IPD Intake Plenum Porsche 996 Carrera 3.4L 99-01

[vx700]

I have seen these on the market for a few years and I was wondering if anyone has experience with them. I'd like to know if I'd get any HP gains from it. I spoke with a mechanic at FabSpeed where I had my mods done and he said I would see a bit.

Is it worth the $900 +/- and will it improve or allow the engine to breath better? They claim:

"The IPD Plenums are a unique design that dramatically increases horsepower and torque by optimizing air flow efficiency. Air flow is managed through a diversion splitter that maximizes air speed into the engine. The charged intake air maintains a higher velocity by replacing the factory plastic "T" intake with a stronger and more efficient cast aluminum "Y" design. This unique "Y" style plenum optimizes flow, improving acceleration and boost response. The new IPD replacement plenum eliminates the turbulent air flow by smoothly splitting and diverting the air flow and directing it towards the cylinders at a much higher air speed."

"Gains vary depending on pre-existing mods and quality of after-market exhaust installed. As we all "should" know, horsepower and torque become harder to find and typically more expensive as we climb the proverbial performance ladder. That being said, performance components yield different power gains depending on the order they were installed. IPD tests and evaluates all products on bone stock cars, this establishes a level playing field and a better "apples to apples" comparison. The Competition Carrera Plenum however is designed to work with applications that are already moderately to heavily modified. Power gains will vary with each Carrera, but the bottom line is, there will be noticeable and impressive gains that are sure to make any Porsche Carrera driving enthusiast smile. Power improvements will be fully realized once the factory ECU/DME makes all the necessary "adaptation" requirements. This process can be expedited with a series of "hard pulls" or spirited full throttle acceleration runs through the gears. Of course this should only be performed on a closed course circuit."

Sounds lodgical I have Fabspeed Headers, Muffers full Cat-backs, air-intake and ECU my graded by Fabspeed also. The power and sound has been well worth this cost major gains on my 3.4.

Thank you for reading and all comments are welcomed.

[JFP in PA]

Problem is that while in theory, a smoother transition plenum should have a positive impact on intake flow, cylinder filling, etc.; in actuality, the larger questions are at what point in the RPM curve does this improvement occur and how large an impact does it make? Unfortunately, many of these devices do little until the engine is at the far end of the RPM curve, so whatever “gains” there are to be had are often minimal under everyday driving characteristics. Some intake mods also have the effect of yielding some level of HP gains at extreme RPM’s, but also move the torque curve in such a manner as to have a negative impact on the low to mid RPM range drivability of the car.

Same type of thing can occur with adding larger diameter throttle bodies; some increase seems to improve performance; but going too large tends to slow air velocities in the intake to the point that negative things begin to happen.

These engines are a “system”; changing just one component does not always result in a positive, regardless of how much it costs. This is why such alteration’s need to be accompanied by several dyno pulls; as with most things in life, not everything works well together…………

[vx700]

Interesting comments and sounds very logical, thanks for your thoughts :drive: