It pays to shop around. $240 is the highest I've heard of. Most get it done for $150 or less. There is no reason for a shop to charge you for more than 3 hours. So by using a $60/hr rate, it should cost between $120 - $180 to have these spacers installed by a mechanic.

 

Yeah it was a little high. I guess it kind of offset though because they gave me a free oil change w/ Mobil 1 synthetic.

Low end is really great now. Kind of did for the low end what a Fujita does for the top.

 

those oil changes aer around 60 ... so i guess thats right...

 

I quess the oil change wasn't free. I paid 150 dollars to get them installed. Good luck with them.

 

I spent $1700 the week prior getting my wifes BMW fixed. I told them I needed an oil change on my car and they were like just bring it in and we'll take care of it on us.

I have to say the mechanic really ribbed me about the spacers...how I waisted my money and how they weren't going to do anything at all. Just had a look on his face like I was a huge sucker.

Soon as I pulled off the lot I slammed the pedal and wheels were screeching from the Tq....lololol

 

charged me 2.5 hours to put them on..was like $232 + tax.

 

I guess this shop charges around $93 an hour

 

Did it myself. My hourly rate is about 2 to 4 beers an hour. So it took me about 5 hours since I was going slowly...10 beers.

 

See if something is going to take me 5+ hours I'd rather pay a couple hundred and let someone else do it.

 

As mentioned previously by others, now that I've done it I can say it'd take me a couple hours to do it again. The problem was I didn't have a small "clicking" set of wrenches and I was very careful to not break or drop anything into the engine. Followed the instructions to a T.

 

You know I was listening last night and I swear it's my Fujita thats making the whistle now.

Why would the spacers make a previuosly quite CAI now whistle?

Do they change the way the air is drawn in somehow?

 

Well, the whistling shouldn't be happening at idle.

Keep in mind that every time you put a cone filter on a car, the intake tone will change. For every single cone filter I've put on a car, it whistled. I've done over 10 intakes on different cars, ranging from the VE, 5.5 gen, 6th gen Maxima, 1.8T Passat, VQ40 Frontier, KA24DEs, V6 Accord... that's about all i can think of.

Every single one of them whistled in some way or another.

Now, these spacers eliminate the need for the stock oversized gaskets. Anytime you smooth out the airflow the intake noise will change in some way. You did improve the airflow by installing these spacers, so whatever noise the CAI was making before, it should be louder now.

One guy on this forum siad he removed the TB spacer and the whistling went away. It could possibly be the fact that the Elbow is now lengthened by at least a 1/4".

But whenever you improve airflow, whether it's by spacers, cone filter, removing a resonator, or port work, the intake tone will change. My VE with cone filter whistled the same before and after spacers. But I didn't eliminate a thick metal UIM gasket like you did. The VE uses a thin paper UIM gasket.

 

Mine does not whistle at all but I double checked my installation that the spacers were not misaligned and removed the excess RTV gasket that had oozed into the ports.

I will speculate that, the spacer between the elbow and the UIM is misaligned, acting as a 'labium', and causing the air in the UIM plenum to resonate, causing the whistle. The spacers at each end of the elbow experience the fastest moving air. Air between the plenum to the heads travel at a much lower speed where, IMO, have a lesser probability of causing the whistling. I have zero musical talent so I may be way off.

 

How easy is it to misalign that spacer between the elbow and UIM?

The mechanic said he followed the instuctions to the letter, and I seem to have the same whistle (partial-1/3 throttle) that others have posted about.

Is there a way "I" can check to see if that part is indeed misaligned, even though I didn't install these spacers myself? Or would I just be chasing my tail w/ it?

 

Are these the particular spacers your talking about?

 

Just ordered mine, can't wait to install. Is it worth it to also get the Kinetix IM with these spacers?

 

You do 90% of the work required to install the Kinetix when you do the spacers. If you can afford the Kinetix, might as well do it...

 

ya for sure man... get hte IM at the same time... MAJOR HP there my friend... you would FOR SURE feel a HUGE difffffffffffference...

let us know what u do

 

The Elbow spacer is installed correctly according to your pic. There's only one way to install it and you can't misalign it. It should be perfectly flush with the top of the Elbow and UIM. It looks perfect in your pic.

As for the TB spacer, it's pretty noticable if you install it upside down. If you press the TB spacer on the elbow as the instructions say, it said to make sure the port and the bolt holes line up. If they don't line up, then you have the spacer upside down. If the spacer is upside down, the port will be about 2 or 3mm misaligned. It's pretty noticable if your mechanic followed my instructions. Which I'm sure he did.

There's no way to tell without removing the TB yourself. I'm sure it's aligned correctly. And that's not what's causing your whistling.

