SAM@GTM posted the following on MY G37.com:

"We are doing the Carb certification process a little different, We have hired a company that is certified and approved testings facility by CARB to handle the whole process for us, this agency do the same thing for the car manufactures and makes the process quicker and easier on us but of course it costs a lot more.

FYI the application for carb is free and there are no CARB fees to be paid, meaning you can make your own intake tomorrow and file an application with carb to get the carb certification and they will accept your application and you will spend the next year going back and forth with carb to get the EO (executive order) Number .

The Company We hired is a company that is mandated,approved and have the authority to approve our system for carb certification. And they are working for us so the process will be a lot smoother.

Don't be surprise if we beat stillen to the carb approvals process .

Sam"

Truth or Fiction?
__________________

Truth. 100%
I don't want to state how much Sam shelled out for this service but it was by no means cheap at all. I think I told RCZ about this a while ago, there is no reason to lie about this info people. Yall will soon find out, I promise :)
-I don't care what Carb is telling anyone, the facts will surface.

There are definitely companies who offer services like Sam describes. Although, I'm not sure if they have the ability to approve the results for CARB though. We've never had to look into this as we've always done our own testing. I'm sure there are advantages to doing it this way when you've never dealt with CARB directly before or if you have limited man power /time to handle the testing yourself. Fortunately we have been working with CARB for many, many years on various parts like intakes, superchargers, headers... We have a lot of experience with CARB and know what it takes to get the job done. Also, the Manager of our service department is an ASE certified/licensed smog technician who is constantly kept up to date with new laws and regulations affecting smog related parts.

We are also very fortunate to have such a close relationship with NISSAN and directly with the OBD II systems manager for Nissan North America. This is the guy that handles all of the emissions testing for NISSAN North America. We are able to pick their brains and ask them a lot of questions while we develop our systems...For example, one interesting thing we learned about the VQ37 is that the plastic intake manifold was never intended to see more than 4 psi...

In regards to Sam beating us to CARB approval...I don't know if that will happen or not. CARB testing can go very well or very bad. We have heard horror stories of companies having to go through testing four or five times, sometimes more, before their kit is approved. If you fail one test, you have to repay and reschedule for another test. The tests themselves only take a few days but they are not cheap. Also, CARB can sometimes take awhile to approve systems and get the paperwork through all the necessary steps. Some parts will take a few weeks, some parts will take a few months, or even a year or more...

Thank you for your prompt and detailed reply.

Its "little" things like this that make all the difference to me about whom I purchase my stuff from.

Kyle, what is stillens take on the intake manifold pressure? As a N/A vehicle of course the manifold was not purpose built for FI. I know GTM has already pushed the intake manifold psi into the mid teens and made over 600rwhp... What is stillen's stance on intake manifold performance and capabilities?

I would like to hear some more input on this as well. 4psi is well over done in the sc and turbo sector.
-Bullitt maybe someone will come out with a new intake manifold that is better for FI. I would buy one.

Sam @ GTM and I discussed the use of a gtr manifold and if we see issues with the stock Mani then we will cross that bridge with GTM's adapter when we get there :tup: that is def an option if you want it JB

There is no doubt that the factory intake manifold can flow enough air to produce good power numbers. I would imagine someone like yourself in search of 1,000 horsepower will want to go bigger but for the average guy (even above average in some cases) the plastic intake manifold will be sufficient in terms of power production.

Our concern comes from durability over extended periods of time. What happens after hundreds or thousands of heat cycles and high pressure? This is what we learned from NISSAN. Perfect example, the GT R. On the GT R they use a cast aluminum intake. The reason that they told us is because they did not trust the long term durability of the plastic manifold. In regards to the Z they specifically told us that the plastic intake manifold was never intended to see more than 4 psi over extended periods of time. Their concern was not in relation to performance, they were only concerned about cracking the manifold.

I'm going to let something out that I perhaps shouldn't and I'll probably get my hand slapped for it but I think it's good information. At last year's SEMA show one of my goals was to find and meet with a company who could manufacture plastic intake manifolds. We wanted to find a company similar to the one that NISSAN uses who could produce the manifolds for us out of plastic. This would have reduced the cost substantially as plastic parts are obviously much less expensive than cast aluminum and they wouldn't have needed any machine work or finishing powder coating or polishing...It would have been a lot cheaper and easier for everyone!

After talking with a couple of different companies and after our engineer's talked with the Nissan engineer's. We decided that for durability and increased life expectancy, we would stick with cast aluminum. It is no doubt more expensive and more time consuming but with cast aluminum there is no concern about cracking.

Thanks Kyle! Has stillen done any extensive testing in regards to manifold endurance? From my knowledge there are other companies such as GTM who have vehicles which daily 12, 13, and even 14+ psi on the stock manifold with no issue.

Yes, you are correct my goals are much more than that of the avg enthusiast. But we are discussing the capabilities of the stock intake manifold. I personally would like to run the GTR mani just for the ease of mind and the fact that it's "flow dynamics" are taylored to that of FI.

On a side note is stillen working on a intake manifold for FI outside of your SC kit?

No, there really is no way for us to do that. We are relying on the word of the NISSAN engineer's. How they come up with the 4 psi number, I have no idea to be honest. I imagine they have testing chambers for these parts and I'm sure they have computer based stress analysis programs that can simulate these conditions and do the testing for them.

They told us that their concerned with more than 4 psi running over a few years like that.

Definitely on the to-do list.

great stuff guys keep it coming. i just want 500 to the wheels and know it will last a long long time

Thanks again Kyle

Yeah this is really good info Kyle. Sure is a plus to be in good relations with Nissan, big thumbs up to that.