Anderson Engineering Manifold Spacer install

Appreciated Billye, and if you could tell us what you're driving, that's helpful.

 

2022 3.5 Sport Manual

 

Well, What I’ve noticed with people about this spacer is honestlyI think they think it does more than it does. Simply put my dinky 3.5 v6 does NOT need to be wined up to 4-6k rpm to move. I have a bit more low end torque feel on normal acceleration from 2800-3500rpm. (Feels like a miniature v8 lack of better words)

If you tow it’s a great addition to help out

So…the donkey v6 feels merely better that OF a TRUCK than the minivan type v6.( wasn’t this motor in that to start) ** that’s the beginning y’all need run Kdmax or something too. Let everything work together, and yes i recommend a TB spacer with that too.

 

I agree. I also have a KDMaxx tune and a throttle body spacer, along with this spacer, on mine.

 

Ok I promised I’d write up a little more detail. Here it is.

My truck is a 22 sport manual transmission. After driving it a couple of days, I am fairly sure there’s a slight improvement in performance below about 3500 rpm. It’s not suddenly a more powerful engine, but it’s less prone to bogging down like it used to do pretty often. If you have a m/t truck, you know that it’s not hard to big the engine down and make it “buck” or surge at low engine speeds and relatively high load. The first time I was driving with the spacer, I was making a turn and shifted early. I was anticipating a surging response but it didn’t happen. Now…it’s still not powerful. But it’s better behaved. Don’t expect big gains. Expect barely perceptible gains. But it seems like a baby step in the right direction.

The 3500rpm surge is still there. There should be a trade off. If low speed torque is improved, you’d expect a loss of torque at higher engine speeds. I guess that’s true but the engine is still strong to about 5000 rpm or so.

My opinion is that this thing slightly improves drivability with manual transmission trucks. I can’t imagine it helps at all with an automatic. It’s up to you if it’s worth $350 and an hour of your time.

Install note: make sure you have an external torx E8 bit before you start. It will greatly simply removing the studs.

 

Do you have the 2.4 or 2.7 any more miles or insight on it, i have a 3rd gen 2.7 with an auto, doubt i will notice as much with the auto as i would if it was a 5 speed. Just looking to improve driveability, it obviously wont add big power but if its a little happier 3500 and under might be worth while.

 

A slight, but noticeable improvement in low engine speed situations (accelerating, but especially parking lot driving or backwoods trail cruising) is a good thing to have. I think I'll be ordering this very soon. Thanks for the heads up on the external torx bit.

 

You need 4-6k RPMs to move your truck?

 

Helps auto towing yes what it was mostly intended for yes

 

I thought the same thing when I read that. I'm usually under 3k to in the 3s for getting up to speed on regular roads. Well, gearing, tire size and tune all make a difference.

 

Most of my driving is below 3500 but it is pretty dang slow down there. I would agree that you need to be up between 4000-6000 to get these trucks to move with anything that resembles urgency, and even that is still pretty slow. The worst is the manuals where its a choice of keeping the motor spinning in 2nd, or switch to third and have no go. Cloverleafs on fast highways are the worst.

 

Yes, same here. My tach sees 4k+ RPMs maybe twice a month or so.

 

I can see it for emergency situations.

Like I mentioned above, I rarely go over 4K unless I wanna hear my intake growl or juts have some fun.

Maybe we are driving in different conditions/traffic? I live in metropolitan city where things move pretty fast, and staying below 3k RPMs works 90% of the time.

 

I did some simple analysis of my typical drive with a few long inclines and high speeds. Most of the time, I stay below 2000 rpms (1700-1900).
So for me, the spacer's data must show improvement below or at 2000 rpms.
Most dyno data starts above 2000 rpms

 

Bet that makes getting the driver-side plugs out easier. Might have to do that just for that.

 

I live in the country and have pretty sedate roads for the most part, at least for my daily which is all 2 lane county or slow city. For that I almost always stay below the 3600RPM kick (since it screws shifting). However if I move out of my daily drive and merge with the highways, head to the city, or even go towards the shopping centers then I have to click it up around 4000-5000 regularly to not feel like I'm hindering traffic when merging or interfacing. The one on-ramp I can take to get home is a rather lengthy (1600ft) but uphill, that one needs 4500-red line in 2nd so that I can match highway speed to merge (usually around 70-75). Its a left at a light at the beginning so spinning out 1st isn't really an option, and if you short shift 2nd then 3rd lacks so much that I'm below the speed of traffic as I merge.

 

I’ve been hesitant to say anything about it, but mpg seems to have improved by ~1-2 mpg. I’ll need to monitor over time and a few tanks.

 

Just read through this thread and theres a lot of "i think, maybe, pretty sure, might, not sure, etc.." going on. Spending almost $400 on something you think improves your truck is ridiculous and on top of that no proof from the company themselves proving their product, would love to see a dyno video of before/after install. Seems like it moreover moves some power from the top to the bottom, not adding power overall. You are far better off spending your money on headers that actually make a difference first and then spending money on things that might make a difference. Getting the LCE headers for my 2.7 was a major upgrade to my truck, less shifts on uphills and woke it up what feels like through the most of the RPM range. The stock toyota headers were the size of a straw, I couldnt believe how tiny they were. Would love to try this product but the amount of doubt and high price is keeping me away, maybe I'll wait for a sale.

 

I almost took you seriously before you started talking about putting headers on your four cylinder.

 

A chassis dyno doesn't usually read low RPM to show these gains. You may be able to see the loss up top though. But regardless it's a fact that longer runners make more low end power and shorter more power up top. How much this matters on the 3.5 is up for debate.

Also nobody makes traditional style headers for the 3.5 since the "manifold" is integrated into the head. You can delete the cats but thats about it.