swftiii

Gents,

I have read the posts and it sounds like the collective wisdom is to have the plastic intakes. My current plastic intake (L) has seen better days - the threaded parts for the bolts that hold the heater blower have all pulled out, so I want to replace it. It seems that the plastic ones are hard to come by and quite expensive, but the aluminum ones are relatively less expensive. Therefore I think I'm going to replace them with the aluminum ones.

What I would like to find out is if it is a direct swap or if something needs to be modified. One of the hose fasteners (small one on the back) looks to be smaller diameter than the plastic intake. Anyone have first hand experience and can let me know what they found (going either way if there were changes requried).

Thanks,

-Skip

scped

I believe they are a direct swap with no issues.

I have a '90 with Aluminum and a '92 with plastic so can try swapping out the one side of the intake distributors (air filter side - the other side is difficult with the engine in the car). Visually, the external connections and spacings look identical. Also, a quick check of the parts catalog does not show any model year parts changes for things attached to the intakes.

swftiii

scped,

No need to go through the trouble to swap it out to test, but thank you for the offer. I have come to the same conclusion since all look the same from a connections perspective. Now I guess I just need to decide if I should spend the extra $$$ for a plastic replacement or do the aluminum.

-Skip

jotaking

IMHO, As far as my limited knowledge goes, the specs for performance didn't increase when they changed from plastic to aluminium?

Maybe it was more cost effective for Porsche to make the plastic rather than aluminium???

If the aluminium are cheaper I would go for that.

J richard

Why not just helicoil new inserts?

ValveFloat

I have had good luck JB Welding the inserts back in, FWIW.

NineMeister

+1 for JB weld.

Lots of minor differences in the pipework and brackets make the alloy manifold a pain to fit so stay with the plastic and fix it as Joe suggests.

swftiii

Great Ideas guys, thanks. I will poke around and see if JB Weld is a possibility.

Skip

swftiii

Thanks Colin, that is what I was looking to hear. Guess I will try the JB Weld and/or crowbar to the wallet.

-Skip

964russ

Alloy or plastic?
If i had a choice id pick alloy. Just makes more sense.

ALEX P

They come up for sale on places like pelican quite regularly for sensible money. I'd definitely be sticking with the plastic manifolds if possible. Even if you have to buy the complete intake assembly it still makes the most sense and at least you'd end up with a load of spare vac pipes etc which could come in handy.