SSP Teflon Intake Gasket Set Review & Install
SSP Teflon Intake Gasket Set Review & Install
SSP Teflon Intake Gasket Set
Well I got a set in and wanted to do a review. I’ve honestly never installed these types of heat barrier gaskets before and wasn’t sure what to expect. Well to start off here is the description from SSP’s site
Sounds simple enough but how much can it really help? Well Napkin math says; for ~5°F rise in intake temp, air density decreases by 1% (I know this is not absolute & not linear but close enough for now). The intake manifold causes heat exchange by increasing temperature since it’s bolted directly to the head which is hot as hell! This heats the intake manifold and is counterproductive to our attempt to cool the air coming into the head.
By placing a heat barrier between the head and the intake manifold (main source of heating the manifold) we should see lower temperatures and more power!
Initial impressions when opening the package was “wow that is thick!” After seeing it next to the stock gaskets it really is! The Teflon material feels solid, durable and very reusable. These have a quality feel to them just like that of their MC upgrade (which I also bought and am extremely impressed by). Here are some pics when it came in and also some 1/2 way through the install to illustrate the difference between the stock ones which are metal and serve absolutely no heat soak protection, if anything the metal helps improve it
So I picked a day that the temperature wasn’t supposed to change much (hard to find this time of year) to get a good idea of how well these perform. So with the data charted below the only variables changed were the gasket set and a slight change in temperature throughout the day (~45oem and ~43 deg SSP). My mods: fpred, perrin turbo inlet with code filter, 3port, 3” turbo back exhaust, UICP, 800cc injectors, 255hp fuel pump and other things that aren't that important to this test. Stock heat shields are all in place and yes i still have the stock fmic (fail, i know).
Something to be aware of while you look at the numbers; as fresh air enters the intake manifold it cools it down; when you let off the throttle and that fresh cold air isn’t flowing; the intake manifold heats back up from ambient engine bay temperature and more importantly the cylinder head it is bolted to causing heat soak. So for starters I logged idle temperature after a short hard drive and parked it for 10 minutes of idle.
Stock gasket
Manifold air temp: 107
intake air temp: 86
coolant temp: 189
SSP Teflon gasket set
Manifold air temp: 97
intake air temp: 90
coolant temp: 195
I must have driven the SSP set a bit harder or the thermostat hadn’t quite opened yet, but either way we already see a 10 deg (9.4%) decrease in manifold air temperature; and according to napkin math 2% denser air in spite of both higher intake & coolant temperatures. The results look promising!
lets look at highway cruising; 60mph in the HOV lane on a long very slow incline to maximize the amount of throttle and fresh air required to maintain speed. I averaged the same mile of road at the same speeds.
Stock gasket
Manifold air temp: 79
intake air temp: 62
coolant temp: 176
SSP Teflon gasket set
Manifold air temp: 75
intake air temp: 59
coolant temp: 168
the differences are somewhat negligible; the SSP is 4 deg cooler but the intake & coolant temps are both a bit lower. So with a long constant flow of cool winter air the intake manifold is cooled roughly the same with both gaskets.
Red light driving below demonstrates the temperature changes that the manifold under goes from closed throttle heat soak to open throttle cooling and really helps to illustrate that the SSP Teflon Gasket set is doing what it claims.
Here is the OEM gasket; pulling away from a red light you can see how the cool air drops the temps down and as I let off at the next light the manifold air temps climb way back up above 90 and as I pull away they drop back down again.
The SSP gaskets show the same curves but are for the most part 10 deg cooler and are slower to heat soak when sitting at the next light. With a heat barrier between the head the manifold stays cooler and when coming to an idle it is slower to heat up.
The next set are hard pulls from a dead stop with some coasting afterward. As with the red light charts these have similar temperature changes but the SSP gasket set again continues to be cooler across the board with the exception of peak MATS after letting off of the throttle. The SSP temps fell much faster coming back in line with previously observed temps.
SSP:
The gasket set exceeded my expectations delivering a solid temperature barrier against heat soak. Averaging out the numbers you gain roughly 10 degree temperature drop in most conditions resulting in ~2% denser air which means more power
This is another solid product from SSP.
Once the hot summer rolls in and temperatures go way up I expect these gaskets to perform even better!
Well I got a set in and wanted to do a review. I’ve honestly never installed these types of heat barrier gaskets before and wasn’t sure what to expect. Well to start off here is the description from SSP’s site
What are these for?
