Throttle body spacers...no good

[Jason@AFR]

Well, I just flowed factory pieces in a few forms

Stock t-body and plenum: 476cfm, talk about pathetic, there a ports out there that do this

I added a ported stock piece (using factory blade): 499cfm...not bad for how little was done.

then I added a t-body spacer, the kind you see everywhere that is suppose to add the "Swirl" effect: 483 cfm

I am going to thoroughly work the plenum and try more t-body mods, looking for 600 cfm and have nobody be able to tell, just wanted to let you know, don't buy a t-body spacer. Jason

 

[Orions98GT]

doh

 

[JonJon]

Neat info but I'm curious about aftermarket plenums and TBs. Not their published numbers...

 

[Jason@AFR]

Neat info but I'm curious about aftermarket plenums and TBs. Not their published numbers...

Exactly why I am doing this, I want solid info, if I can get my hands on some of the aftermarket part to do some testing I would (Any nearby volunteers?) but I have no intentions on buying them. I like my car looking stock.

 

[Dark Knight GT]

Exactly why I am doing this, I want solid info, if I can get my hands on some of the aftermarket part to do some testing I would (Any nearby volunteers?) but I have no intentions on buying them. I like my car looking stock.

I know this thread is old but I'm interested in it. I've been hearing some buzz about throttle body spacers, ported plenums, and intake spacers and I was wondering what your results were or if you've got any new results ? I know how to port plenums. Believe me, I'm the one that did a huge write up on it long ago(and probably will again so everyone knows how to go about doing it) and I'll probably post some pics sometime soon of a project plenum from a 97GT that I'm working on. I also agree with you. I like the stock look. I don't want to have to give in to the "aftermarket plenum craze" either.

 

[9646gt]

I am very curious about the advantages of using a dremel to work the peices as well hopefully there will be some good info and maybe some write ups?

 

[Dark Knight GT]

I am very curious about the advantages of using a dremel to work the peices as well hopefully there will be some good info and maybe some write ups?

Well, I'll do another write up sometime. I did an in-depth write up a while back but it was lost when Stangnet crashed. I'll also try to post some pics of my latest work on this plenum I'm going to have the thing as smooth as possible with as few lines of porting as possible. Anyone who has seen my older work and remembers the pics I posted there of the stock throttle body knows I know what I'm talking about.

 

[9646gt]

Well, I'll do another write up sometime. I did an in-depth write up a while back but it was lost when Stangnet crashed. I'll also try to post some pics of my latest work on this plenum I'm going to have the thing as smooth as possible with as few lines of porting as possible. Anyone who has seen my older work and remembers the pics I posted there of the stock throttle body knows I know what I'm talking about.

that would be great..I have most of what I need to do it but I want to make sure I do it right..I cant afford a screw up hehe

 

[mustang70]

I'm a little confused. Did you port the upper plenum or the throttle body itself? I would definitly be interested in all this. I don't want to lose my pony.

 

[Dark Knight GT]

I'm a little confused. Did you port the upper plenum or the throttle body itself? I would definitly be interested in all this. I don't want to lose my pony.

I did both. I mainly cleaned up the roughness of the throttle body and then polished it to a smooth mirror finish. If I could ever get my other computer fixed to connect to the internet, I'de show you what I mean as the pics are on there. That, or I need to get a hard disk and transfer the picture files. Anyways, I also proted the upper intake on the inside only I honed more off the inner walls. The key to porting the upper intake is to port evenly and try not to make pits in the surface as that will create an uneven amount of air flow. Also, in some of the upper intake models, there is this "hump" near the EGR. Its difficult to grind down but grinding that down should help the flow. I've got a project plenum I've been spending a LOT of time on. Been working on it on and off since last summer. I put it away this winter and didn't work on it much, however, I've got it back out and I'm ready to finish it up. I'll take some pics and post them when I'm finished. If I could get someone to dyno test the thing and/or do a flow bench of numbers on it compared to stock, then once I'm finished with it, I'de send it to them and see what they could get it to do.

 

[AdRock]

I recently ported the 2 stock plenums I had. One is on the car now and I sold the other one.

Here are some pics of the one I sold. I used a cutting wheel to grind down the big stuff like the seams and the hump in front of the egr inlet. Then used a grinding stone to do the rest. Finished it up with a 80 grit then 120 grit sanding wheel. Then a smoothing wheel. These pics don't do justice to just how smooth it came out.

 

[mustang70]

Did you notice a SOTP difference between the stock and ported plenum?

 

[hotmustang331]

We hand ported mine and it came out pretty darn smooth...used a grindind wheel that was broke in half and finished it up with some emeroy (sp) cloth...wasnt mirror but it was very smooth to the touch, and this was the TF plenum, so I know its alot better then the accufab NOW. The TF was pretty rigid inside, i think it was worse than the stock piece...when you comapare the 2, the stock is SMALL and the bend/elbo is too sudden...the TF is more drawn out and looks to promote a much better flow. The car pulls strong to 5800RPMs with really 0 drop off...I ran it to 6300 the other day in 4th and it was still pulling nicely. Tried it before with teh ported plenum in second to 6300 and it felt like a dog...maybe its adjusting or something.

BTW after the porting (3-4 hours i think) my hands were tore up pretty good LOL, but like I said it was smooth...not as good as the above pic, but I didnt have a ton of time in it for how smooth it was.

 

[RedBullitt]

yeah, tb spacers are definatley a bottleneck, but i think it is because they are so narrow, just look at them. anyone try to port them out a bit? they just seem to be too narrow. Think about it, if it is the same size and the tb and plenum inlets, then there is no way it can flow less air, gains in hp maybe, maybe not, but i just do not think it can flow less. Port that thing out and see what happens.

 

[AdRock]

Did you notice a SOTP difference between the stock and ported plenum?

It felt like it ran a little better in the upper rpm range as far as the Ass 'o' meter goes.

 

[AdRock]

yeah, tb spacers are definatley a bottleneck, but i think it is because they are so narrow, just look at them. anyone try to port them out a bit? they just seem to be too narrow. Think about it, if it is the same size and the tb and plenum inlets, then there is no way it can flow less air, gains in hp maybe, maybe not, but i just do not think it can flow less. Port that thing out and see what happens.

When I ported my stock plenum I used some double sided tape and taped the lower intake spacer to it. I ported the spacer to have an ever so slightly larger opening than the plenum.

 

[mogs01gt]

most people arent even running a Plenum spacer because the after market plenums already have a slight increase in the heigth.