Engine Throttle Bodies 101

You can install the throttle body yourself.. its not hard.. Your best bet is to get a used one, and have a place bore it out.... unless of course you can afford the downtime... if you can.. send in your current one.. it'll be cheaper..

Make sure that its done properly... there is a butterfly clip inside of the throttle body.. and if you bore it out, you have to get a new one to compensate for the increase in the bore..

EL Prototypes does them... and if you call them and tell them you looked and looked for a spare TB.. but couldn't find one... they'll most likely just use one they have in the shop and send it to you.. no downtime...

ELP Charges like $200 for a core charge, but it is refunded once u send in your old one.. I think they charge around $150-$180 or something.. I forget.... its like a 3mm bore...

The gains are nothing to pee your pants over either... in fact,.. I didn't notice any. It was probably psychological horsepower

"The gains are nothing to pee your pants over either... in fact,.. I didn't notice any. It was probably psychological horsepower "

really? Hmmm I'm looking for more power and if that is true then hmmm.....

Its unfortunate, but there just isn't much power to be gained with light mods ... You either have to go F/I, or just do internal work and go N/A

go to a pullapart junkyard (where you go in and pull the parts yourself) and take the TB off yourself.... that way you'll have in mind how it goes on/off..... then send that one in, and replace it when it comes back

Throttle Bodies 101

I was looking into getting my throttle body bored.


Will a novice person like me be able to "swap" out another throttle body?

Here are my choices what should I do?


1) Buy a used throttle body and get it bored then I'll install it.

2) take me car to a shop let them bore my current body then just slap it back on.

3) Buy a used throttle body let them bore it and let them install it?


What would I expect to pay to buy a used one? What about the price to actually get it bored? Thanks!

What do you guys think if I were to port/polish the intake manifold? What kind of increase/expense would come along with it? Thanks....

what about BOTH? ....Thanks

Ive heard 20 percent increase for port and polish, dunno if thats true for every motor or even true at all though.

it will increase more the bigger the engine is...Like the way some companies get away with product increases...
"Gain 20 HP with this small unit!!"
Yeah it will gain 20hp on something like an impala or cadillac etc...With our cars it may gain about 5 hp max?

I'd love to have a ported/polished head & intake manifold..but I can't afford to pull my engine apart now..lol

thats why you buy one out of a junkyard

how much would port/polish cost est. ???

Check it out- You cant just P&P the head or the intake or exhaust header. If you do the intake header/TB and not the head or exhaust then your air will flow great till it hits the head- air flows at the speed of the smallest orifice in the pipe. It does you no good and a little harm to just port one portion of the head, headers, and even holds true down to exhaust pipe size and intake pipe size. So a total flowmatch(from TB to header collector) is about $1K and will give an otherwise stock engine about 30hp at the crank. Probably that much in TQ too considering stock bore&stroke. Flowmatching is a good way to get N/A power that can be made reliably for a long time.

I got an extra head completely assembled, but I found that its a pretty damn good flowing head stock. For the headers its attached too. Thats why the Celi's TB and in. header cause a loss in power- the stock ex. header cant get rid of spent gasses fast enough.

Basically Im gonna deck the head, fab my own ex. header and use a Celi TB and in. header- I have the eManage hooked up(love it) and thats about it. Maybe get 160 to 170 at the crank, w/the same in TQ and thats off the line w/ no bottle all the time. Thats the goal- maybe I can do better w/ extended tuning. Ongoing project and so far Ive spent a grand total of $1800 and with what I have left to do maybe $1K more.