The Crawford plenum has sparked much interest as an impressive mod for the money. But I, like many others, need some clarification on a couple of issues with the plenum before spending hard-earned cash on it.

1) How noisy is the plenum? One g35driver member characterized it as a "gurgle" and another (jokingly?) likened it to a "diesel engine." I want to add a bit more oomph to my car but I want to avoid being "riced out" as much as possible. I am aware that the plenum really activates only at high RPMs..I suppose that noise at highway speeds would be acceptable...I just don't want to be rolling around at 10mph with a "gurgling" engine. In the interest of being as objective as possible -- if anyone has any sound clips, please post them! (BTW, props to the guy who did the Borla exhaust before-and-after vid)

2) How have people solved the clearance issues with the engine cover and the hood? Is it safe to keep the cover on? Does the engine become (excessively) noisy if the cover is kept off?

Thanks
-Shiva

 

Let me try to help. I am the one who calls my plenum a baby diesel. I made a sound byte that you may have heard, but in case you have not, here is the link. You can clearly hear it at the END of the clip

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289165157


I am going to guess from your post, that you would not like the sound of the engine with the plenum. You can hear it at all low speeds. Not so much at high RPMs. If you are sensitive to the new sound, then you will be annoyed. I like the performance more than the new sound of the engine bothers me (which now it does not bother me at all).

I do not use my engine cover now. I think it looks great without the cover especially with the addition of my Injen CAI.

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by gsedanman on 11/09/03 04:17 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

The cover still fits but touches the insulation on the underside of the hood in one spot. You can carefully cut the cover so that it doesn't touch. The cover doesn't affect the volume one way or the other, IMO.

--Steve

 

Shivac, great mod bro. I have it and can say it's excellent. A noticeable boost in performance.
As madisonmc says it yields a slight burble or diesel sound at low rpms but hardly noticeable and definitely not objectionable. I left my cover off, so I'm attributing the extra noise to this.
As Zimbo says, you can leave the cover on with only minor rubbing on the hood insulation, but I too prefer to see the intake and other mods so the cover is left off.
From my experience, the Crawford added hp, but not noise--(other than the little extra at idle). I listened to madisonmc's sound clip and it's the same sound as mine, but as he said it's only at very low engine speed and very slight. Once engine speed builds, the noise vanishes.
Next to my Borla Duals, the Crawford is my favourite mod.
You won't be disappointed.
GSM

<font color=red>GSM</font color=red> <font color=black>Silverstone Coupe</font color=black>