what do you guys know about..., throttle body spacers? Options

[My2Celi]

It claims to put 22hp/torque more? and its only a bill. amazing...but iono anything about it. so if u could plz help me learn about it. This upgrade part.

This post has been edited by My2Celi: Mar 26, 2006 - 8:32 PM

[VolcomRacing]

Theres a website that sells those and they were called VORTEX somethings for $59.99 and a 30 day money back guarantee.. i thought about it but didn't know if it would make a dramatic improvement

[My2Celi]

anyone ever done it here?

[Bitter]

its a know 'do-nothing' part for modern fuel injected cars and probably never did that much for carbed cars. the idea was to keep the carb cool to keep the fuel denser and in liquid form in the small carb passages.

on a fuel injected car it does pretty much nothing good. it can actually do bad things, like mess up how the air flows into the intake plenum and down the runners. toyota spent time and money developing the intake manifold, how is a spacer going to do anything good? if it was really that great wouldnt it be integrated into the manifold already?

[My2Celi]

yea it makes sense

[Fastbird]

The idea of a throttle body spaces is a carry over from the old school days of the carb spacer.

On a carberuated motor, a spacer could be added in-between the carb and intake manifold for a two-fold reason: to promote better airflow and swirl into the motor and more importantly to promote better atomization of the fuel being introduced into the airstream.

On a fuel injected car with a primarily dry manifold however, a throttle body spacer is nothing more than a waste of money. The fuel is being injected in the runners just prior to the radius into the head itself, so the spacer would have no effect on the atomization what so ever, not to mention that fuel injectors are designed with atomization in mind.

Spend your money elsewhere.

[Jeremiah]

The idea of a throttle body spaces is a carry over from the old school days of the carb spacer.

On a carberuated motor, a spacer could be added in-between the carb and intake manifold for a two-fold reason: to promote better airflow and swirl into the motor and more importantly to promote better atomization of the fuel being introduced into the airstream.

On a fuel injected car with a primarily dry manifold however, a throttle body spacer is nothing more than a waste of money. The fuel is being injected in the runners just prior to the radius into the head itself, so the spacer would have no effect on the atomization what so ever, not to mention that fuel injectors are designed with atomization in mind.

Spend your money elsewhere.

Yeah, the only bennifit I could think of is making the air less turbulant (again - a carry over from carborated days... mostly in high RPM applications) - but that isn't going to add much power in our cars. The intake valves are so small in our motors - that they become the bottleneck.

[lilsteeg]

if you look at the little picture, it is designed to spin the air, to try to make it mix with the fuel better

[Shigexile]

there is thing called "Power Deck Spacer" made by TopFuel. it pretty much adds hight to the intake manifold and they came up with a 12ps increase.

if you have the HyperRev book Celica (Vol.2) it's in there also. isn't that pretty much the same thing. Well i bet the one on JCWhitney is not up to quality as this one but it works the same way right? So why not give it a try?

edit: its on page 60

This post has been edited by Shigexile: Mar 28, 2006 - 4:21 PM

[My2Celi]

if u say 12hp im temped to try.

[Bitter]

if you look at the little picture, it is designed to spin the air, to try to make it mix with the fuel better

throttle body spacers were designed for engines with carbuerators. so why do they make them for fuel injected cars if they dont do anything? BECAUSE POEPLE STILL BUY THEM. i could make up a BS study about how standing on your head makes you smarter because it promotes bloodflow to the brain. just becase it sounds like it works doesnt mean it does. and how does a throttle body spacer help fuel effeicency on a multiport fuel injected car?? PLEASE explain that one to me. im dying to hear it.

once that spinning air hits the runners and valves it doesnt nothing, if it infact imparts any spin to begin with, its very short lived. the intake pulses in the plenum just grab chunks of air, which would kill any spining air effect.

making the plenum larger? a couple cubic inches isnt a gain to write home about if you even get that.

but hey, if you feel like it'll make a difference and its worth it to you, go right on ahead and do it.


but let me note one thing about that particular product (ive seen it before on other forums)

Raises throttle body injection unit 1" - yea because the 5sfe uses throttle body injection

This post has been edited by Bitter: Mar 28, 2006 - 5:11 PM

[lilsteeg]

if you look at the little picture, it is designed to spin the air, to try to make it mix with the fuel better

throttle body spacers were designed for engines with carbuerators. so why do they make them for fuel injected cars if they dont do anything? BECAUSE POEPLE STILL BUY THEM. i could make up a BS study about how standing on your head makes you smarter because it promotes bloodflow to the brain. just becase it sounds like it works doesnt mean it does. and how does a throttle body spacer help fuel effeicency on a multiport fuel injected car?? PLEASE explain that one to me. im dying to hear it.

once that spinning air hits the runners and valves it doesnt nothing, if it infact imparts any spin to begin with, its very short lived. the intake pulses in the plenum just grab chunks of air, which would kill any spining air effect.

making the plenum larger? a couple cubic inches isnt a gain to write home about if you even get that.

but hey, if you feel like it'll make a difference and its worth it to you, go right on ahead and do it.


but let me note one thing about that particular product (ive seen it before on other forums)

Raises throttle body injection unit 1" - yea because the 5sfe uses throttle body injection

throttle body spacers were designed for cars with carbs, thats about the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

[Shigexile]

the power deck spacer says it bores up, letting more air come into the cylinders or something like that. i'll trust this one made by top fuel but i don't think i'll trust the one on JCWhitney.

[Bitter]

throttle body spacers were designed for cars with carbs, thats about the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

they were originally intended for carbed cars, to keep the carb cool (ones made from phenolic resin) or to help the fuel atomize more with some spinning 'stuff' or by giving it a little more room to mix with the air before it went down the runners. and im sure it works for carbed cars and even throttle body units (like it says RIGHT ON THE PAGE) but i highly doubt that it does chicken 'stuff' for a port fuel injected car.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Mar 28, 2006 - 9:24 PM

[Fastbird]

throttle body spacers were designed for cars with carbs, thats about the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

Better check up on your automotive history junior. The original was known as a CARB spacer, and was used on CARBEURATED motors. About the only fuel injected motors that a throttle body space does anything on is a throttle body injected motor. Other than that, you're just wasting money.

I bet you have a turbonater too don't ya???

This thread was made with an overt attempt at humor, please take no offense.

This post has been edited by Fastbird: Mar 28, 2006 - 9:30 PM

[kenjamatic]

i think there was a thread about this item before...from what i remember it don't really make much difference unless the engine is already modded(correct me if i'm wrong)....i have a tornado in my car and noticed a slight difference and i think that the spacer is somewhat the same thing...but that's just my opinun

[lilsteeg]

throttle body spacers were designed for cars with carbs, thats about the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

Better check up on your automotive history junior. The original was known as a CARB spacer, and was used on CARBEURATED motors. About the only fuel injected motors that a throttle body space does anything on is a throttle body injected motor. Other than that, you're just wasting money.

I bet you have a turbonater too don't ya???

This thread was made with an overt attempt at humor, please take no offense.

i know that the carb. spacer was intended for barb'd cars and came way before throttle boddies, i had an 82 firebird with a 305 small block, 4 bbl carb, and 4 on the floor, basically a firebird 442 if you wanna look at it like that, i know my auto history, but to say that a THROTTLE body spacer was designed for a CARB'D car is an oxymoron, moron, i was just pointing out the misuse of words going on. the CONCEPT was for carb'd cars not the actual part, it wont bolt up to both DUH