Some of you may remember that project that my cousin and I were working on awhile back called "Conan". Well, I'm actually in the market again for a manual transmission daily driver, and I'm targeting an LO3 w/5-speed. Got a little time before I throw down my money on an ebay inspired car, and I'm not going to rush the purchase. However, in the interim, I pulled out all of the stuff that we were working on from project "Conan", in preperation for the next car that I come across. The throttle body, in which will be taken to the next step, along with the Holley ProJection Intake, currently looks like this....;

First pic w/out throttle plate, second with throttle plate, third w/throttle plate opened.

 

pretty slick fab work, I like it. Smooth throttle motion? I would imagine that could support quite a bit of power. What will you be putting it on top of?

 

By running a mono-blade and removing the center section ... Nice work by the way I'm not criticizing it .... But with the center removed like that under typical to excessive heat wouldn't you run th risk of the throttlebody potentially cracking in that area? ... Also from heat Could it potentially distort and cause the throttle shaft to bind?

Or are you also running something under the throttlebody to insulate it from excessive intake heat?

 

Thanks. Throttle motion is virtually the same, it honestly feels less resistant, if anything. It'll be seated on top of a Holley Projection manifold, however the manifold has since been semi converted to accept a carb (so I still need to get a spacer/adapter), which too will definitely be modified for flow. Once I get my hands on a decent car, the LO3 will immediately be yanked in favor for a 350. I'm still porting the Holley Projection intake, just about finished with it though. Should have the top finished up soon, and there's only one intake port left as well (see pic)....

 

It would have to be a pretty substantial amount of heat though. We had the throttle body tested on a friend's F-Body when I got it to that state. We were honestly concerned with the idle and driving characteristics more than anything else, and even during a pretty brutal summer day, it was fine (and he pushed it pretty freaking hard the whole entire time, trying to find a flaw). I had the shaft in a vice with a pretty hefty (for it's size) amount of torque applied to it as well, and it withstood it. Of course, I cannot shave down the throttle shaft for increased flow, as it would crack like a toothpick....

 

Very interesting concept you've got there. I can only imagine the CFM's a 454 throttle body would flow like that. A question does come to mind though. Why not go ahea and completely open up the middle section so its one big oval shaped blade? Did the vacuum passages not permit this or is there some other reason I'm not seeing? As for the strength and fatigue of the throttle body I can't really imagine that being an issue. Most aftermarket intakes are not heated as it is.

 

Can you make me one?

 

We did this very thing on two another throttle bodies, the first we sleeved with an oval sleeve, and the second we used an entirely different method (w/JB weld) just to see how it would come out, but the vacuum passages did not permit this though. It sounded good in theory before we did it, but during the process, it simply became too much of a project. The one we're using above will have almost an oval shape when finished, as there is much more grinding to be done, but again, we need to be very careful, as it doesn't allow for too much removal....

 

After looking at the pics again I notice you can only remove so much material before you loose the injector pod mounting surface and the air cleaner stud boss. Still even at that I can forsee a 1000 cfm 454 throttle body pretty easy.

 

nice

wish I had one

 

It really isn't that hard, just a good eye, and steady hand. The only real PITA is you have to re-route the rear vacuum line in the throttle body itself, because that vacuum source is being drawn from the center (underside) of the material that we removed. Although, it sounds a lot harder than it really is....

 

Your basically saying don't run EGR and use that port for the MAP or just T into the EGR vacuum hose and hook the MAP in there.

 

No no, all of the vacuum lines are still intact (just had to drill a new hole for that particular vacuum port to pull from), no need to splice into anything at all....

 

I like what you did with the ProJection manifold. I've got a GMPP Vortec TBI intake but I've been contemplating using a dual plane carb manifold. I'm not sure if I want to go that route because of issues with the throttle cable/TV cable bracket. It looks like a good way to run a dual plane on a TBI without any issues as far as keeping EGR and the throttle/tv cable bradket.

Gene

 

Thanks Gene. It looks a little rough right now, just got some smoothing out to do. A few more things will be done to assist with air velocity, and we also have a trick or two up our sleeves to greatly improve fuel atomization, as puddling can also be a concern....

As long as you can adapt the stock throttle linkage to the aftermarket intake manifold correctly, it shouldn't be a problem. In many cases, the TBI throttle linkage can be too low, and cause a "kink" in the throttle and TV cable lines. All you would need to do is measure the distance in height, and install two spacers between the linkage and it's mounting area. If the linkage is too high, you can always have it cut, then re-welded, after proper measurements have been obtained. Would cost virtually nothing to do....

 

not a lot of engines that could utilize tbi for fuel delivery need a significant amount more flow than a 2" tbi can give. You will lose some velocity I think and atomization but I'm sure you can get it to work, i just dont know if it will really yeild the improvement a lot of people hope for with bigger throttle bodies.

 

There shouldn't be any loss in velocity w/the 305, as the throttle body, along with the ported intake manifold and cylinder heads, will all work in conjunction in respect to actual velocity speed. A 350 will eventually find it's way into the engine bay as well, which is what the throttle body was originally intended for though, to be honest. Fuel atomization is going to turn out to be very good. There is much more to embellish though, especially when it comes time to show what we did with the injectors, the pod itself, and how we'll be improving atomization....