I learned a trick this weekend that is cheap and I was impressed with the out-come. The only cost is a little 5500 ohm resistor. Disconnect your coolant sensor and plug the resistor into the socket. The disadvantages are your check engine light will come on and poor fuel economy. The resistor makes the enging belive that it is cold and therefore adds more fuel. It worked wonders on my 460. does anyone else have any tricks like this?

 

I have a cheap trick for the late model F-150s as well. Peg the gas pedal on the floor and go look under the hood to see if the throttle is opening all the way; many do not.

 

I noticed that also, i had checked it after noticing a lot of play in the gsa pedal. It felt like there was slack in the throttle line. Sure enough about an inch of play in the throttle cable. Had my dealer check it out and they compared it to a few in the lot and said its normal. I want to tighten it and there is no way I can see of doing that. On my fiberglass dunebuggy and old chevy c10 you have a tension screw on the cable. You pull the cable tight and tighten the screw and your done. On my brothers Porsche, an 85 944 na we replaced the throttle cam w/ a larger one to take up the tension. No added horesepower but increased acceleration by almost a tenth because of the tb opening quicker and wider. I want to do something like this. Any bdy got any suggestions or no where I could gert something like this? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

It`s very easy to remove the play from the throttle cable. Go to your local sporting goods store, in the fishing section look for some split shot, they come in different sizes, pull the slack out of your throttle cable and crimp one of these weights on the cable, it`s that easy.

Larry.

 

ok I have some split shot in my tackle box..from my understanding the throttle cable is permanently attached to the cam so I'm guessing I cant pull it tighter ther and crimp it. I could put the shot on so as to create a space beetween the cable and cam to create tension. From what you tell me your meaning take the tension out by doubling it up and crimping those two sections together right? i'm not quite sure what you meant. Could you please be more detailed/specific? Thanks again.

 

Look at the gas pedal were the throttle cable conects, pull the slack out there and crimp on a split shot. any other questions, let me know.

Larry.

 

I just used a small nylon tie wrap to take the slack out of my cable, but I like slip shot idea.

 

FYI- I used 2 brass nuts (with a slit cut down each) crimped over the cable at the pedal.

 

Sorry for the dumb question, but how can you tell if there's too much slack in the cable? Is that something I can feel when I step on the gas? My engine's rev changes as soon as I depress the pedal. Does that mean there's no slack?

 

Hey Dennis

What you need to do is have someone push the gas peddle to the floor, now look at the throttle body and see if it is open all the way, if it`s not then you have to much play in the throttle cable.

Hope this helps.

Larry.

 

Thanks, Larry. I'll have to give that a look-see as soon as I have a chance. Gee, sounds like I could have been tearing up more rubber for the last 2 1/2 years!

Hmmm... Maybe I could do a Jethro (Beverly Hillbillies) Bodine and tie a cord to the cable and pull it the rest of the way when I want that extra boost!

 

I've heard about the slack in the cable alot.

It happened to a friend of mines Saleen, he used a heavy brick on the gas pedal, found out that the TB was not opening all the way so he used those zip ties to fix it. Says it made a huge difference in acceleration.

one of these days I'll get around to testing it out.

 

I had checked the throttle cable for slack in my 97 f150 xlt but had forgotten about doing that for my L. Just came back from my garage and with my wife's, checked it. Noooo slack! IMHO, you need a person to press the pedal down--all the way. I wouldn't trust that to a brick, etc. Also, you don't need to remove the intake boot to 'look' at the throttle plate--with it held open(by your partner), just touch the th/plate cam(where the cable attaches) and see if you can move it to the rear any more--if not, there is no slack in the cable.

Another freeby for you guys runnin' chips--do a battery disconnect(neg. cable), turn on the hd/lite's switch, wait 5 mins., turn the h/l switch off, and then reconnect the neg. cable. You may/should gain in your 1/4 mile passes as the pcm starts afresh.

 

Lightningrod,

What are you saying?
I mean, what exactly is a pcm? pressure control module?
In the tranny?

I'm not sure what your talking about?
I reset my computer when I put in mu new chip
(custom program for extra hard shifting) and seems
to hit pretty hard now.. Are you saying that one should do this everytime
they want to race 1/4 mile?

Thanks for the input,
Nice post!

Peace!

Morley

 

I'm no expert, but from reading many posts--some of the drag racers always disconnect(don't forget the h/l sw.) the neg. battery cable right after they get to the strip. Your PCM(or ECU) is the computer in your truck. As you drive it 'normally'(mine is a daily driver) around town, etc., it 'learns' your driving habits and adjusts timing, air/fuel ratios, etc. for this 'normal' driving. So, at the strip, you want 'it' to start with the new parameters that it will 'learn' after the 1st or 2nd WOT pass you make--MAY give you a reduction in ET? Also, removing the front anti-swaybar will give you reduced 60' ETs--better weigth transfer to the rear tires.