The whistling occurs in about 75% of Maximas and Altimas. It mostly depends on what type of intake you have.

 

i have a whislte right now and i have just exhaust/ cai *fujita*.... its not a huge whistle but u can hear it...

I LOVE it

 

I just have to learn to love the whistle


BTW, you guys are going to love these spacers. My car feels SOOOO much stronger out the hole. I don't feel anything on top, but that bottom is really fun.

 

It seems as if these spacers add more whistle than what was heard before. What exactly does that mean? I haven't installed mine yet, but use a stock intake, so I wonder what I'm going to hear.

My question is, why is the whistle increased?

 

I believe only people with the Fujita are experiencing the pronounced whistling...is this true? Nismo and stock seems not to whistle at all...

Joshua

 

My GUESS is that it's b/c you are removing the stock oversized gaskets. This gets rid of a huge valley caused by the thick metal UIM gasket with oversized ports. Also, the other gaskets are not port matched either. Whenever you have valleys or obstructions in the airflow, that tends to muffle the noise. When you port match your intake manifold, things should get louder.

I have never come across another spacer on the market that actually port matches their spacers! Most stick with the design of the gasket and let the spacer have oversized ports. But by doing that, you can actually hurt performance more than stock when you make a 1/4" thick OEM gasket!

Since you have a stock intake without a cone filter, my guess is that you should either hear no whistling or a very quiet whistle.

I'm not 100% sure if it's only the Fujita CAI doing the whistling. I believe other types of intakes have done it, like the Berk. The only way for me to find out exactly what's causing the whistling is to first find a car that is whistling, then isolate each component one at a time starting with the TB spacer. But since the whistling doesn't hurt anything, I see no reason for me to conduct further testing. Most people absolutely LOVE it.

I heard Ritz' 6th gen and it whistles at part throttle. It's nothing too loud. It's not so much a "whistle", it's more of a tone that the engine is making that sounds like a turbo. If you've ever heard a turbocharger spool up, it's not really a whistle or a whining noise, it's hard to explain. It just sounds like air moving REALLY fast. The word whistle is the only thing that can closely describe it.

But I thought Ritz' car sounded REALLY good! And I'm not just saying that. I first heard it at a meet we had in NC. Someone told me he has the whistling from these spacers. I made him take me for a ride b/c I had to hear it for myself. I instantly said, "WOW! I like it!". And those who know me know I'm the furthest thing from being a ricer like my boy Bubb Rubb.

 

I'm convinced and will be buying these in the upcoming weeks. Well done Aaron. I appreciate your work.

Joshua

 

Thanks. Let me know if you have any more questions.

The VQ35 spacers are on backorder right now. I had a sudden increase in sales recently. I'm already getting more made, but they probably won't be available until early to mid Oct.

I'm still taking orders though at www.nwpengineering.com.

 

My spacers arrived today, will put them in next weekend along with my Cattman Y-Pipe and Rotora BBK. Pics of install will follow. I'm so excited!

 

Cripes I just read this entire thread! I was ready to order but see they are on backorder. Aaron keep us posted when you get these back in stock. Can't wait to get one.

 

They should be back in stock on Oct 10th and ready for shipping the very next day. If that date changes in either direction, it will immediately be changed on the website.

Thanks Mack.

 

I'm getting antsy Aaron

 

The orders are filling up quickly. I have some kits left that will be ready to ship on Oct 11th.

 

Aaron any chance I can secure a kit now or is it just 1st come 1st serve?

 

Orders will always be excepted!

Please visit my website to secure your order.

www.nwpengineering.com/Phenolic_Spacers.html

 

Thanks Aaron! I just put my order in. This is just one of those mods that makes so much sense that it's a "must-have".

 

I have the phenolic spacers, havent installed them yet, but.... i have a 1' throttle body spacer and that added a significant amount of whistling to the car. Its removed now and the whistling is gone.

I'll be installing the spacers after i come back from Cali.

Kamski

 

For those that have installed these spacers and have an 4AT max, do you notice any increased low end improvement? Thanks.

 

These spacers provide a noticeable gain for low end and mid range power below 5K. You'll see that no top end power was lost due to increasing the runner length. This is mostly due to the spacers being port matched and b/c of the 40 degree intake manifold temp decrease.

 

If anybody has any product specific questions, please feel free to post here. I am still monitoring this thread.

Also, if you want a FREE pair of NWP Engineering decals, please send an email to [aaron@nwpengineering.com]. You do not have to be an NWP customer. This offer is open to everyone!

 

what, if any, changes will i notice (besides more power), in the way my car will run?????

 

Only difference is if you have a CAI the thing will have a nicer "hiss" to it and it'll obviously run cooler.