bypassing throttle body..........++HP++

I was browsing the internet and I read something about your car runs better when cooler air is entering the engine. (this everyone should know) it also said that your throtle body has coolant going through it and this coolant can heat up to 200 degrees, which in turn heats up the air going into your engine. a simple solution to this (according to them) was to bypass your throtle body so it dont get heated by the coolant. I was just wondering if this would actually work or if it would cause more harm than good???? Why would they make coolant go through the throttle body if it didnt need to be cooled??? im just curious becuase this could be a cheap way to add hp by letting cooler air into your engine. if anyones got an opinion on this I'd appreciate them letting me hear it. thanx

up north during cold seasons the throttle blades can get real cold. And if you mix real cold and a little moisture your throttle plates and get stuck because of ice forming around the bores. So gm though it best that they heat it.

Blocking it off does do some good for power as you read. Just keep what i said in mind if you live anywhere cold.

Since you live in kansas, I wouldn't suggest it, I also live in kansas (KSU...WooT)

I did it to my car and I live in MN but I don't drive my camaro in the winter so I don't have any problems with it. However, it's not going to add all that much HP maybe like 10-15 on a LT1, and that may even be a high estimate...

LS1 cars were seeing a 3-4 RWHP gain by doing this on the dyno.
Of course....for some reason, the LS1 always seems to gain a bit of power the more times you run it.

I would say it helps keep the air charge cooler. But if your car is a daily driver in ANY cold weather, I would skip this mod.
How much warmer could the air possibly be as it is rushed in over a small section of hot metal as opposed to having it rushed in over metal not warmed by the coolant??
The air moves so fast at WOT through the throttle body...I doubt it makes much difference.

the biggest thing you'll notice with this mod is not the power increase.. i did notice a little increase, but not much at all.. the biggest thing i noticed is that when my car idles for longer periods of time the temp on my thermostat goes up pretty high.. but once you get airflow it goes back down..

IT's not really a HP gain, more or less I call it a maintained level. With mine before I ran the bypass, when the motor was up to temp, the power would fall off due to the hotter air coming in. Now, with the bypass it's nowhere near as bad and pretty well contant.

As to how much a little area of hot coolant can effect things, I'll say this much, before doing it, try touching your intake manifold after running at operating temp. Little hot huh? With the bypass, it's nowhere near as hot and you can actually touch the intake, thus IMO cutting the upper engine temps and possibly adding some extra life to the distributer components and other sytems.

Draw backs, yes not a good idea to do in extreme cold, although the icing thing I don't really see, throttle blades did ok on carbs without freezing for years. And at idle things do seem to heat up a little quick, however nothing a adjustable fan switch can't fix, which should also be in your list of "cheap" mods, getting the operating temp to the cooler end of it's range.

By any chance, how would you go about bypassing it?

By any chance, how would you go about bypassing it?

http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/coolantbypass.shtml

is it possible to bypass a tbi and not just the tpi?

TBI is pretty much setup like a carb, most of the ones I have seen have a warm air line coming off the heat shield on the exhaust manifold to draw warm air in when the air in the air cleaner is below a certain temp, to bypass that just unplug the vacuum motor and plug the line.