Just wondering. I'm going to be installing my new fuel rail and injectors next week because one of my injector seals finally failed yesterday and I went to order the intake manifold spacer from PWerks only to find they are on back order for 3 weeks. If I'm gonna have the intake manifold off, I'd rather upgrade stuff instead of putting it back together with stock parts.

 

Nobody else offers one for the LNF I don't think. That's where I got mine from too.

You're going to need to do a vacuum tank delete in order to install it properly. It comes with a spacer for the IM brace (to move the brace out from the block to realign everything for the thickness of the gasket), but the spacer messes up the alignment of everything with the vacuum tank bracket on the stud/bolt that goes into the block.

That's not to say that it's a disadvantage though. Though I wanted to keep things stock unless needed otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised by the driveability improvement from the vacuum tank delete.

 

i dont think but there spacers seems worth it, not really on the expensive side.

 

Yeah I really like mine. I thought it was a bit of a gimmick, but I heard people swore by them, so I tried it out and it really does help.

My phantom KR went away and the car seems much happier now.

 

Well if that's the case, I'l probably just skip doing the spacer. I might do that vacuum tank delete while I'm in there though. Does removing the tank affect the ability to NLS at all (Don't think it would)? Because I NLS like a boss when I need to.

 

for the price of the spacers its a worth it mod.

they were designed around the kappas which do not have a vacuum block. they have a vacuum pump and all you really need to do on a kappa is remove the pump and bracket and swap them around so the pump is on the inside and bracket is out the out side. for kappas without a vacuum pump a spacer is needed at the bracket.

as for the cobalt we havent had anyone step up to say theres issues that im away of. the spacers are on back order right now but i will look into it when i get a chance to see what needs to happen to make it work correctly. however the vacuum tank delete wont affect anything. i was probablly one of the first to do it back in 09 with the big turbo setup and at the time not many guys did it. made 442whp and never had issues with driveability or anything of the sort.

 

I have both PWerks Phenolic spacers IM & TB, one of the best investments I've made to date.. as for vacuum issue - none..

before the spacers, the IM was on fire right after a run, now with the Phenolic spacers on you could put your hand on the IM without burning your hand or arm..

But I know ZZP makes one for the LSJ.. but with a little modding it could fit the LNF..

ZZP - LSJ Phenolic Intake Spacer

 

what is a vaccum tank delete....yes im clueless to this.

 

I called the company about some fitment issues and if I should use it with the stock IM gaskets. I also posted up about the issues I faced with it before:

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/6349722-post52.html

 

unfortunately i only know one company that supplies gaskets with their phenolic spacers and thats zzp. its unnecisary imho. the phenolic is suppose to act as a gasket and the throttle body has a gasket.

if you called and no one was able to help you or your calls went un-answered i apologize for that. must of either been before i worked there and during some of the employment change ups. its a small shop and currently theres only 2 of us there after one of our employees recenetly left.

im not trying to sound like a dick when i say this here so dont take it that way. but did you expect a company to keep watch on a forum they arent vendors on, let alone look into a build thread with multiple pages? like i said im not trying to be a dick head by saying that so please do not take it that way. i lurk here and do some minimal posting thats about it. just saying you calling(which i know you did now) or email is the best way to get a hold of someone at the shop. now you have my forum name so if you need it feel free to pm me any time you need something or have issues. we are definately trying to fix any customer service issues that might of been had.

also there should of been supplied hardware with the phenolic spacers..... i know the stock stuff does work but we supply a slightly longer bolt and washer kit. i know the intital batch had the holes done a little too small which was revised later along with adding complete hardware. also like i said the kits were designed around a kappa not a cobalt so there was bound to be some issues to be discovered. like i said the kappas have a vacuum pump with small width metal brackets holding it in and studs for everything and not a vacuum tank so theres a big difference there.

i have a cobalt torn apart right now and i have one spacer i think floating around the shop on an engine so i will have to take a look into everything with the vacuum tank and make sure if any changes to the packing list need to be made for a cobalt that they WILL be made.

pm me if you have questions or need assistance and i will be glad to make help.

 

I realize that the forum post was easy to miss. You now have the information around what I faced, so perhaps it will help with other people.

The gentleman I talked to on the phone claimed to have been the one that designed the gasket, and advised me to leave any other gaskets off and to only use a very thin layer of RTV. I don't recall his name offhand though. He seemed uninformed about the bracket spacer issue at the time for the Cobalt. I didn't bring up the issue with the hole sizing though as that seemed like a straightforward fix.

 

yeah that would of been dave then. a thin layer of rtv is all we use as an insurance policy basically but its not 100% needed. also yes im sure he was uniformed because like i said its only been recently that more of these have been selling to cobalt guys.

thanks for expressing the issue and i will look into this and get a fix going for sure if more people are having issues.

 

What does this spacer do?

 

stops heat transfer from the manifold to block

 

ive noticed in your videos haha

sorry for the off subject comment.

 

hhr and 'balt pretty much have the same setup correct?

 

Yes sir but ours are lnf specific.

 

Not to be nit picky but wouldn't it stop heat transfer from the block to the manifold??

 

Lmao yeah thanks for that catch. It just stops heat transfer.

 

okay cool thanks

 

welcome. for the cheap amount of money they cost its worth every penny.