Intake Plenum

[thrtytwo]

Just in a bit of an inquisitive mood and scraping through www.howstuffworks.com reading all about clutches and gear boxes and one thing im not sure about is an intake plenum. Howstuffworks doesnt have an aarticle covering this, nor does wikipedia.com. As far as i know they are only used in a turbocharged engine ? Does it have any mechanical function or what ?

any explanation will be greatly appreciated !

[insu]

Intake plenum is the chamber thats located between the throttle body and the intake runners. It allows an even distrubution of air between all the cylinders.

No they are not only used on turbocharged engines.

But an N/A car doesn't nessacarily need one if it has individual intake throttles or old cars with carbys don't have a need for one, just an intake manifold.

Any modern car n/a or other with a single throttle will have an intake plenum leading to the intake manifold (or alltogether) of some description.

Edited June 8, 2006 by insu