Plastic vs Metal Intake Manifold

[RockJGC]

Okay, maybe I'm a bit late to the game here, but what's the deal with some of the 2.0T engines having plastic intake manifolds and some having metal? Is one better than the other? Pros and cons of each? Why the switch in the first place?

[Sazexa]

I don't know about on the 2.0T's, but, they did something similar with the 4.2L V8 S5. With the 4.2L, I believe they made a change for a few reasons. The first being weight, it weights a fair bit less. Second, being a slightly better flow pattern, for probably a minute performance bump. Realistically, you'd never notice. Third, I believe the plastic intake manifold doesn't get heat-soaked as bad as the metal one, so, you don't feel as much power loss after consecutive hard pulls. And fourth, lastly, with the 4.2L V8's, they changed from an electrical valve actuator, with motors, to a vacuum fed system. I think this saved some weight and increased reliability of the intake tract runners a bit. I believe the solenoids on the metal intakes tend to burn out a fair bit. My guess is it's something similar for the 2.0's.

[Theiceman]

And dont forget.... follow the money. Which do you think are cheaper to pump out


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