[stingray]

Hi all just wondering if anyone as ever used one of these http://www.airaidsales.com/www/product1.aspx?SID=1&Product_ID=296&Category_ID=48 or if there is any advantage over the MAP Engineering Throttle Body Spacer

 

[Ron Vogel]

That's for N/A cars, so it won't work on your's anyway. My experience with the TB spacers is that it's money better spent elsewhere.

 

[johnt]

When I used to run a stock M90/stock TB, I had a TB spacer and a heat shield from RAT (remember them?). The two of them kept the TB considerably cooler. I can't quantify just how much it helped. but it must have been more than zero. As far as best bang for the buck, no of course it's not the best but I do believe it helps a little.

Reading the description on the link you posted, I have the urge to want to run away from that particulat product though. Sounds like all the benefits of a tornado. If you're trying to decide between this one and MAP, I'd gravitate towards MAP.

John

 

[Ron Vogel]

Well, I'll go into more detail...When I started doing a lot of TB porting, I had a lot of people come back with pegged LT's. On a ported TB, LT's are generally higher than stock, but something wasn't right. Almost every problem was a car with a TB spacer on it. They seal fine when new, but take off the TB, or in some cases, just over time, they warp, and don't seal well. I can't speak for Aluminum spacers (those have been fine over the years), but the "plastic" ones are problematic. Wrapping the crossover, and adding a heat shield would be a better way to go in my book. We even had a local member that had head gasket failure due to hydrolocking the engine at speed...which was traced back to an aging TB spacer that warped, and sucked coolant in.

 

[spd98]

I would think that an aluminum spacer wouldn't do it's job. It's supposed to prevent conduction of heat and aluminum is pretty good at moving heat. So it would draw heat into the tb. And with a thivker bigger peice of aluminum in there I would think that even if your tb stayed cooler the spacer would stay hotter longer and have the same effect as a hot tb.

 

[stingray]

Thanks guys" good to get the info up front first dolly noted.Glad I came here to get the right answer so I don't make costly mistakes. Hard enough to do the right job as it is let along do the wrong thing.Thanks again.

 

[johnt]

I hear what you're saying Ron. My first hand experience was with the RAT unit, and that worked well. As a matter of fact I think I had it on for 1.5 yrs without issue. It eventually came off when I went over to the MP112. There were no failures at that point. We didn't start hearing of TB spacers causing problems until ZZP's first gens. ZZP did the right thing by recalling and replacing them and did change the material they were using so I thought things were OK now. I also thought that the MAP units were ok too.

Well Hugh, there you have it. Probably more information than you were looking for.

John

 

[GT Mike]

When Evergreen Performance released their Airaid TB spacer for the Mopar and Jeep engines, several people tried them and the general consensus was they didn't do squat.

On an engine with throttle body injection like a '87-'95 Chevy truck, there might be some gains due to the fact it raises the TBI unit up some, allowing less "puddling" in the intake manifold, and in theory the swirling effect should help with initial fuel atomization.

But on an engine like ours that doesn't mix fuel and air at the TB, they probably won't do anything but lighten your wallet.

Edit: If this is in fact for the L36 and not the L67 (I don't see anywhere where it specifies), it looks as if they've blocked off the coolant passage leading to the TB, which could afford a gain, albiet a tiny one. Filling the coolant cavity in with some Ultra Grey RTV silicone will accomplish the same thing for less than 5 bucks.