Considering a pair of intake mods for my 3.6L

[cp-the-nerd]

A company sells both a ported throttle body and a heat resistant plastic spacer to go between the intake manifold and the engine that greatly reduces heat transfer. The combo costs a bit under $300 (after you send back a stock throttle body) and is widely known to make gains of 10+ horsepower and torque at peak, but over 20 hp/tq under the curve without any custom tuning. It seems hard to believe, but the spacer alone decreases heat soak of the intake manifold by as much as 30 degrees and is responsible for much of the gains (proven in testimonials using laser temp guns). After tuning my 3.6L Malibu and adding a cone intake, it's already making 270+ horsepower at the crank (nearly the same torque) and traps 98 mph in the quarter mile. It would be badass get into the 280-290 range and push 100 mph trap speeds.

 

Before anyone says it, I don't have finances to buy a genuine performance car, I'm saving for my wedding. I bought the Malibu new and it's been a very good car, I don't mind driving it and I like that it's a bit of a sleeper. Anything used I'd be able to buy right now via trade-in would be a big sacrifice in reliability and/or practicality that are both currently a must-have.

 

Here's a link to a Camaro V6 (3.6L LLT, 312 horsepower stock) with the combo installed and a dyno.

 

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314373

[G. David Felt]

Interesting, I tried this on other auto's I had and really never noticed a difference. I wonder if that could be that the newer motors have learning computers and can adjust to the change in temps, density, etc. so these work then?

 

Be interesting to compare a modern car with the product to an older carbureted version.

[cp-the-nerd]

After seeing the intake manifold spacer in my search for modifications, I did some research on spacers like that and they seem to be a pretty common mod among lots of makes and models. *This is not a throttle body spacer, just to clarify.*

 

On the GM 3.6L, the manifold seems to get nearly as hot as the engine itself from factory, but time and time again, people are seeing the spacer drop manifold temps by around 30 degrees. In combination with the ported TB, which has itself dyno'd 3-5 horsepower gains, I've come to think that the combined gains are pretty believable. IMO, 10 horsepower for $300 is a done deal.

 

I'm pretty scientific about my approach to modding, too. I'm never going by butt dyno or adding manufacturer horsepower claims to my factory hp rating. I hate that crap. I have good blue tooth OBD equipment that I use to measure various performance characteristics before and after.

Edited July 6, 2016 by cp-the-nerd