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TBI spacers?? Are they worth it??

shady

shady

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I've been looking at putting a throttle body spacer on my 88 burb. Has any one used one and do they perform as they say. :dunno:
 
Be prepared to have a throttle cable, TV cable AND cruise control rod that won't fit until you somehow modify the cable bracket so that it gets moved up the same distance as the thickness of the spacer. I once bought one, tried to install it and ran across the problems I just said and immediately took that POS back.
 
shady said:
I've been looking at putting a throttle body spacer on my 88 burb. Has any one used one and do they perform as they say. :dunno:
Click to expand...

I run one... why, i bought it, no idea... :haha: there are better tbi mods... the often giggled at salad bowl for one..

it's inherent design is to help increase topend performance... not something tbi - torque - low rpm truck motor, really benefit from...

in addition to the potential issues Scott mentioned.... especially with bad geometry on tv cables when the proper spacers aren't run...

high revving carbed hotrod? sure..... TBI truck? meh.....
 
Yeah I thought of the high range thing too since thats what carb spacers do. But they CLAIM its for low end torque on summit:dunno: Thats what I want is just a little more low grunt. I could easily fab or mod the cable brackets to be the right height, But I wouldnt have thought of it with out asking here:bow:. Its cheap enough I may do it just to see. My truck seems fine now but I just want to make sure I have enough torque to keep my current gears(dont know what they are yet) now that I went to 33's. I still havent made a highway trip since the lift to see how it does.
 
I have one on my R3500 , I can't really feel the difference
 
bought an air raid, and it helped a tad. just had to adjust the TV cable. motor has 225k on it so I'll take any extra pep I can
 
I just put on a CFM Technologies throttle body spacer. I had a hard time buying it because I figured it was a waste of money, but surprisingly it worked! Definately a bit more power and much better throttle response. I haven't been able to tell a difference in fuel mileage, it's stayed the same as before I put it on, which is good because I've found myself hammering on this thing more and enjoying it... It didn't effect my throttle cable or cruise control at all, but I did have to set my TV cable for the transmission, and bend my fuel lines to keep them vibrating against the floor of the cab by the bottom of the firewall. Overall I would buy it again, mine was expensive ($83) but I liked their design with the machined out center to allow the intake to draw air and fuel mixture from both throttle bores instead of just one of them. I have a thread started and I'll be adding more pictures and reviews of the rest of their products. I have read a lot of people saying stay away from the "swirl port" designs, and that they didn't really help.
 
I have one on my K5. Been on there since '09. No ill effects from the cables, just proper TV cable adjustment and go. Definite noticeable 'seat of the pants' improvement in off the line throttle response. Also seems to cruise down the highway with a bit less effort.

Mine is a Transdapt iirc, but not sure. I didn't buy it a friend gave it to me.
 
I'm doing searches on here for this throttle body spacer thingy, the 2wd Burb I just picked up not long ago had one installed, (Airraid) but the previous owner had also installed a secondary spring, like one used for a carb'd setup, to help pull the throttle all the way back to idle,, if it's not hooked up, the idle is too high.

SO, in the past few years that he'd been driving it this way, it wore out the throttle shaft as well, making the pedal/throttle sticky and difficult to push.

I just installed a used throttle body base I had from a different project and it works great, but does not like the spacer installed, again, the cable is just ever so slightly too short with the new angle the spacer puts it at.

I'm still searching for ideas or pics of what others have done to readjust or whatever was needed to reposition the bracket to correct for the new height of the throttle body unit.

any ideas? :D
 
I installed one on my Suburban a few months ago... might have been last summer even. In my case, I got the Jegs model, which is just two holes, no cutouts. Longer intake runners can help low end torque, bouncing the air fuel mix off the blades of the throttle body etc. Anyway, I noticed a big difference in low end performance in my rig. It probably helped push the 35" tires with 3.73 gears better. I always keep track of fuel mileage; no change better or worse after installation, but more power with no change in mpg's? I'll take it!

