"I got one piece of advice for you, PLASTICS!".

http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog...d-plastics.jpg

:readthethread:If you have an issue with plastic breaking down, than you don't have to worry about the “plastic” intakes. It takes a thousand (1,000) for plastic to breakdown. This is one of the reasons why LA outlawed the use of plastic bags. The intake is made of polymer plastics that are made of other materials like fiberglass that is also used to wrap headers to dissipate heat.

What do you think about the ceramic composite brake disks that are on Corvettes that have a top speed of 200 miles an hour? You think they should be replaced with cheaper material like steel? I guess you haven't seen what happens to these brakes when they are driven hard on the 24 hours long race (forget the name of the race). The steel disks actually melt and forge together with the calipers. That is why they changed them to a ceramic composite material which dissipates heat way faster.
:cool:

Also, GM has a reputation for durable, hard plastics: old saturn bodies, exterior cladding, 20 years worth of interiors, etc. If those are any indication, a plastic intake should last forever.

Technically, every plastic is a polymer. It has nothing to do with the strength of the material. It refers to the chemical composition of the material. A polymer is a really long chain of monomers. Hair is made up of polymers, as is kevlar. Polymers are a class of material like metals, and ceramics. Plastics are a type of polymer

Yup, he's forever going to be remembered as the guy who was 10 years late to the game.


Mai LS3 haz teh VerTEC!!! VERyTallEngineCooling!!!

You mean the mail slot isn't real?? But it looks real...

Easy now, guys...:respekt:

Yes, I'm familiar with Fuel Injection, Direct Infection and the Technology GM is working on that allows an engine to run Gas like diesel.

The words Plastic using the same sentence with something that normal has parts made to some kind of metal cause me concern, right now.

8 months ago I was looking for a new chainsaw. All the ones within my price range had the new tooless tensioning system with plastic gears on the inside. So in the end I come to the conclusion that its a chainsaw the plastic gears on the inside should be as hard as a rock or hard. So it buy one the tooless tensioning system. 4 Trees later the system fails in the middle of cutting:mad0260:. To make a long story short it took over 4months to get it fix under warranty because the part was out of stock.

During that time I broke down and cough up the big money for a chainsaw that tensions with tools and uses metal parts to do it.

As you know by now, plastic gears are essentially useless.

"Normally" is a relative term...because you just found out about this recently, right? There's been plastic manifolds on LS1s, for instance, since 1998...relatively speaking, plastic intake manifolds aren't a new thing - and they seem to be holding up pretty darn well.

Luckily...an intake manifold doesn't spin real fast or tear down trees -- it just routes air. You could probably make it out of glass if the ride wasn't so jarring. :D

ill make you one out of Paper mache that will last forever

Thats good to know.



The gears I'm referring to doesn't spin with the engine you turn the dial on the side to tension the chain. Unless you are tensioning the chain the gears don't move.

well not completely useless. I have a Remote Control truck that has plastic gears and they worked for a few years. :)

I mostly like noticed something was different but never crossed my mind that something was a plastic manifold.

I see. Still you're tensioning and moving things. Intake manifolds just sit there. They offer zero structural support, and they aren't under any real stresses.

Also, bear in mind; not all plastics are created equal. There are some that can repel bullets, and there are some that would break if you farted on it. The plastics they put on engines is high-quality stuff.