Hi all. I just picked me up a 2002 Dakota Quad Cab, 4.7L. She's pretty sharp. The previous owner installed a K&N Air Intake, Jet Performance Chip, and a Throttle Body Spacer. I've been searching the forums and from what I can tell the TBS in most peoples opinion is a waste of time. I am getting a whistling noise coming from around the throttle body initially when giving it some gas and if I hold the accelerator in certain position while in cruise, I can get the whistling noise to be continuous. Is the the TBS causing this. Should I remove it? Thanks.

 

Willing to bet it's the intake and tb spacer. If you look up the instructions on the k&n the last thing it says is "the whistle means its working". Mine wistles untill i need to recharge the filter. hope that helps.

 

Thanks. That makes sense. I went to the site. Guess its working because it sure is whistling.

I do have a follow on newby question. I'm fairly mechanically inclined when doing minor maintenance (oil/brakes/clutch, etc) but have never dealt with performance. As stated earlier, the truck has the K&N intake, TBS, and Jet perfromance Chip. It also has dual exhaust pipes. It splits into dual at the muffler. So if I am looking at it correctly, it basically has 2 tail pipes but one muffler. In my searches, these mods are for more power and better fuel mileage. That correct? All together, they give it a pretty cool deep throaty sound. Being ignorant to this, due to the throaty sound, in my mind I am always thinking the engine is working harder and burning more fuel.

Will these mods affect the life of the engine? I do a lot of interstate traveling and don't want to do any harm. I'm just trying to learn more about what I have. Thanks.

Marty

 

Hey bro nope it is not making your engine work harder at all unless it is a factory muffler, if it is an aftermarket muffler(ie dynomax, flowmaster) then your doin fine!!

 

the whistling noise could be a blown TB gasket, might want to check. and no your engine is not working harder because of the aftermarket exhaust, it actually has less of a strain now than it did with the restrictive factory exhaust.

 

Thanks all. Eases my mind. The more I drive her also the better I feel. She is pretty cool.

 

The TB spacer does the same task as a carb spacer. It movers the power band around to where you need it. Usually a 1/2" spacer will move the band to about the middle for the range where a 3/4-1" spacer will move the power to the lowerend. Its really a game of give and take with the spacers because not all trucks act the same. So if you find the the band moved closer to idle when you take it off leave it off. But if it shift to the upper range leave it on.

 

i have a tb spacer on my 5.9 r/t and it whistles a little bit when i get on it...i also do not have an intake that would cause this noise. if its really really loud then i would look into it more, but otherwise its perfectly normal