Topic: $35 EBay Throttle Body Spacers?!

[midnightcwby]

Hey guys, I'd like your opinion on something here.  I was cruisin' around EBay yesterday looking for Throttle Body spacers and stumbled across a handful of spacers being offered by a small company I haven't heard of before. They offer their spacers for $35 and allow you to "buy it now" for that price. Anyone using one of these things?  They are supposed to be CNC machined from aluminum (there is one out there with big fins right in the path of the airflow made from "high-tech polymers", or plastic).  These are CONSIDERABLY cheaper than the AIRAID spacers which seem to go for $79.99+. That seems ridiculous. No way I'm payin' $80 for a chuck of aluminum with a few bolts and some paper gaskets!  
So are these cheaper TB spacers the real deal, or are they crap.  It seems like it would be pretty hard to screw up making a TB spacer though. Punch a few holes in a block of aluminum... not to tough with the proper equipment.
These guys seem to be the actual manufacturers of this product, not some dealer selling over priced AIRAID units. Any way, if any one has seen these and knows something about them, or even better - has actually bought and used one, please drop a post and let us know if the cheap ones are worth the money.

[lanulos89]

i actually have the one with the fins in the middle.  ITs as good as a poweraid i think, i dont kno if the fins actually help much tho.  The one down side is that it doesnt come with spacers to space the thropttle cable mounts.  i used a s**t load of washers.

[Jeffy]

I wouldn't have a problem buying a spacer off ebay that's a smooth bore.  Smooth bores are actually perfered over the helix fins. Can't really lose for $35.

[midnightcwby]

That's what I'm thinking too!  I'm going to go ahead and get one.  They say "Helix Bore" in the description, but I noticed someone posted a negative feedback to the seller saying it wasn't a helix at all.  This actually made them seem more appealing to me personally.  Now that I'm not worried about spending the $65 for a new rear sway bar, I'm going to get one of these baby's when I'm ready to install my 4.0l TB.  

Is a 1" spacer all that's available?  I used a 2.5" spacer on my 4.3l V6 I built for my Monty years back, the difference in low-end torque was really amazing!  I couldn't fathom how a stupid little 2.5" piece of material made such a dang difference under my 4bbl.  After a little research, I began to understand why these things, and other high-rise aftermarket intakes made the extra torque by increasing intake air velocity in the runners.  Is 2" too much for these jeeps?  At $35, I might just stack 2 and seal 'em up nice.  I'll need to source longer bolts and get a little creative with re-locating my cable bracket, but that's no problem.  What do you think Jeffy, should I bother?

Anyway, thanks for the quick response man.  I get board here at WMU on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I'm on this board from 12:00pm to 5:30pm).

[littleredbeater]

heck even for $70 it would be a good experiement to try, you can always sell one of them after and get your $35 back.

[lanulos89]

yea mine is a smooth bore made out of that hard plastic stuff.  if you get the one with the fins in it, to take the fins out all you need is a philips screw driver.  It's just my 2 cents but i think it was worth buying, i've had it since before xmas.

[midnightcwby]

That's true.  There is a limit where any more increase in the distance between the throttle body/carb. and the cylinder head actually begins to hurt drivability and warp your power curve in an undesirable way.  I just don't know where that line is on these 2.5l's.  I guess I would find out when I cross it :twisted:!

On my non-vortec 4.3l I built, 2.5" was probably the largest spacer I could get away with. I already had a marine 6" high rise intake on it. Any more and the carb. would hit the hood!  As it was I had to use an after market air filter that was much shorter than stock. This thing had TONS of low to mid range torque, but my top end was definitely suffering. It seemed to start to 'run out of power' the closer to red line I would push it.  It was definitely a trade off.  I could roast my meats, but when I was racing friends; I had to remember not to let the motor tach out.  This began to be a problem because I had a crappy TH200 automatic tranny in it.  I toyed with T.V. cable adjustments, but making the tranny shift sooner with the T.V. cable will result in pre-mature wear I was informed by a buddy of mine who worked at the dealership with me as a tranny tech.  I just sold it and got another toy, but the principal of adding a spacer to the carb. / Throttle Body was proven for me with that little experiment.

[4X4DAVE]

I bought mine from e-bay for that price, cost more then the 4.0 tb I got. The only thing about these is that it is a 62mm bore and I have a stock 4.0 tb. So it leaves a gap between the intake and tb, not sure if this causes prolblems, but I haven't noticed anything.

[MA2LA]

I have one of the cheep smooth bore ones off ebay i think i paid like 22 shiped and it came with everything so i figure it was worth it. I put it on a 4.0 in a ZJ but it didn't seem to help but the automatice and a computer that wouldn't let the motor turn much rpm before shifting combined with My fathers driving style just didn't make it owrth it so it will be going on my 2.3 or one of my other projects. as for the diffent thicknesses , thats something i have been wondering.

[Jeffy]

I'm not sure how a 2.5" spacer would react.  What you're doing is changing the intake runner length with changes the pulse wave rate/timing.  Optimal timing would be to have the pulse wave arrive at the valves right as they open so the pulse will cause a vacuum and draw more air into the combustion chamber.

[Yellowcritter]

:idea: One thing you might look at before you buy two ... is there enough clearence? Some air tubes, including the factory one, don't have a lot of space left between them and the hood after one spacer is installed.

[Skinny]

Another thing to think about is your master cylinder clearance, I flipped my TB out for a 4.0 TB, and have a cold air intake system on it. When I did the flip I found that the clamp holding the intake system was rubbing my master cylinder, in turn had to call a local speed shop and get a different connection hose between the cold air and the TB so that it's just rubber touching it. Turned into a pain in the arse, I won't do a spacer cuz it's just lifting compents up into possibly cause damage to more major things like brakes.

[midnightcwby]

Skinny, do you have a 1995.5?  I seem to remember Jeffy mentioning something about the master cylinder fluid reservoir being different on the '95.5's  He said the windshield bumpers on the hood will be rubber, circular shaped bumpers instead of the steel "U" shaped hoops like mine. Just curious, that might change clearance between the master cylinder reservoir and the throttle body intake tube.  I'll be sure to take some good measurements and test fits before I 'call er good'.  From the sound of it, though, I might be making some modifications to my throttle body to air box tube.  I like my air box, so I'll keep that until somebody gives me a REALLY good reason to ditch it.  I'll just look at other option to link the TB to the air box.  I'd like to have a smooth bore, aluminum tube with silicone elbows and such for vibration isolation and flexibility.  That would be nice

[Skinny]

Yupper, I have an extremely late 95, calling for parts is a pain, I have found that half of my stuff is true 95, and the other is 97.  So it's always interesting.  Looked at the option of pulling the bracket and moving the cylinder back, but the clutch resevoir is in the way. So had to ditch that idea.  Considering I work at a repair shop, I am getting at 4.0L from a 98 cherokee for free to rebuild over the next few months, I am gonna see where things end up then.

[wrangler387]

I'm not sure how a 2.5" spacer would react.  What you're doing is changing the intake runner length with changes the pulse wave rate/timing.  Optimal timing would be to have the pulse wave arrive at the valves right as they open so the pulse will cause a vacuum and draw more air into the combustion chamber.

Your not actually changing the runner length, you are mainly just increasing the plenum size... so it goes from non existant to almost existant   Plenum size changes around the powerband also though. A long way down the road i'm going to make a custom intake manifold to get rid of the stock design.