I was looking through the new JEGS catalogue and came across Throttle Body Spacers (part #555-15412) says, "Tests have shown a 10% increase in torque, 15% more horsepower and 8% better fuel economy." ALSO, there is a TBI Fuel Injector Spacer (part #555-15410) for 86-95 4.3, 5.0, 5.7L that reads, "This spacer raises the injector housing 1/4" above your throttle body and allows 15% more air flow into your engine." Has anyone seen these BETTER YET has anyone used these on the LO3???

 

I have a .5" spacer from turbo city. The only reason why I have it is so that my drop base open element will clear my ditributor. You will not see the power they claim. The injector spacer is a good idea and helps unshroud the intake bores of your TBI a bit by raising the pod a little higher. Plus, the jegs spacers are 1" and you will have throttle linkage problems. Mine barely reaches with only a half inch spacer. Also 1" and you will have hood clearance problems. With my spacer and Edelbrock TBI intake (.25" tall than stock) my hood comes right down on top of my open elemet. If my spacer were any higher the hood would not close. I also think that my spacer is contributing to my rough idel because it has the two bores siameesed. This creates a dead open spacer between the intake surface and the TBI unit itself and cannot be good for smooth air flow.

 

Wow Shifty, sounds like it's doing more bad than good! You should switch to a dual-snorkel setup. Sounds like with your setup it could be really bennificial!

Bruce (90RS305)

 

Yea I may but I am not keeping the 305 so unless I get one for next to nothging I will probably stick with what I got. Just like any open element they get poor when it gets really hot out. Other than that they perform rather well.

 

the key here is not letting it get hot there are ways to keep colder air directed at it.

 

Very true, but for your average 3rd-genner who does this as a first mod they will learn realy quick once june rolls around.

 

ok call me crazy but i just got this thought b/c of what u and i did shifty. If you could get the linkage to reach you could run the 2" element like i bought and it should clear, basic math, 1" spacer +2" element = 3" just like my element. but if the spacer doesn't help i guess there's no point, just was thinking about that option

 

The linkage won't reach with the 1" spacer. If you moddified it to work then you could do exactly what you said. I think a 1" spcare is over kill for any aftermarket manifold.

 

HA! Why wait untill June? It's New-Years Eve and us Arizonans STILL feel comfortable in shorts/t-shirt in the middle of the day! lol, around April here is when open elements start to be anti-productive... (so why do I still use mine? )

Bruce (90RS305)

 

I got both the 1/4" injector spacer and 2" TBI spacer from jegs. They both clear the hood perfectly. However, I use a 2" (I think) drop base open element and keep that sh!tty ring thing on the tbi so it sits straight. Looks awesome and no hood clearance or throttle linkage clearance problems at all. It's feels a lot faster too cuz the throttle pedal is nice and stiff now.....I love it. And it does increase fuel economy. I went from around 15mpg, to about 18-19mpg city. And that was JUST with the tbi and injector spacers, I changed nothing else. The power increase is noticable too down low, but you dont' feel it pull too much harder about about 4000 rpm. Still nice though....gotta love torque.

why did my throttle linkage reach fine and people with only a 1" spacer had problems.....??????

 

Lucky fools. No salt, no winters. And here I am stuck in ohio like a sucker.

 

Yeah, it's a dry heat...

 

Anyways to stay on topic I saw in the jegs catalog a whol enew slew of spacers. I think there are about 5 companies that make them now for 2bbll TBI applications. Even Vortech makes them now.

 

Yep. that's what I saw too. I just went with a 2" TBI truck spacer.

 

because it's still better than the choked up stock LO3 air cleaner

 

It actually hurts how true that is... I first installed mine in June and took it to the track to see what it could do. Slowed me down .4 seconds. The thing I like about it though is I can still feel my car accelerating after 4,500rpm's! This time of year here, even though it's still not that cold, hopefully it'll do my some good.

Bruce (90RS305)

 

I don't have an open element but...

I have a dual snorkel with a larger K&N in it that holds the lid up about an inch. I don't have any of the ducting in place so it does suck in engine compartment air. Even with this, for the first time it pulls to and past 4500 RPM's where, before, it would shift just shy of 4000 RPM's. Of course it's still the stock, sloppy, and limp 700 R4 shift

 

Hey Shifty, with that new manifold, do you have to use the .5 inch spacer? I really dont want to use a spacer, so I'll even buy the manifold to get around using one.

 

not shifty but i do believe he is planning on using the spacer, since his air cleaner is a drop base and wont clear the dist. but if he has changed his mind in the last 2 days i dont know.

 

This is correct. The Edelbrock TBI intake is .25" taller then stock. I am using the spacer only to clear my distributor but I found a nide cheap open element that I can buy that will allow me to get right of the spacer and silencer ring. I just need to get 3 shorter bolts but can't remember the thread size or length for the stock TBI unit.