I have read numerous times on here that throttle body spacers do not work at least not on these trucks. So I've never tried one and don't intend to ever try one really. However, a friend just bought one for his Chevy 454SS. I told him I'd read they don't work but he swore his friend saw a difference on a Mustang with one. So he bought it. After installing it he swears it revs up faster and says he loves it. Seems like the few people I've talked to in real life like them yet the reviews I read online say they don't do anything. What makes them not do anything or is that just on these trucks?

 

They work and they don't work. On our trucks, they don't work, but they might on others.

Throttle body spacers work best on motors that are throttle body injected.- Fuel is sprayed into the throttle body and it's forced through the runners and into the cylinders by the vacuum pull on the air flow. The spacers usually have a spiral on the sides, and this makes the air spin a little bit supposedly getting you a better air to fuel ratio.

On our trucks, they do not work, and 99% of all fuel injected engines as well. Modern engines are port injected meaning that the fuel is sprayed directly into the cylinder and not the intake like above. In this case, spinning the air doesn't help. It does nothing to help the air to fuel ratio.

The only time a TB spacer should be used on our trucks is when you need to raise the mounting surface up for an air cleaner, IE the 14X3 cleaner.

 

i kept trying to tell a buddy of mine that has a 2007 tundra that it was pointless for him to get one...he bought it anyway...doofus. its ok though, ain't my money.

 

i bought one.. airraid.. learn from me. IT DOESNT WORK!! i took it off, use it as a paper weight now..

and i believe the 454ss are TBI, thats probly why it worked for ur friends friend. most S10's are TBI

 

You would be better off saving the money to fix your plenum, then while you are in there cut the bottom 2" off the intake runners at ~60* angle. Then, if you have some spare time open up the restriction over your throttle plates, cut off the towers, and blend the openings on your TB. Do those things and you will see a night and day difference.

 

You are right but your terms are a little off. The air fuel ratio will be the same wether there is a spacer or not. The spacer is suposed to help fuel atomize by giving it more time and swirling it. They where invented for and work on carb setups and possibly on TBI setups but they are snake oil for everything else. They don't even work in theory on Multi port EFI systems.

 

^Noted. Thanks.

 

Exactly right. The air/fuel ratio (referred to as stoichiometry) is not changed by these devices. That is a function of the PCM. What can be changed is the atomization (mixing of the air and fuel), but on a port injected vehicle, lengthening the intake runner before it reaches the point where the fuel is injected into the airstream has zero effect on performance. Theoretically, it might work on a throttle body-injected setup (by giving the intake charge and air more distance in which to atomize), but even then the benefit of a 1/2"-1" spacer is dubious. Spacers, much like those "vortex" inserts, have never been proven to provide any real (measurable) performance benefits beyond enriching the companies that sell them.

 

i love threads like these, always learn so much

 

ya i learned after payin 90 bucks and throwing it away hahaha!