Superchip and throttle body spacers
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Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
From: Medicine Hat Alberta Canada
Superchip and throttle body spacers
I had a throttle body spacer on my 98 F150 with the 4.6.
I thought it made a very big difference in torque on the 4.6.
I now have a 2000 F150 with the 5.4.
I was wondering if anyone has went with the spacer on the 5.4 and what their opinions are on the spacer in the 5.4
I also have a Superchip so I was wondering if a spacer would cause any problems with the chip(ie: get it re-programmed)
thanks
I thought it made a very big difference in torque on the 4.6.
I now have a 2000 F150 with the 5.4.
I was wondering if anyone has went with the spacer on the 5.4 and what their opinions are on the spacer in the 5.4
I also have a Superchip so I was wondering if a spacer would cause any problems with the chip(ie: get it re-programmed)
thanks
Junior Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
From: Dallas,Texas
Bosro,
I also have an 00' 5.4L an from my understanding it's a waste of money and would not recommend purchasing one! This product is someones gimmick to make a buck by claiming as much as 20HP gain and substantially more torque. I say seeing is believing and I would have to be there when they dyno'd my truck to believe the advertised claims! You may gain a few HP and some torque but probably not worth the money or hassle. If it was that great of a product word would spread and everyone would have it installed on there trucks!
Want significantly more HP and Torque you will need : more displacement, Performance Heads, Supercharger, NOS etc. Just my opinion!
I also have an 00' 5.4L an from my understanding it's a waste of money and would not recommend purchasing one! This product is someones gimmick to make a buck by claiming as much as 20HP gain and substantially more torque. I say seeing is believing and I would have to be there when they dyno'd my truck to believe the advertised claims! You may gain a few HP and some torque but probably not worth the money or hassle. If it was that great of a product word would spread and everyone would have it installed on there trucks!
Want significantly more HP and Torque you will need : more displacement, Performance Heads, Supercharger, NOS etc. Just my opinion!
Former Sponsor
Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
Likes: 4
From: Virginia
12gofast has a point there about the TB spacers, we have just started seeing those same power gain claims "up to 20 horsepower," but only in the JCW catalog, curiously.
If you ask the average 10 people who installed a TB spacer, 7 will say they got nothing from it and call it a paperweight, while 3 will say they feel they did get something from it, so opinions do vary among their owners. Dyno testing that is truly tightly enough controlled to determine if there is any gain at all is tough, it's very hard to quantify such tiny fractional gains like that. A few runs have shown tiny gains, a coupla horsepower or so at best, and others have shown no gain. At one point the manufacturers of those spacers were saying they didn't make any peak horsepower gain, but they added part-throttle torque. All in all, I personally don't recommend spending money on them.
This basic principle does indeed work on older carb. (non fuel injected) motors, and even the early GM TBI injection setups, as there you have a conventional intake manifold. Increasing the height between the carb. or the TBI (throttle body injection) and that standard intake manifold will increase plenum volume, an old drag-racing trick to add some high rpm horsepower. However, that doesn't translate over very well on these late-model fuel injected motors.
Bosro stated that he felt it worked well on his 4.6 motor, so if you decide to do that on your 5.4 as well Bosro, please let us know how you feel about this results as well, thanks!
If you ask the average 10 people who installed a TB spacer, 7 will say they got nothing from it and call it a paperweight, while 3 will say they feel they did get something from it, so opinions do vary among their owners. Dyno testing that is truly tightly enough controlled to determine if there is any gain at all is tough, it's very hard to quantify such tiny fractional gains like that. A few runs have shown tiny gains, a coupla horsepower or so at best, and others have shown no gain. At one point the manufacturers of those spacers were saying they didn't make any peak horsepower gain, but they added part-throttle torque. All in all, I personally don't recommend spending money on them.
This basic principle does indeed work on older carb. (non fuel injected) motors, and even the early GM TBI injection setups, as there you have a conventional intake manifold. Increasing the height between the carb. or the TBI (throttle body injection) and that standard intake manifold will increase plenum volume, an old drag-racing trick to add some high rpm horsepower. However, that doesn't translate over very well on these late-model fuel injected motors.
Bosro stated that he felt it worked well on his 4.6 motor, so if you decide to do that on your 5.4 as well Bosro, please let us know how you feel about this results as well, thanks!