Russia's biggest car maker will use plastic manifolds for the first time on its Lada engines

Russia's biggest car maker will use plastic manifolds for the first time on its Lada engines

Russia’s biggest car maker Avtovaz will use plastic air intake manifolds in its vehicles, a first for the Russian market. The air intakes on three Lada engines – the SOHV 1.5 and 1.6 and the DOHC 1.6 – will use Dow’s Questra N, a 35% glass fibre reinforced blend of syndiotactic polystyrene and polyamide. The vibration-welded manifold will be manufactured by OAO Plastik, a moulder based in Syzran, Russia.

Vyacheslav Messhkov, manager of Avtovaz’s combustion engine department, said he recognised that plastic air intake manifolds are used for 70% of vehicles in Europe. “We have considered intake manifolds in aluminium, but then decided to change to thermoplastic for reasons of cost and weight”.

He added that Dow Automotive has already supplied plastics for Avtovaz vehicles outside the engine compartment. Last year Avtovaz manufactured approximately 700,000 cars.