Plazmaman Plenum Install To R33 Rb25

[PaulosECR33]

I have a bunch of pics i took while doing this so i thought i would post them up... hopefully it will help some ppl who decide to get one of these

Before you go ahead with this mod know that cold side intercooler piping to your throttle body has to be modified whether you can do this yourself or not i obviously dont know so i cant assist in that part of the install, all i can show you is what i did there.

Tools you will need to do this:

Screw drivers (flat and phillips head).

Socket and ratchet set (minimum 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 14mm sockets and a ratchet).

Side cutters.

Pointy nose and standard pliers.

A hose cutter makes cutting the vac, coolant and fuel lines easier.

Ultra blue liquid gasket.

Vasoline or rubber grease.

A decent spanner set.

Soldering iron.

This is probably minimum but the more tools the merrier.

Extra parts besides plenum:

Nissan part number 23785-57Y00 (aac gasket)

1/2 vacume hose

Bag of cable ties

3/8 EFI hose 1m

1/4 vacume hose 3m

3/4 oil/coolent hose 1m

Various clamps to suit if you dont want to reuse your old ones i would get a pack of different size hose clamps as rb25s are getting old and i think the clamps they use are S*** anyway.

3/4 (19mm) hose 1m

A weld on 19mm hose fitting (i used a -10 alloy weld on fitting and a -10 3/4 pushlock fitting but you dont have to)

Masking tape.

Small amount of electrical wire

The main reason i bought this plenum is because it has front facing throttle body so i could shorten my cooler piping. it also keeps the longer runners unlike alot of other ones, it make spark plug changes a 5 minute job, it makes it very very easy to change injectors (i have since done this and all you have to remove is idle control valve, the pcv line and injector loom to get your fuel rail off, and last of all feel its the best looking front facing plenum for rb25s but thats just me.

*note you will obviously have to have cold side cooler piping made up to suit the new location of the throttle body i did mine myself but didnt take any pics.

Images uploeaded this way as they are huge

Right so i started with my standard plenum and fmic

Got my new plenum, comes with studs to mount, a gasket and many different size screw in hose tails for vac line, idle control valve etc.

all of the air fittings are on the underside so it looks neat once fitted and there are fittings to suit cold idle control valve and aac + brake booster, fuel reg and hoses for carbon canister

Fist things first drain the coolant and disconnect the battery.

Remove throttle body, coolant lines, all air lines and the two fuel lines (feed and return) from engine, you will have to drain the coolant as the bleeder and many coolant lines need to be moved. also remove your idle control valve.

Next remove you standard plenum this is done by removing the 9 bolts (4 on left and 5 on the right under the plenum) that secure it to the lower runners, remove the old rubber gasket and tape over the runners so you dont drop anything down them.

you have to drill the threads out of the 4 holes on the left hand side of the runners as the plazmaman plenums studs wont fit through, i used a 9mm drill bit to drill them out, make sure your tape is still over the runner holes so no alloy shavings drop down.

I taped up the plenum to minimize scratches while fitting it, make sure you use thread a thread locker on the studs and some sort of thread seatant (tape or goo) on the hose tail fittings. remove the tape covering the runners, fit the new gasket, (i also used ultra blue one the gasket) fit the plenum and tighten the 9 nuts, you may need a stubby spanner to get to some of them tightened

Ok the next bit is hard to see. run two new fuel lines to the rail and fuel reg you can run them how ever you want i routed mine in between the cyl 1 and 2 runners so its all neat all i can show is the new fuel line on the reg.

Make sure you use EFI hose and clamps.

I also changed my fuel filter at this stage but this is not necessary.

The plenum i bought retains the standard throttle body but if you buy the larger one i assume fitment is the same, fit the throttle body and throttle cable, i reused the gasket as there was nothing wrong with it.

Next run new coolant lilnes, one goes to a fitting right next to the coolant system bleeder, the other runs around to the back of the head, is not hard to find remember to put hose clamps on them, cable tie hose and secure it so it wont rub through on anything.

I made an l shaped bracket to mount the bleeder on, what ever you do make sure that this remains the highest part of teh cooling system.

Next fit the idle control valve, the way everything is designed lets you use the origional hoses under the plenum so fit all these up and fit the valve, if your gasket is in ok condition you can reuse it, or you can get one from nissan part number is 23785-57Y00, you can also get them all over the net, i had gasket paper so i made my own and added a little ultra blue. tighten up the bolts. right behind the aac valve there is a threaded hole into the plenum you can block this or use it for a vacume line, i used this for my map sensor how ever i have no pics of it,

Now run all of your new vacume hoses to fuel reg, pcv line, carbon canister, bov and brake booster. you will have to run these according to your set up i dont have a bov so i just ran my fuel reg and carbon canister lines so they cannot be seen. all of these hoses are either 1/8 or 1/4 hoses. use the 1/2 hose for brake booster line there is a one way valve inside the origional booster hose you MUST remove and put in your new longer hose, if you dont you will have no power assisted brakes and you will die.

to get it out i simply cut the hose open. but it is a very tight fit into your new hose and using vasoline or rubber grease helps installing it.. when fitting this line make sure you put it around the right way so air can be sucked OUT of the booster but once your engine is on boost the valve closes and no air can get back in the booster, you can do this by blowing through the hose and seeing which way blocks it.

