Throttle body spacer

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mag03kj

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I was wondering would it be a bad thing to add a throttle body spacer the libertys 3.7L. With the way the engine has a bad design or whatever. Would the spacer when have any effect on the engine, if so what would it do?
 

bmrrwolfe

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I was wondering would it be a bad thing to add a throttle body spacer the libertys 3.7L. With the way the engine has a bad design or whatever. Would the spacer when have any effect on the engine, if so what would it do?

Ive never ran one, but most/all say its just a waste of money.
I would say for a small performance mod/slight increase in gas mileage get a LTT CAI :)
I'm sure someone who has/had one will chime in though!
 

S1Loki

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Throttle body spacers work just like a carb spacer for tuning purposes in a "wet" intake system.

Pure snake oil when it comes to the Libby's Multi-Point injection manifold which is a dry system.

Now if you could put those "tornadic" inducing devices at the beginning of the individual intake runner.....

The preceding thought is jmho and personal experience. Besides wouldn't one think, if these devices were really that good. The OEMs would be touting them and installing said item at the factory.
 

sharpy

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yea dont waste yure money. dont bother with putting a magnet on yure fuel line either:D or putting acetone in yure fuel:rolleyes:
 

jnaut

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Throttle body spacers work just like a carb spacer for tuning purposes in a "wet" intake system.

Pure snake oil when it comes to the Libby's Multi-Point injection manifold which is a dry system.

Now if you could put those "tornadic" inducing devices at the beginning of the individual intake runner.....

The preceding thought is jmho and personal experience. Besides wouldn't one think, if these devices were really that good. The OEMs would be touting them and installing said item at the factory.

x2. Reams of info on tbs's on the innertubes... waste of time and money. Pure snake oil.
 

KYLiberty

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Just get a Fastman throttle body. It doesn't make a big difference, but it does help. The secret to making a big difference is the correct combination of upgrades.
 

KCJeep

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Throttle body spacers only work in certain conditions like with real cold air intakes. The spacer will get hot too under the hood so how does it make a cooler air charge at the throttle body when the entire assembly is hot? Even if it did make a difference it does not give you that bang for your buck. These engines are tuned as best they can be for today's economical driving conditions. If it is power you want you need that stage II plug-in. Also using the right material helps and metal spacers do not do it it needs to be an insulator like garolite. Then you need a new intake spacer made of the same material and it still doesn't give you what you want and you spend all that money for a few miles per gallon and +4 horse power it just is not worth it. I also thought that today's intakes have the twisting air charge anyway.
 

KYLiberty

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Mag03KJ,

What are you trying to accomplish? I've been farther down the performance mods road with a 3.7 KJ than just about anybody. I'd be happy to offer a little advice.
 

sleeve

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With the way the engine has a bad design or whatever.

The bad design you refer to is in reference to the positioning of the rings on the pistons I assume. If this is truly what you refer to, than we need to clarify slightly. The design is bad from a power adder standpoint. Inducing any boost pressure into the cylinder head can cause breakage over a certain cylinder PSI. But otherwise, this engine is perfectly designed for non-boosted daily abuse. It's even easy to work on to boot...
If you refer to the valve train spring problem in your comment: that issue is really not as bad as I make it out to be. The valve train on the KJ is very reliable and doesn't break as soon as every single KJ reaches 100,000 miles.

The 3.7L engine is a proven design [copy-cat version of the 4.7L V8.] Sure there might be a few that have trouble and report it on the message boards, but a majority of people experience no issues and don't feel the need to report as such. Just take a look in the Junk Yards for proof. You’ll have a hard time finding any KJ that wasn't demolished in an accident. What I mean by this is the KJ runs a great deal longer than your average vehicle when it’s kept well maintained. Give it a few more years and you might start seeing a few show up here and there, but a majority of the KJ's do not suffer massive power train failure.


I'm not harping on you - I'm simply trying to comment on your questions.


Throttle Body Space stuff..

Aside from getting advice from KY Liberty I would think the biggest improvement in power would come from the elimination of the torque management system that the stock computer uses on the power delivery of the KJ.
 

tjkj2002

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Your not getting the point of a spacer,they do not work well in multi-port FI engines,actually totally defeats the whole purpose of them.In carbed or throttle body FI engines spacers work very well and can return big HP #'s.The key is to keep the air from swirling and straighten out more which makes the air charge more dense.
 

S1Loki

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One of the problems is the advertising of these things. The bending of terms and descriptions over the years.

Things to remember:

A Multi-Point(or Port) Fuel Injection (aka The MPI) system has a Throttle Plate assembly. The fuel injectors are placed in the intake runners. Fuel is mixed after the plate in the intake. Usually just upstream of the valve.

A Throttle Body(or Bore) Fuel Injection (aka the TBI) system looks like a carb and acts like one. Sits on a traditional "WET" intake. The fuel is mixed before it enters the intake.

A Throttle Body Spacer (or Carb) is used to adjust plenum volume and straighten out the flow.


The POWERAID and TORNADO are pure snake oil when it comes to a large volume plenum MPI intake. IF they were worth the money every OEM would be using these devices.
 
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