Before air can enter the combustion chamber of your engine, it first has to enter the air filter, travel through inter cooler piping, pass through the throttle body, enter the intake manifold, and finally enter the cylinder head.
There are many points along the path of this air flow where the air encounters heat. The ambient air temperature within the engine compartment can heat all of the surfaces along this path. This is called heat soak, and quite simply....it robs power from your engine.
A cooler intake means denser, more oxygen rich air, and a much better fuel burn resulting in more power.
SSP PERFORMANCE Teflon Gaskets, prevent this heat soak from occurring, by insulating the intake manifold and throttle bodies against the unwanted heat generated by the cylinder head.
Before air can enter the combustion chamber of your engine, it first has to enter the air filter, travel through inter cooler piping, pass through the throttle body, enter the intake manifold, and finally enter the cylinder head.
There are many points along the path of this air flow where the air encounters heat. The ambient air temperature within the engine compartment can heat all of the surfaces along this path. This is called heat soak, and quite simply....it robs power from your engine.
A cooler intake means denser, more oxygen rich air, and a much better fuel burn resulting in more power.
SSP PERFORMANCE Teflon Gaskets, prevent this heat soak from occurring, by insulating the intake manifold and throttle bodies against the unwanted heat generated by the cylinder head.
By placing a heat barrier between the head and the intake manifold (main source of heating the manifold) we should see lower temperatures and more power!
Initial impressions when opening the package was “wow that is thick!” After seeing it next to the stock gaskets it really is! The Teflon material feels solid, durable and very reusable. These have a quality feel to them just like that of their MC upgrade (which I also bought and am extremely impressed by). Here are some pics when it came in and also some 1/2 way through the install to illustrate the difference between the stock ones which are metal and serve absolutely no heat soak protection, if anything the metal helps improve it
So I picked a day that the temperature wasn’t supposed to change much (hard to find this time of year) to get a good idea of how well these perform. So with the data charted below the only variables changed were the gasket set and a slight change in temperature throughout the day (~45oem and ~43 deg SSP). My mods: fpred, perrin turbo inlet with code filter, 3port, 3” turbo back exhaust, UICP, 800cc injectors, 255hp fuel pump and other things that aren't that important to this test. Stock heat shields are all in place and yes i still have the stock fmic (fail, i know).
Something to be aware of while you look at the numbers; as fresh air enters the intake manifold it cools it down; when you let off the throttle and that fresh cold air isn’t flowing; the intake manifold heats back up from ambient engine bay temperature and more importantly the cylinder head it is bolted to causing heat soak. So for starters I logged idle temperature after a short hard drive and parked it for 10 minutes of idle.
Stock gasket
Manifold air temp: 107
intake air temp: 86
coolant temp: 189
SSP Teflon gasket set
Manifold air temp: 97
intake air temp: 90
coolant temp: 195
I must have driven the SSP set a bit harder or the thermostat hadn’t quite opened yet, but either way we already see a 10 deg (9.4%) decrease in manifold air temperature; and according to napkin math 2% denser air in spite of both higher intake & coolant temperatures. The results look promising!
lets look at highway cruising; 60mph in the HOV lane on a long very slow incline to maximize the amount of throttle and fresh air required to maintain speed. I averaged the same mile of road at the same speeds.
Stock gasket
Manifold air temp: 79
intake air temp: 62
coolant temp: 176
SSP Teflon gasket set
Manifold air temp: 75
intake air temp: 59
coolant temp: 168
the differences are somewhat negligible; the SSP is 4 deg cooler but the intake & coolant temps are both a bit lower. So with a long constant flow of cool winter air the intake manifold is cooled roughly the same with both gaskets.
Red light driving below demonstrates the temperature changes that the manifold under goes from closed throttle heat soak to open throttle cooling and really helps to illustrate that the SSP Teflon Gasket set is doing what it claims.
Here is the OEM gasket; pulling away from a red light you can see how the cool air drops the temps down and as I let off at the next light the manifold air temps climb way back up above 90 and as I pull away they drop back down again.
The SSP gaskets show the same curves but are for the most part 10 deg cooler and are slower to heat soak when sitting at the next light. With a heat barrier between the head the manifold stays cooler and when coming to an idle it is slower to heat up.
The next set are hard pulls from a dead stop with some coasting afterward. As with the red light charts these have similar temperature changes but the SSP gasket set again continues to be cooler across the board with the exception of peak MATS after letting off of the throttle. The SSP temps fell much faster coming back in line with previously observed temps.
