lost power but haven't seen a dyno yet. Check that out its 95 pgs!

http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/eng...hlight=Kinetix

 

the intake manifold looks good. you might want to clean your engine bay

 

well i have an intake and spacers already, cattman exhaust and headers will be here soon, also just got a customenterprise test pipe

now the kinetix will be the last thing to get, i like the bling factor of it, but if I can do the same out doing the SSIM then I dunno lol

 

I already have everything on the car except headers. I even have a tuning system installed ready for tuning.

 

LOL, Im getting my car dyno this saturday before I put the spacer, and another dyno afterwards. I was also considering getting the Kinetix IM to go with the spacer and see if there is any noticeable improvements. Since I already have the whole Cattman setup.

 

So stop post whoring and go put them on.


Is this the same dyno you dyno'd @ last time? I don't recall the exact type, but I know it wasn't a dynojet(intraweb dyno). But it will still be viable since you do have a semi-baseline to go off of.
I wonder if we really need an intake. My next dyno session is going to be with the stock airbox.



Look hard enough there, or look at a few threads by myself, Jime and few others on here. There is a dyno. Actually, check Kinetix website. The dyno was done poorly. It cuts off @ 6k, so no real definitive value/data can be extracted from it. If they redyno'd with attention to detail, then, perhaps it might be justified for SOME.


Yay Anotehr 4AT A33B N/A member.

 

I was going to a while back but I was not able to go, due to my schedule. But I just made an apointment Saturday morning with a different shop called CarBoys Racing here in Houston. http://www.carboyracing.com/?q=services

I have a dyno sheet posted in the dyno section when I had my cattman headers/ y-pipe installed. This time I will try to get the run files, hopefully I won't forget to take my USB key with me this time.

 

That looks good.


How much did that manifold run you?

 

I paid the sale price posted on their site plus a little more for overnight shipping.

Update. I had another chance to evaluate the set-up on my commute to work (~25 miles, mostly highway with some traffic light stops at the end), driving time approx. 40-min. Cruising in 6th gear below 2500 was smooth. Had no problem passing on the highway in 6th as well. Modulating the launch from a dead stop is considerably easier and getting into the higher RPMs was no problem either. The intake resonance mentoined earlier is definately there along with the distinctive WAI hissing when aggressive on the throttle. Cruising around, the sound is very tame and, dare I say, close to stock. Open things up and the I/UIM/E come alive. After the commute I popped the hood to again inspect the intake. The runners on the Kinetix UIM were warm at best. The elbow, luke warm. The recorded outside temp, 70 deg. Still no regrets.

It'd be great to meet with some local orgers. Shoot me an email or PM and let's set something up. BTW, I'll be picking up some Simple Green soon. The dirty engine bay is quite embarrasing Is there such a thing as "dirty bling"?

 

Yeah, some of us have followed that development at one point or another...

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=463081

.... and some of still think it isn't worth the money...

 

I'll keep that in mind for the next time the VA guys meet up. The guys in Fairfax/Burke (Irish44J, Soonerfan, Cutler, myself) usually either meet up to work on someone's car or when there's an auto-x event. I'm not sure what you're into, but we don't do the parking lot, HIN, random cruising, group photo shoot thing, not that there's anything wrong with that, we're just all old and don't do it.

Check out the DC forums for the DC summer bbq and other meet info too, there are several things planned for the summer.

 

I remember reading through those threads before, I can't seem to find the dyno sheet that was post of the test car. Anyways, If I remember right there was a lost of power at lower RPMS but and a minimal gain at higher RPMS.

Also I think someone post in one of those threads that the Kinetix IM would work better with spacer. But since during that time there were no spacer available, there was no way of knowing for sure.

Now that spacer kits are available to us, maybe the Kinetix IM would work better??

 

Theoretically, yes, but I don't know how much nor do I have a dyno to prove the validity of that. Remember, the main purpose of the phenolic spacers is to reduce heat soak, the effective increase in runner length is secondary.

Just to clarify, I'm sure the SSV makes power up top, and maybe even some midrange, but IMO the gains don't justify the price. You could modify the stock IM and get the same or better.

The SSV definitely saves you the labor/cost of modifying the stock IM and adds a nice look to the engine bay, so it'll be worth it for some people. Anyway, this has all been discussed before, so I don't want to take this thread too far off topic.

Note: everything I said above applies mainly to N/A applications, I think the G/Z guys with F/I seem to like the SSV, but I could be wrong.

 

Higher RPM's, IMO = 6k+, which their dyno does not show.

Perhaps you mean mechanical spacer and not phenolic. That's what I remember reading.

For the price they sell it for, you could make a rev-up collector work.

 

haha i totally forgot about you dude and your setup, and you live in the same city as me, oh well

 

What do you mean by mechanical spacer? A spacer is a spacer regardless of what material it's made out of. If I made my spacer out of aluminum, it would be cheaper. I just use phenolic in order to stop heat from transferring. But, if I were to make a 1" thick spacer, billet aluminum would be the most cost efficient option when you are talking about thick spacers instead of thermal spacers.

If you guys want a different kind of spacer (ie. thicker, metal, etc) let me know and I'll get right on it.

 

I think he meant a spacer like the G/Z plenum spacer, whose primary function is to increase airflow and runner length, and not so much heat reduction.

 

Thank you Puppet...

That's what I meant. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Semi On the subject of phenolic mat'l. I make parts with that stuff (M40 and a few others). It's very interesting and very expensive, so I see where the cost statement comes from.

 

Sorry, I'm not familiar with M40.

My spacer is the best of MANY worlds. Lengthening intake runners provides torque, keeping the heat from transferring prevents any loss of top end power and makes for a really cool UIM, reducing the airflow turbulence from one manifold to another, and never having to buy another intake gasket ever again!