Has anyone tried the throttle body spacers? In any of these "more power" threads i havent seen them mentioned, are they for real or no?

 

On our trucks, the only thing a throttle body spacer will do, is lighten your wallet. They are designed more for throttle body injection/carbs. Idea being, the additional turbulence holds the fuel in suspension better. We have port fuel injection, so, the whole theory behind TB spacers goes right out the window. Quite simply, they don't work.

 

They work great.. Along with those there little tornado vortex thingys that go into your air intake tube... When you get this please let us know what kind of performance and mpg gains you got!!!

 

They hold papers down on my desk fairly well...


They also hurt pretty bad when you throw them at people.

 

I totally disagree....

For one part of their claim when in use on vehicles like ours, YES you are right about the swirl effects being little to none, but everyone who slags the throttle body spacers ignores the fact that regardless the debatable effects of the swirl it gives your intake more volume & thus probably being more effective in low end response, but crisp in the whole rpm range. Saying that adding a 3/4 to inch high Throttle body spacer is useless is like saying cutting the inch of runners out of the keg intake is a useless mod. This same reason is why the Dodge Neon Intakes have such a unique design....to fit all 18 inches of runners under the hood, it becomes less about actual flow projection & more about intake volume. I know people don't put much faith in a Gtech but I have seen results I can compare when testing my homemade throttle body spacer thickness on my Neon, a 3/4 inch spacer showed a 5whp gain, I removed it and lost 5 peak hp, regardless of the gains reported the fact is the gtech reacted different with the spacer on and I was getting comparable power gains to people who tested similar mods on a real dyno give or take 2-3hp whenever I added headers or the spacer or something else to that car.

Throttle body spacers are misunderstood. I'm not an engineer by any means but its simple math, your kegger intake wouldn't be so tall in the engine bay if the length of the runners didn't matter to your engines all around driveablity, adding a 3/4 to 1 inch tall spacer DOES make a difference, how much? it depends on the other mods you have!.

Also helps to keep in mind they are first and foremost called a "Throttle Body Spacer" Not throttle plate swirl device, so it absolutely makes zero sense to focus solely on the potential added bonus (the swirl) than what should be focus on its main role, giving post butterfly intake volume.

 

Thank you HeyYou for the intelligent response. And JoshSlash, that is what i had thought, but was going to ask if anybody had used them

 

ok here we go....you say while it may not help anything by the "swirl motion" right? i agree. you also say that it increases volume? wrong. thats like saying that a CAI increases volume. thats also incorrect. why? unless you port your TB holes...the volume of air through that given space, will ALWAYS be the same. you can only fit just so much air through a particular space under normal pressures (i.e. no turbo/supercharger)
also, you say that cutting an inch or so off our runners in the kegger is useless? i'd debate that as well. think about it, the air has a better chance of getting into the runner BEFORE it hits the plenum pan. would you rather have more air going directly from the TB holes to the runner, or just a bunch of air hitting the plenum pan and going all crazy?

that being said, you're information is incorrect. this also goes for all you CAI special people who think they're awesome. you also just wasted hundreds of dollars for something that "looks cool".

ok i'm done ranting now. feel free to pm me or just respond here and we can debate this if you like

 

Regardless of what you think goes through a throttle body I am still right about the intake itself having more volume with a throttle body spacer post throttle body so please do not re-write science with "what you think" it should be because you're wrong. Think of the throttle body spacer not so much throttle body related as it is an intake extension, an extension of the runners inside of the intake. With your weird way of thinking, you would have to tell the people with the kegger mod their work modding the intake did nothing and also you would ignore the fact you're still affecting runner length in favor of mid-high end power band shift. Weather or not your truck performs better with the intake modded that or with a tb spacer has everything to do with your cam,valve size/lift rocker ratio & timing you're using with it. Throttle Body spacer is going to help people out who want their torque curve lower as the kegger mod is going to help people on the track, that is a whole other topic of supporting engine mods that work together with each other for maximum benefit.

If you seal off that intake at the top of the throttle body spacer & seal the intake ports and you fill the intake up with water & measure the amount you will infact have more volume than before. So Mr.Big Shot Engineer what happens to the air thats in the keg prior to start up? does it disappear? its not air tight that plenum! so I am right about more volume post throttle body, you just cannot re-write your own physics to contribute to a story that has zero basis. You are plain and simple ignoring the air that is inside the engine that it doesn't work to suck in, its also about air velocity which you also ignore.

I'm not saying a tb spacer is going to give you xxx amount of horsepower, but I am saying a throttle body spacer WILL affect your engines power band curve. You also have zero concept between a Dual Plane & Single Plane intake manifold operation. Longer runners = more low end torque because more available air, which is also why the throttle body spacer has more response & why people think they help. Single Plane intakes are for mid to higher rpm applications so if you want to debate direct path throttle body intake runners with me you better be sure to be ready to say what you're using your truck for, I'm not running a circle track truck or even a quarter mile drag truck so I have NO need for the Kegger mod in the essence of it shifting my power band north. A Throttle Body spacer is more appropriate for my application needs of low end torque (longer runner path with tb spacer) & using a truck as a truck. There is no debate to which is better because each has their own use.

Also you talk about wrong facts? how about using the right "your" when trying to show ownership in a sentence instead of the "you're" you used when calling me wrong... "you're= You are" not YOURS as in ownership talk!.

 

lmao, here we go with the big bad guy whos tough with a keyboard. i'll just ignore the fact that you're being a douche nozzle and get on with the fact that i believe "your" physics is still wrong.

yes, at "start up" you have more volume in the intake manifold than you do without a spacer (however little volume you get with a inch spacer anyway)(i'll also admit i was wrong about my misuse of the word "volume". i meant volume through the butterflies) but that negates AFTER its running. once its running, that portion of your "theory" goes out the window. once the engine is running, its obviously sucking in air through the butterflies. you can only fit JUST SO MUCH AIR through the butterflies at any given time. the only way to increase that airflow mass, is to either get a ported TB (in which case you'd have to port the TB spacer too) or pressurize it via turbo/supercharger.

i understand that you're probably too thick headed for this to get through to you and believe, but take it from EVERYONE whos EVER gotten a TB spacer for these trucks. they dont work. they never will work. and they really are JUST a really expensive paper weight. theres the slight, and i mean SLIGHT, chance that i'm wrong, but i think my thoughts and experiences, coupled with the experiences of EVERYONE whos had a TB spacer on this forum for these trucks, will agree with me.

 

Throttle body spacer is not going to increase the plenum volume enough to make any sort of difference whatsoever. None. Zero. Nada. Zilch. The plenum volume on these engines is so large, that the VERY minor increase is going to go unnoticed. You are not going to see any gains whatsoever from a TB spacer. Aside from a lighter wallet.

Runner length is what determines where your power band is. Longer runners are better for bottom end grunt, short runners, for top end power. Chopping an inch or so off the runners inside the plenum moves the power band up a couple hundred RPM. On our engines, the runners start at the bottom of the plenum. Not at the throttle body. That huge empty space under the TB negates any possible benefit from the spacer.

That IS engineering.