throttle spacer?

[erik litchy]

has anyone expiremented with putting a spacer between the throttle body and the manifold on these cars? seems to help a tad on most cars. expecially if carbed.

[ausubaru92]

I know nothing about this.... but

 

What are the improvements and how does it work?

[erik litchy]

and look at this http://www.cfm-tech.com/HVHdominatorspacersdynotest-1.htm

 

heres a quote

 

The Super Sucker

Cheap Horsepower for Spec Engines?

By: Tim Lee

 

Base torque reading of 510 at 5,500 rpm. After adding the spacer between the carb and manifold, a simple bolt-on procedure that takes about 15 minutes to complete, the horsepower number jumped to 620 and the torque to 521. Not a bad yield for an investment of about 15 minutes and a hundred bucks. So what if Joe Racer wants to jack up his carb and slide a spacer underneath it? Will he find the same kind of results? "Engines respond differently to different spacers," Craft said, but the Super Sucker will generally add "five, six, seven horsepower better than other spacers." Adding the piece should increase an engine's potential "from eight to fourteen [horsepower], somewhere in that range," Craft said. But what does this extra power mean for Joe Racer when he hits the track? "Most guys have found out that the car drives a whole lot better all the way around the track," said Craft, a frequent competitor on the SUPR tour. So speed costs money, but it doesn't have to cost that much. February 2002 -Dirt Late Model |101 In the late-'70s movie "Mad Max", the grizzled old proprietor of a speed shop tells the main character, "Speed costs money, how fast do you wanna go?"

 

The real world functions in much the same way. The amount of horsepower an engine produces is generally directly proportional to the amount of money spent.

 

This has led to a general increase in the amount racers pay for their power plants these days, which in turn has led to efforts by sanctioning bodies to reign in the costs of racing engines. One of the most effective methods of cost containment in the past decade has been the implementation of spec engine rules. The idea is that, if everybody has the same heads and intakes and those pieces cannot be altered, you will at least cut out the cost of extensive porting. Slap them on top of a steel block with dependable parts and you've got a racing engine that (in theory) costs between $8,000 and $15,000 to build, depending on how many extras you want. While this isn't cheap, it's a far sight better than the $28,000 to $32,000 being spent by many on open competition pieces.

 

Even with a budget engine, racers still want to get as much power as possible from their investment. Toward that end, most builders recommend a good carb spacer to enhance air flow. According to Keith Craft of Keith Craft Racing Engines, High Velocity Heads' Super Sucker is among the best. "We use those things on just about every thing we build," Craft said, "even our open motors."

 

Craft described a spacer as "an extension of the manifold to make it work better with the carburetor." And for a spec engine, which doesn't produce as much power as their open comp counterparts, this could be invaluable. "Due to the non-porting rule on the [spec] intake, you're doing anything you can to help the intake system pull harder and work the carburetor better," said Craft, who builds and races plenty of spec engines.

 

The unique design of the Super Sucker, which was developed by HVH's Joe Patelle, combines elements of traditional open and four hole spacers. Patelle originally developed the piece for use in Winston Cup before NASCAR out-lawed it as an unfair advantage. Since then, the Super Sucker has found a place with short trackers, who've learned to appreciate the quick power gain. And the Super Sucker isn't expensive, about $100. Not bad for a few extra horsepower. The Super Sucker, Craft said, "seems to work through the entire powerband as far as helping the torque and the horsepower. And they seem to smooth out the whole power curve, because it starts out as a four hole and ends up open."

 

The unique design, he added, gives the airflow "a smoother transition between the manifold and the carburetor."

 

Recent dyno sheets from Craft's shop showed an increase of 12 horsepower on a 356 cubic inch SUPR spec engine. On the runs without a spacer, the engine peaked out at 608 horsepower at 6,700 rpm. The Super Sucker Cheap Horsepower for Spec Engines?

 

By Tim Lee

HIGHtech

100 Dirt Late Model -February 2002

[archemitis]

longer runners help with top end torque, and hp and short runners are better for low end grunt, as far as i understand it...

 

i asked the guys at redline weber, and the other weber place, and they said, "what for?" the dont seem to think it would help. but who knows. a hole in the hood with an air cleaner sticking out is cool!

[erik litchy]

longer runners help with top end torque, and hp and short runners are better for low end grunt, as far as i understand it...

 

i asked the guys at redline weber, and the other weber place, and they said, "what for?" the dont seem to think it would help. but who knows. a hole in the hood with an air cleaner sticking out is cool!

well if your running webbers i imagine 4 velocity stacks sticking through the hood would have a nice novelty.

 

as for runner length, you could space the intake manifold at the base to actually influence runner size, but one at the top doesnt have the same effect

[incognito]

I am working on this currently..

Just for fun, I'll dyno my car before and after.

 

I think I have figured out a nice way of making one also.. I'll keep this updated.

[TomRhere]

When I 1st put the Weber on the EA-82 engine that was in my '82 BRAT, I left that Black plastic spacer on the manifold. I even got out some grinder bits, and made everything smooth and even in the area of carb port.

Now, I have that intake and Weber on the EA-81 in the '84 BRAT. Had issues with disty/choke clearence, and installed 2, 1/2" spacers under the Weber. Can't say forsure as to anymore power from all of those spacers. But,, the engine sure likes that Weber sitting on top of it.

 

Eons ago, I had a Chevy small-block with factory dual-quad intake on it. Ran good and strong, but I wanted more... Installed a 10" Tunnel-Ram intake on it. Everthing else remained the same on the engine. Made one helluva improvement on performance of engine. So yes, longer intake ports will boost engine power.

[Sweet82]

As I understood the theory of a throttle body spacer is it gave the air more time to atomize the gas and therefore give better combustion.

 

I have often wondered the samethings about slipping a spacer under my carb.

 

I'm waiting for some results before I monkey with it....but the possibility sure seems intruguing....

 

Glenn

82 SubaruHummer--more power is always good

01 Forester--twice the power of "Summer"

[Frank B]

Some engines don't like longer intake runners, some do.

 

The basic idea is that a carb spacer does two things, it increases the volume of provided air going to the cylinders, and allows for better fuel atomization. But too much of a spacer, or intake length will cause that fuel to re-atomize. Same for an SPFI engine.

 

On a multi-port fuel injected vehicle, you get the increased volume of air effect only.