Throttle Body Spacers

dwhitton · July 22, 2011

Hi, new here.

I installed a AirAid "Power Aid" throttle body spacer to my 09 5.3L AFM engine.

Not too noticeable on the highway (getting 9.1 l/100k avg) but just did a 5000km while towing my 7500lb 33ft travel trailer. and gained an extra mile per gallon (from 8.6 to 9.6 avg)

just wondering if anyone else has tried this product or a similar one and had any luck with it.

Also, just curious what kind of milage people are getting while towing a 7500lb trailer.

Thanks

Matt_ · July 22, 2011

txab · July 22, 2011

I'm in as well.

Carder09 · July 22, 2011

Lol he wont understand the popcorn thing, also, try researching things like your post before posting, I know I put something up awhile ago about my tbs, that I have also removed for the logical reason, but we wont get into that infact im hoping no one will reply about how yeah, it helps very little or no just a chunk of metal that does nothing unless your truck is old school carbed yadda yadda yadda, just gets old, and fast....

redjewel2ss · July 22, 2011

Lol he wont understand the popcorn thing, also, try researching things like your post before posting, I know I put something up awhile ago about my tbs, that I have also removed for the logical reason, but we wont get into that intact im hoping no one will reply about how yeah, it helps very little or no just a chunk of metal that does nothing unless your truck is old school carbed yadda yadda yadda, just gets old, and fast....

those things are a piece of junk and only work on carbeureted engines

Doug_Scott · July 22, 2011

I think comparing mileage is like comparing dyno runs. You can get better mileage just by a change in ambient air temp. Or humidity, or cloudy/sunny day, rain, wind is a big one, air pressures, brake adjustment, fuel etc...

Point is, if you got 1mpg (actually more impressive if you say 11% better), it could be from hundreds of reasons that are out of your control. But not likely from a spacer. Think about it, the spacer is simply moving the throttle plate further out, but, it is only air, no fuel at that point, so no way it an alter or effect your mixture. Even on a carb engine, adding a simple half inch spacer does nothing(unless that spacer holds the nitrous nozzles)

rog_ski · July 22, 2011

Hi, new here.

I installed a AirAid "Power Aid" throttle body spacer to my 09 5.3L AFM engine.

Not too noticeable on the highway (getting 9.1 l/100k avg) but just did a 5000km while towing my 7500lb 33ft travel trailer. and gained an extra mile per gallon (from 8.6 to 9.6 avg)

just wondering if anyone else has tried this product or a similar one and had any luck with it.

Also, just curious what kind of milage people are getting while towing a 7500lb trailer.

Thanks

Hey Don

Welcome to the forums,

You will have to throw up a photo of your truck so we can get a look at her. I think for the most part you are going to find this a great spot to hang out and find the answers you are looking for.

Don't worry too much about the comments from the peanut gallery were not a bad bunch.

wtbrowne · July 23, 2011

If anyone believes mpg claims like this - I have a bridge for sale that you'd probably be interested in!

Mckenzie · July 23, 2011

If anyone believes mpg claims like this - I have a bridge for sale that you'd probably be interested in!

I'll throw in my ocean front property in Arizona if you can find a buyer for the bridge

Matt_ · July 23, 2011

When combined with my stacked tornado setup I got a solid 8 MPG improvement.

(To the OP, I apologize... our threads don't normally go like this. It's much more civil here than this may seem. These are just some very very very common things that we see; we're way beyond the point of technical discussions on why TB spacers don't do a thing for these engines and default to making jokes instead).

dwhitton · July 23, 2011

Thanks for all of it.

I'm new so thats ok (rite of passage). I'm a big boy so I can take it.

But when I travel over 5000km (3100mi) with the same tow weight, the same travel locations and the same time of year, then something has to be happening. my 10 cents worth.

Matt_ · July 23, 2011

How often do you do that trip back and forth? Different tires, different temperatures and ambient pressures and even humidity due to time of year, different weather, etc can easily change a 5000km trips MPG by 1. Could of even been a difference in traffic changing your overall average speed. (Edit: just re-read and looks like you do it yearly... you'll have to report back again next year)

Another thing is that people subconsciously change their driving habits after installing a "gas saving" mod, which in turn has the effect of making us think that the mod truly helped when in fact we could have achieved that same mileage without it just by changing our driving habits. Im aware of this effect and STILL am unable to control it. I did a pretty extensive gas mileage test with different grades of fuel and different tunes... every single time i re-tuned it or changed the grade of fuel, and no matter how much I tried to keep my driving habits the same on my daily commute, the MPG would be higher.. it would take almost a month before i started driving "normal" again and finally settled into the actual gas mileage for the comparison.

So in short, i'd put money that the TB spacer truly had no effect on your MPG. There's so many other factors that will change it that slight amount that you'd have to really do that trip a few times and under the same conditions to really prove it out. There's not even a technical (or theoretical for that matter) reason of why a TB spacer would help an EFI engine like ours.

In any case, welcome aboard

wavery · July 23, 2011

The ONLY way that you could possibly detect the actual value of any of these types of products is on a dyno in an environmentally controlled lab. There are SO MANY variables, including the psychological (as stated before) that it is impossible to correctly detect any amount of change in fuel economy. HP....~maybe......~torque.....maybe................MPG..... no way outside the lab.

To get a better idea of why these spacers do nothing on an "AFM" engine, one must understand what "AFM" is. The fact that it is an AFM engine absolutely defeats the theory behind these spacers being used on these engines.

dwhitton · July 23, 2011

I totally understand the AFM concept. I note that I'm towing 7000 lbs on this comparision, same trip, same conditions last 3 years.

The AFM activates around the 45% engine load level and lower, anything more than that and all 8 are working (as confiremt by my ScanGuageII)

Towing I'm usually at the 80 - 95% load level, so I was just anticipating that the spacer would affect my loaded performance only, not my day to day unloaded. Anyhow, dead horse now. thanks for your all your input.