emissions help

[87vettevert]

A friend of mine told me to reroute the hose that heats up your fuel for emission reasons that goes to the throttle body he said it's better the fuel stay cold for better performance. It makes sense to me. he also told me to cut open the air box to increase horses. I was wondering if anyone had any input on this and if they know of any other cheap mods to increase horsepower?

 

[muddywaters]

I did the Throttle Body by-pass ( Coolant lines ) and cut out the air box, which makes sense.One of the reasons they route coolant thru the TB I'm told is to prevent icing when temps. are low. It seemed strange to me that GM would draw intake air away from engine heat and them heat that intake air, cooler air to the intake is the way to go.

 

[87vettevert]

Thank for your reply Muddy. Did you feel a big difference after bypassing the lines and cutting open airbox?

 

[muddywaters]

I also added the infamous Air-Foil. Neither the by-pass/cut box/air foil made a big difference. What I did notice was a smoother idle/better response/different exhaust note. And that was after I had already changed plugs/filters/set base timing/intake gaskets, basically went over every thing that needed to be looked at.

 

[Hib Halverson]

Unfortunately, there are no "cheap mods" which can add a noticable power increase. Yes, there are mods which are somewhat low cost that can sometimes net small improvements, but big increases (the ones you really notice) come with spending bigger money.

As for the TB coolant bypass, I've never actually seen any chassis dyno results supporting a measurable improvement but, anecdotal evidence and theory support the idea that there might be a small improvement.

On the downside you'll get a slight driveabitly decrease during the early stages of warm-up and you open the possibllity of icing inside the TB under a combination of circumstances which are: temperature, dew point and humidity in the range required for icing and a cold TB typical of the early-to-late warm-up period. That said, unless you operate the car regularliy in near freezing temps, the chances of TB icing are fairly remote.

 

[KANE]

Unfortunately, there are no "cheap mods" which can add a noticable power increase. Yes, there are mods which are somewhat low cost that can sometimes net small improvements, but big increases (the ones you really notice) come with spending bigger money...

Hib- if I remember correctly, the CFI intake had a hot water passage under the floor of the intake to help warm up the air and increase atomization. Unfortunately, the benefit of the density of cool air is traded for better atomization and emissions.

I have often heard that warm air helps reduce emissions. It also reduces power (heat soak).

I don't run the coolant through my TB. I always saw it as a liability for performance (hot air) and relaibility (leaks). I use just the IAC housing- the the entire coolant passage has been removed.

My Vette does not go out when the weather is less than 35 degrees.