This pic shows how i routed my carbon canister lines from the fitting under the plenum, out to the engine bay fuse box, and around past the overflow tank up to the radiator support then over the radiator to the canister, but as i said this bit depends on your setup,

The fuel reg simply goes under the front of the plenum and the end is just visible here.

This is the one part i cant help you too much with, the cold side intercooler piping, i made mine myself, hence the unattractive welds (it was my first time tig welding lol), so if your a handy welder you can do this yourself or you can buy some alloy pipe and cut it up into the shape you want and get it welded up for you. i used two 2 60mm tight radius alloy donuts and a short straight section of 60mm pipe, cut them up with a band saw and slowly make up the entire pipe before welding it up. this pipe is where you can put your 19mm fitting for you aac hose. my one is the speedflow fitting on the top with the hose going back to the aac valve. there is another fitting on my intercooler pipe, this is for my intake air temp sensor, as i am running a link g4 with map sensor i need this, so it is not necessary for all setups.

Last thing to do is plug in your loom, i ran mine under the intake runners to keep it neat, everything reaches bar one plug for your aac valve which has to be lengthened, about 2 inches. the image shows that extra length you need.

the image also shows my first attempt with the enngine harnes cable tied to the fuel rail, you can do this but its much neater under the manifold.

Once you have your intercooler pipe, fit it up and tighten your clamps, check over everything to make sure you have left nothing loose, no hoses off, plugs not connected loose hose clamps. nothing out of place? ok fill up your coolant and bleed the system, prime your fuel system as you will have drained the fuel from your lines when you replaced them, (just turn the key to on and wait until the fuel pump stops buzzing), check again for any coolant or fuel leaks and if its all ok start the engine, check for any vacume leaks, you will hear a hissing noice from the plenum thats normal, i use brake cleaner in a pressure pack to check by spraying around the plenum and on any other bits i touched, if the engine revs up at any point you are leaking vacume and must fix this problem before continuing,

i recommend getting a tune after this, my tune was safe to drive hard with with the new setup but i dont know if yours will be so drive gently to your tune and thrash at your own risk.

This was my finished product. just need to learn to tig better so i can make some better looking pipes...

Thanks for reading hope this can elp some ppl in the future

[34GeeTeeTee]

Nice DIY write up! Did you get before and after results with the new setup?

Where did you run the PS Ressy?

[Hanaldo]

Nice write up mate, this is going to be a big help for when I do mine, though will be interesting to see what differences in installation there are between the standard 25's and the Neo.

How long did this take you if you don't mind me asking? I'm anticipating it to take at least a whole weekend, perhaps more if I need to wait until shops are open if I forget/purchase wrong parts, etc.

[PaulosECR33]

Nice DIY write up! Did you get before and after results with the new setup?

Where did you run the PS Ressy?

PS bottle is now behind the headlight on the passenger side inner guard ill post up a pic tomorrow

i never got a power figure before and the plenum went on with all the other mods, it making 265rwkw at 16psi at the moment but i dont know how much of that is attributed to the plenum

Nice write up mate, this is going to be a big help for when I do mine, though will be interesting to see what differences in installation there are between the standard 25's and the Neo.

How long did this take you if you don't mind me asking? I'm anticipating it to take at least a whole weekend, perhaps more if I need to wait until shops are open if I forget/purchase wrong parts, etc.

when i fitted it i did it over a few weeks as the car was not running anyway, i would say 3 hours to remove old plenum and fit new one nicely but all the hoses and lines i did over a longer period of time, you would easily get it done in a weekend providing you have everything you need.

Edited May 11, 2012 by PaulosECR33

[Hanaldo]

when i fitted it i did it over a few weeks as the car was not running anyway, i would say 3 hours to remove old plenum and fit new one nicely but all the hoses and lines i did over a longer period of time, you would easily get it done in a weekend providing you have everything you need.

Haha yes, I've done mine in the mean time too. Did it over the space of about 5 weeks, but did the fuel system as well.

[PaulosECR33]

much difference with the plenum from your old setup??

Like i said i dont have any results before i fitted the plenum but the guys who tuned it reckon it made a massive difference to response and top end compared to others they have tuned with standard plenums.

[34GeeTeeTee]

much difference with the plenum from your old setup??

Like i said i dont have any results before i fitted the plenum but the guys who tuned it reckon it made a massive difference to response and top end compared to others they have tuned with standard plenums.

Hanaldo should be able to tell you of there is a before and after difference as he hasn't changed the turbo etc... Really hope it works well

Mine will be tuned in the next week or two as well but my setup is 100% changed so no basis for comparison before or after...

[Hanaldo]

Yeh I don't think my comparison would be 100% valid either though, seeing as I've changed from a NIStuned ECU that wasn't working properly to a Link G4. If that solves my problem with VCT not working then any results I see will be way different.