I also installed a salad bowl from Jegs. Cheap, and maybe it helps. Still have the injector pod spacer to install as well. Again, cheap, if it works, that's cool.

Yesterday I hauled quite a bit of wood, with a nice hilly drive home. I am still pleased with the fact that I can still keep up with traffic was fine even while going uphill with a load like that. Stopping however is another story. Thank goodness for gears!

Good luck with your decision. I say go for it!
 
Mine came with spacers and hardware to raise the linkage mounting bracket up to the proper height when I bought my CFM technologies TBI spacer, no thinking involved!
 
ccarley said:
can help low end torque, bouncing the air fuel mix off the blades of the throttle body etc.
Click to expand...

I've never heard that.. what your saying go's against all I've seen.. just look at oldschool stuff... what's the advantages and working parameter of a tunnel ram intake over a low rise intake? MUCH better performance in the higher RPM's...


weiand-wei1981.jpg



on a mpfi, sure, I can see some torque improvements in addition to top end gains... but even then, the most noticeable gains are at the top end.. all I have to do is look at merc marine motors for that.... carb 454's WOT rpm is usually in 4 to 4200 range, MPFI? 46 to 4800...

I always remembered oldschool carb spacers doing just that, adding some performance to the top end...

now, I did notice a nice bottom end increase with the salad bowl and pod spacer.. unfortunately I did both of those at the same time...

I'm not saying long runners don't help for torque, just compare a dual to single plane intake... but I don't think that's the aspect your seeing an improvement in...
 
The tunnel ram is different, with "big 'ol holes beneath the carbs". Granted, the stock GM intake isn't the best design to use with shared runners either. But, for torque, long individual runners are the ticket. You can see the runners are longer on the Edelbrock TBI intake as well compared to the stock unit.

Apparently Dodge may have used this idea back in the day as well. I'll see if I can find some info...
 
If you add an open spacer, it will add top end power. If you add a spacer that matches the throttle bores it adds runner length and should increase low end.
 
a6937b1d-abe4-8a84.jpg

This is the one I used from CFM Technologies, it was expensive, but worked well and came with the spacers and hardware to raise the linkage/cable bracket up properly. I liked the milled out center section, they claim it eliminates the need to flow match the injectors because it allows the throttle bores to equalize... I'm not engineer, but it made a big difference in how my blazer ran!
 
I am doing the spacer next. I have done the pod spacer, logged before and after. After the pod spacer I was running lean. Did 1000 miles then modified my air intake. I then logged again, after the intake I have more power, the computer will richen the mix with the smallest increase on the throttle. I didn't believe it at first so I logged again and it plainly showed I had a difference in power. I pulled home a load this weekend and didn't have to downshift to keep speed. Just gave it a touch more gas and I kept speed. Actually fun to drive, just keep wondering if the tbi spacer is next or the parts for cruise are next. Hell with it I'll do both.

I spaced the pod injector up a 1/4", got the part of ebay for $20 I think. Didn't see real gains until I did the intake mod that I made myself.

I finally figured out (after 2 years) how to upload a pic from my now old blackberry.

homemade air intake installed.jpg
 
Mudbuggy, I'd be worried about how it will perform in the heat of summer with the intake cut open like that. I did the old air cleaner lid flip on mine, it worked great in the cool weather, but would feel sluggish and bog down in the hot afternoon air.
 
smier said:
Mudbuggy, I'd be worried about how it will perform in the heat of summer with the intake cut open like that. I did the old air cleaner lid flip on mine, it worked great in the cool weather, but would feel sluggish and bog down in the hot afternoon air.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing only with one of those open air element chrome air filter setups, It sounded cool when ya got on the throttle, but it really didn't like it. There was a definate difference in the feel of performance, that would be a loss of.:doah:

Reinstalled the factory cold air intake, much better.
 
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