SSP:
The gasket set exceeded my expectations delivering a solid temperature barrier against heat soak. Averaging out the numbers you gain roughly 10 degree temperature drop in most conditions resulting in ~2% denser air which means more power
This is another solid product from SSP. Once the hot summer rolls in and temperatures go way up I expect these gaskets to perform even better!
Below are some pics from the install. It’s fairly straight forward to install them. The hardest part is feeling around for the 3 bolts holding the passenger underside bracket onto the manifold. With a basic hand tools everything should be accessible with relative ease. The install will take about 45 minutes if you’re taking your time. First; remove your upper inter cooler pipe & intake box
Second; I removed the fuel rail to make getting access to the bolts holding the intake manifold to the head easier, this may not be required but it only takes about 4 bolts to get it off. And you can leave both fuel lines attached. Be careful with those injectors.
Third; remove the top clamp on your lower intercooler pipe. The top side of it is flexible enough to bend it out of your way with a little bit of coercion. This gives you easy access to the throttle body
Fourth; Time for the throttle body, there are 4 bolts holding this onto the intake manifold. There are 2 coolant lines that can remain attached and are just long enough that you can move the throttle body safely out of the way.
Fifth; after moving the throttle body you can now very easily get to the first of 2 lower brackets on the manifold just below where the throttle body just was. There are 2 bolts that hold this on in place. There are wires attached to each of the brackets so after removing the bolts you don’t have to worry about them falling. The second one is a bit trickier as you will be relying purely on touch. There is one bolt where I am pointing in the pic below, at the bottom of the bracket there are 2 more bolts.
Sixth; now it’s time for the manifold. This is held on by 3 bolts & 2 studs. When getting at the topside nuts you will hopefully see why I pulled the fuel rail as it makes it much easier to keep them from falling onto the under body panels (which really sucks by the way). Once the manifold is free you only need to pull it far enough out to remove the old gasket and put the new one on. The pic will give you an idea where each of the 5 are located.
The rest is just reversing the dis-assembly process. The entire install is straight forward. I didn’t come across any special catches or gotcha parts. The only issue I had was not fully torqueing the top stud nuts down before grabbing a beer and forgetting to tighten them all the way when I got back. Idling at 4500 rpms was a touch scary until I realized how simple the fix ended up being
I’m a satisfied customer and can’t wait to get the MC installed!
Here is the final touch:
Second; I removed the fuel rail to make getting access to the bolts holding the intake manifold to the head easier, this may not be required but it only takes about 4 bolts to get it off. And you can leave both fuel lines attached. Be careful with those injectors.
Third; remove the top clamp on your lower intercooler pipe. The top side of it is flexible enough to bend it out of your way with a little bit of coercion. This gives you easy access to the throttle body
Fourth; Time for the throttle body, there are 4 bolts holding this onto the intake manifold. There are 2 coolant lines that can remain attached and are just long enough that you can move the throttle body safely out of the way.
Fifth; after moving the throttle body you can now very easily get to the first of 2 lower brackets on the manifold just below where the throttle body just was. There are 2 bolts that hold this on in place. There are wires attached to each of the brackets so after removing the bolts you don’t have to worry about them falling. The second one is a bit trickier as you will be relying purely on touch. There is one bolt where I am pointing in the pic below, at the bottom of the bracket there are 2 more bolts.
Sixth; now it’s time for the manifold. This is held on by 3 bolts & 2 studs. When getting at the topside nuts you will hopefully see why I pulled the fuel rail as it makes it much easier to keep them from falling onto the under body panels (which really sucks by the way). Once the manifold is free you only need to pull it far enough out to remove the old gasket and put the new one on. The pic will give you an idea where each of the 5 are located.
The rest is just reversing the dis-assembly process. The entire install is straight forward. I didn’t come across any special catches or gotcha parts. The only issue I had was not fully torqueing the top stud nuts down before grabbing a beer and forgetting to tighten them all the way when I got back. Idling at 4500 rpms was a touch scary until I realized how simple the fix ended up being
I’m a satisfied customer and can’t wait to get the MC installed!Here is the final touch:
I would like to be the first to say that people like you are the reason that forums are as valuable of a resource as they are. Phenomenal writeup and effort and the product itself looks promising as well!
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that was on the stock FMIC. I have an aftermarket one coming in next week. the weather is warmer now but i imagine the gaskets will perform a little little better with a much cooler charge hitting the intake manifold.
the throttle body gasket is damn near wide enough to call it a spacer rather than just a gasket.
the throttle body gasket is damn near wide enough to call it a spacer rather than just a gasket.
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