It should be fairly safe to say however, that if I LOSE any power/torque through the mid-range compared to my previous tune then that may be a result of the plenum/throttle body change. We'll see

[34GeeTeeTee]

Yeh I don't think my comparison would be 100% valid either though, seeing as I've changed from a NIStuned ECU that wasn't working properly to a Link G4. If that solves my problem with VCT not working then any results I see will be way different.

It should be fairly safe to say however, that if I LOSE any power/torque through the mid-range compared to my previous tune then that may be a result of the plenum/throttle body change. We'll see

I doubt you will lose any as we still run the standard length runners..... AND what the hell were you doing up at 3am?

Fingers crossed it will be all good, IF your VCT wasnt working you should notice a decent difference anyway i hope

[Hanaldo]

I doubt you will lose any as we still run the standard length runners..... AND what the hell were you doing up at 3am?

Fingers crossed it will be all good, IF your VCT wasnt working you should notice a decent difference anyway i hope

That's what I thought, but Trent from Status is adamant he has done back to back testing and cars are losing power with Plazmamans. There were a few others as well, Roy for one.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Hmmm seems to be a pretty bold statement on their site -

Plazmaman developed to suit all street and big horsepower applications .These plenums Plazmaman R34 Inlet Plenum to suit the RB25 NEO engine . Based on the highly successful R33 design . Why re-invent the wheel , we just made it fit the NEO as well .............. CNC base , sheet alloy dome , machined ram tube inlet and precision welded .............. These are capable of flowing in excess of 1000 + horsepower ............. Easy bolt on item , it eliminates all those ugly water lines and wiring that sit on top of the motor near the fire wall , and gives the engine bay a clean look .................. The OEM throttle bodies are big huge ugly items and therefore cannot be reused due to their physical size ( use our 65 , 72 or 85mm Throttle body option for maximum power) . Factory battery and idle speed motor can be reused .................... Power increases of 20 + hp and torque increases across the whole rev range just by bolting it on

So i guess we will wait and see eh?

[75coupe]

RIPs also made their own forward facing plenum that actually eliminates the the lower half of the std plenum, they are know for their RB building all over the world surely the forward facing plenums cant be that bad...

I have a rips plenum on mine...

[34GeeTeeTee]

RIPs also made their own forward facing plenum that actually eliminates the the lower half of the std plenum, they are know for their RB building all over the world surely the forward facing plenums cant be that bad...

I have a rips plenum on mine...

So its more like a greddy style? Is that what you mean?

[75coupe]

kinda... it is fab'd in alloy with internal trumpets welded onto the std intake flange runners...

[34GeeTeeTee]

I still think thats fits into the whole debate over losing mid range torque etc with the shorter runners? The idea of Plazmaman is to maintain the lower half of the manifold because apparently Nissan nailed the design.... BUT its interesting to see another design around, i noticed in your SIG it said RIPS plenum and now i know what it looks like

[75coupe]

yeah the runners are shorter than the plasmaman, I would love to see back to back dynos of the std, plasma and rips to see what the differences are...

Id like to think shorter runners add to response while possibly sacrificing power elsewhere but i havnt seen conclusive proof of power lose yet really...

I like how the plasmaman plenum sits higher like the std one as you then have some room under the plenum for plumbing wiring etc...

where as the rips sits low like the gtr plenum, no room and I mounted the AAC etc.. under the plenum to make it look tidy, maybe not the greated decision, Im thinking of deleting all the AAC and IAC crap to clean it up simplify it...

[34GeeTeeTee]

yeah the runners are shorter than the plasmaman, I would love to see back to back dynos of the std, plasma and rips to see what the differences are...

Id like to think shorter runners add to response while possibly sacrificing power elsewhere but i havnt seen conclusive proof of power lose yet really...

I like how the plasmaman plenum sits higher like the std one as you then have some room under the plenum for plumbing wiring etc...

where as the rips sits low like the gtr plenum, no room and I mounted the AAC etc.. under the plenum to make it look tidy, maybe not the greated decision, Im thinking of deleting all the AAC and IAC crap to clean it up simplify it...

As you can see by the pics in the first post, the plazmaman is great for leaving room under the plenum but makes it real hard to do the fuel filter and stuff now...... JEM changed mine to a billet item now but still not looking forward to checking it at a later date IF the car actually runs

Its the same as i would like to see back to back tests with the cams or without, back to back with the plenum or without etc.... Unfortunately we just have to try and hope the info is good, in saying that i copied a proven performer with the same combo so there is no reason mine shouldnt make the power and maintain good response

[PaulosECR33]

this is my dyno graph with the plenum, link g4 and supporting mods, timing is very conservative, I cant comment on this is over other peoples graphs and setups as i have never really been interested in dyno figures looked and dont know, all i can say is it just wants to keep going..

[34GeeTeeTee]

No image? Would like to see it though!

[JFK33]

Can you upgrade to top feed fuel rail with this plenum?