I always hear "get either kinex or crawford plenum blah blah blah".... well what should be the deciding factor between the two. Is either a better performer, have a different cost, or have better customer service or less problems/ more problems? Why should i chose one over the other?

2004 Black on Black g coupe 6spd.... <3 aluminum pedals, clear corners, z tube, and pop charger. From down south, houston tejas

 

I comes down to 3 things.

1.looks (I don't care for popping my hood and seeing "KINETIX" plastered on the pleneum, but that's me.
2.Do you buy into the arguement that the metal crawford suffers from heat soak and the plastic Kinetix will not.
3.Do you feel lucky enough to not be one of several people that have had their Kinetix crack, will it not crack in the future?

I highly recommend that you search out the various threads on my350Z.com and learn what has been said on the subject.

"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke

G35 6mt

 

Discussed way too many times in the past. Use the search facility to find a lot of info.

Let me add one thing, based on customer service go with Crawford. "You get what you pay for" definitely applies in this case.

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
2004 G35 Coupe | OB | Graphite interior | Premium and aero package | Popcharger | Z tube | Hotchkis sway bars | kinetix plenum on the way

 

I suspect Kinetix cracking issues are most likely due to over torquing. If you overtorque the Crawford, you will bust the two studs towards the front of the plenum. Trust me, I know. Factory specs are in the 60 INCH pounds realm. This is a tad over finger tightening.

Kinetix is noisier from what I've been told, but I haven't heard it myself. It's described as a "gurgling".

Crawford plenums experience some warpage due to the way they modify them. My first one had a 3/16th to 4/16th of an inch warpage and it wouldn't seal...I sent it back and he sent another with a 1/16th of an inch warpage and it sealed up very nicely, just 20 inch pounds more than factory specs. The shiny black looks great under my hood and there's no sway bar cut out.

Like Mambo pointed out, good luck getting ahold of Kinetix for customer service.

The kinetix is not warped so you'll be able to torque to factory specs. There latest version has reinforced the bolt holes, I'm told, which will reduce the probability of cracking, which is moot if you follow factory torque specs to begin with.

You get to keep your factory plenum with Kinetix. To do so with Crawford will set you back $200.

I didn't want gurgle noise or flat black or a crossbar cutout on my plenum so I went with Crawford. Doug is always available to talk to and with the plenum and the cats my ride absolutely screams now (relatively speaking).

2004.5 Coupe/5AT/Ivory/Everything but front spoiler/Nismo CAI/Crawford V5/Crawford Cats

 

hmmm i dont like the sound of warping very much or the sound of the cracking..... the crawford sounds like its where its at tho... and i guess i'll just cross my fingers and hope that i get one that will seal I'll do a little seaching but the custom service thing is for sure what i am most interested in, especially since both plenums have known past issues with reliability.

2004 Black on Black g coupe 6spd.... <3 aluminum pedals, clear corners, z tube, and pop charger. From down south, houston tejas

 

I have the Kinetix, no cracking, no warping. It's a great plenum so far - these so called issues are nonexistent.

Also, with Kinetix I had no problems with customer service - as long as it was via e-mail.

For me, what sold me on the Kinetix was not having to return my stock plenum. I think an extra $200 to keep your stock plenum is a complete rip off.

-"Nobody makes me bleed my own blood, nobody!

 

If you want to learn a lot more about these 2 products, then go to my350z.com and register. There are many more posts there of the cracking/warping issues and the lack of customer support for kinetix since there are a heck of a lot more owners of the kinetix plenum in the 350z community. These plenums after all were designed with the 350z in mind.
Again, there are always two sides to each coin. In the kinetix case, some people think they are great and some others (counting myself) say they're not. Opinions after all are based on each individual's experience.

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
2004 G35 Coupe | OB | Graphite interior | Premium and aero package | Popcharger | Z tube | Hotchkis sway bars | kinetix plenum on the way

 

Here are some owner commments from 350Z owners that had cracked pleumeums. Their are 13 threads on my350Z.com regarding the subject "kinetix cracked with 460 total replies in all.

http://www.my350z.com/forum/search.p...der=descending

TheBigShow
"well, i'm officially part of the cracked fam now. popped the hood tonight to show my friend my new kinetix plenum, and heard a whistle. closer inspection revealed a pretty big crack where the screw goes into for the front center support post. guess i'll try and get my stocker on soon, and eventually send this back. sounds like i should get it sometime this year, from what i have heard about the guys orderin new. frown."

isugoo
"my z buddy Melissa showed me his and his kinetix plenum has a crack too. i think its common problem. sorry man."

Melissa
mine was all cracked up after a 650 mile trip last weekend....had it on 3 days....v2

Kinetix is a very small company and getting ahold of them in any form of communication can take a long time. It took 2 weeks of emailing to get my Kinetix camber arm package ordered and again a search of what other's are experiencing in that regard can be looked up on my350Z.com





__________________





"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke

G35 6mt

 

Im also in the same situation, dunno which one to get!! Kinetix is right on my budget, but if I have these prob's everyone are getting its not worth it for me. Guess i'll wait a little bit until I find some more info out on the two.


Martin
2003.5 BS G35
Nismo Aero/Sport Package
Injen CAI
B+G Springs
ADR M-Classic 19's..

 

Kinetix is definitely a very good deal. I believe that cracking issues have been fixed with version 4. and their life time warranty should make that less of an issue when deciding between the 2.

I am tore between the 2 because it hard to find a good, unbias comparison between the 2. There are claims that they are suppose to be equal (or very very close) in performance. but that is hard to believe when the kinetix is clearly more sloped than the crawford.

Does anybody have the before & after dynos for either plenums? I know there was a huge thread on my350z.com about kinetix. but it's like 20 pages long...

 

hmmmm im thinking of going with kinex now because u get to keep the stock plenum and it seems like peopel are saying that they dont crack/have reliability issues anymore. I wont be doing anything i dont think until TS comes out with a 2004.5 ecu upgrade because i odnt like the idea of running really lean. I am getting some volks soon anyways and then exhaust, so the plenum shouldnt be an issue for me for another month and a half or so

2004 Black on Black g coupe 6spd.... <3 aluminum pedals, clear corners, z tube, and pop charger. From down south, houston tejas

 

I'll have the before and after dynos on the Crawford plenum this Saturday night Eastern time. Gettin the post plenum run done Sat at 9am....Rod

03 5AT-Premium-Aero-Tire & Wheel Pkg-Splash-Z tube-K&N Filter-32% Tint-10 wire Grounding Gear-Crawford Plenum Ver 5

 

I wouldn't get either. There have to be better choices eventually, in looks and quality control at least.

Also, we are waiting to find out how the '05 G's will get more Hp. Possibly a new plenum design.

2004 G35C 6MT Black. Killer.

 

hmmmm ded thats tru... i didnt really think about the possible new factory plenum... that would be nice and i bet my dealer would install it for me.hmmmm everything from factory IS expensive as hell tho. Factory wheels = volks? not looks/quality wise but they are pretty damn close on price

2004 Black on Black g coupe 6spd.... <3 aluminum pedals, clear corners, z tube, and pop charger. From down south, houston tejas