Is there a company out there that makes a phenolic spacer for the Cooper?

 

For what???

 

I've never seen one for the cooper. I've always wondered if they actually do anything. I've always thought that the hot air from under the hood was the problem, not the intake manifold heating up from touching the block.

 

I was wondering the same thing.
Until I thought about it and remembered intake spacers. Super common for 5.0 Mustangs. But to answer the OP's question, I've never seen them. Doesn't mean they're not out there but pretty unlikely. I would think you could have one made using the intake dimensions and manifold gasket as a template. It's nothing more than hard plastic so any kind of a machine shop or small manufacturing company could whip something together.

 

The one for the Mustang was designed to solve a problem, whereas the Mini doesn't appear to have the same problem. I still have a hard time believing that there is any benefit. If you're building a real race car and are building a motor from the ground up, well maybe. But to add one just to have one? (not saying the OP is doing that, but the Honda crowd sure does. __)

 

They love doing that!

 

It sounds kind of legitimate actually. You figure, you lengthen how far the air has to travel to get to the head. Kind of like a velocity stack (or venturi). I might have to fab something up to see if it does anything. Worst case scenario it doesn't do anything and I take it out.

See what kind of topics come up when you stick two mechanics in a car for 18 hours? haha

 

Phenolic spacers do work for solving the problem of vapor lock on some carbureted engines. They will insulate but to what degree on a mini? Any non-metal device that separates to heated metals will act as a thermal barrier. Laws of physics. You can get the material on line and most any good machine shop can CNC or cut one up for you. If you do try to get a before and after temperature reading at the manifold and post it. It may negligible but anything is better then nothing.
And you will have the only one!

 

Why would one assume the mini would have the same problems as a stang?

 

I don't think they meant it as a problem solver so much as moving the manifold away from heat and creating a little more port volume.

 

a 20mm phenolic plenum spacer makes 20hp on my VQ35 motor.

 

20HP?! Holy crap! Now is that from heat reduction or changing the plenum/runners around? Or both?

 

This is the same as a throttle body spacer no? These have been proven to not really do much, except for the added sounds on most cars.

Jack

 

well, the plenum on the VQ is the same for all models, which means it was designed to clear the hood of the 350Z (tight fit). Since our FX35 was designed to house a V8, there's plenty of room to space it up. Moving the cover up allows better flow into the plenum below - this is what the power increase is from (there are aluminum ones sold too...so, it's maybe 80% volumetric and 20% heat rejection). Keep in mind this motor is 2x+ the size too.

pic installed (Al not phenolic):

 

Kind of but these actually work. Same as a carb spacer on a low or mid rise manifold. FI vehicles with a wet manifold can see some good gains (as verified by PGT) and carb'd motors have seen 25+ HP and 40+ft. lbs of torque gained with a proper spacer selection.

 

you keep this up and I may have to actually claim I like you.

 

Do i seem some e-love emerging?

With all this talk of this spacer....I'm gonna feel bad if I don't come up with something. I'll try though. haha

 

Sooner or later we would have found a common ground to agree on.


Don't worry you got me thinking went out in the garage grabbed an intake manifold and started thinking.

 

Yea, I don't have one of those just laying around.

 

Mini standard garage issue spare parts

 

Been gone all weekend, I see this thread got a little longer....I understand the port lengthening, but heat would probably be a wash since the original manifold for a W10 is plastic already. Or maybe a W11 intake was to be used....

My garage looks like that, but you'd need a few more cylinder heads lying around.

 

Mind getting me a straight on shot of a intake manifold, and some dimensions? I might have to buy the manifold gasket to reference, might be easier. I'm in Canada right now, so not much can happen currently other than work

 

You would be better off getting a gasket The one in my picture I have already hand ported to 46.8mm W with stock at about 41-42 mm W.(casting sucks) The intake head I am porting to 48mm W. Stock casting varies between 42 and 42.9 mm W(also casting sucks)
If you do it with a OEM gasket you should increase the inside Width diameter to the about + 2 mm. Or just cut out were the raised area is on the OEM gasket. This will allow for Minis bad castings.
I went a got a piece of plastic to cut up and play around with to see how it would all work spacing wise. Remember that you will be spacing everything out the thickness you decide on. So make sure all the other parts are still going to fit.
Keep posting about what you come up with and I will do the same.

 

Copy getting a new intake gasket.

I can't really work on it right now, it'll be a week or two before I get a break from work (on the road alot...damn race teams :P). But when I get home I'll do what I can, and def. going to post before, after, during...temps...all that noise.

 

I really think that any sort of a spacer that you're considering is an exercise in futility.

First off, as has already been mentioned, the Cooper intake manifold is made of plastic to begin with, so minimizing heat transfer from the engine is a moot point. There would be more benefit from creating some sort of heat shield in the air gap between the manifold and the engine block (if there is any gap to speak of).

The other proposed area for gain, greater "port" volume and longer length for some sort of velocity stack type effect is a wash without significant length changes and plenty of testing. This is one of those spots where we'd be hard pressed to improve on BMW's effort. For a quick and dirty on how the intake runner length effects performance see this article: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question517.htm I'm with them right up until the last paragraph when they start talking about dual intake runners. I've never hears of dual diameter intake runners, just dual length (Acura Integra GSR, Ford Taurus SHO). We developed a dual length intake on an FSAE racecar and saw big benefits. Long runners gave a big torque boost at low/mid RPM, then a solenoid switched to a short runner at about 7500RPM to make more power up to the 12500RPM redline (600cc motorcycle engine).

-Will