I installed an airraid throttle body spacer in the truck and 3-4 days latter my check engine light came on. I took it to ford and they said that it was an air leak around the new spacer and removed it. I followed the instructions that came with it. It did not specify a certain tourge for the bolts, is there one? I cranked down on the bolts to make it tight and it still leaked. The two gaskets that were provided were inserted. The instructions said remove the factory gasket. Should this have been put back on in addition to the ones that came with it?

 

should have saved your cash and asked in here first. spacers are a waste of cash as ford told you.

 

If you still want to use it, call Airraid and see what they say.

I doubt the factory gasket should be left on there.

 

The PowerAid Throttle Body Spacers from AIRAID Premium Filter Company are a good quality product...with that said, I still do not recommend the install on the V10...unless you go for the WHOLE package. Cold air intake, free flowing exhaust with y-pipe, Programmer, etc. All by itself...really no noticeable benefit fewer than 3000 rpm's.

However, did you tighten the bolts in a "X" pattern. Also, I recommend this tightening procedure. When bolt is flush, then turn 1/4 more.

Tonight if I get a chance, I will look at the torque specs for the OEM throttle body.

biz

_______________________________
2003 F250 SD SC 142" XLT FX4 V10 Auto 4x4 3.73s

 

2001 service manual CD says 71-89in/lbs.

 

2003 service manual CD says 71-89 in/lbs too.

Just had to check...

biz

_____________________________
2003 F250 SD SC 142" XLT FX4 V10 Auto 4x4 3.73s

 

biz4two

said "The PowerAid Throttle Body Spacers from AIRAID Premium Filter Company are a good quality product"

OK substantiate that claim...in fact school us on what the entire install you propose will do and where it will do it and at what cost

Especially since thrumpskin fails to let us know what year and configuration his V10 is

BTW welcome to FTE and the V10 forum thrumpskin!

I can assure you that the entire enchilada of throttle body spacer, cold air intake, free flowing exhaust, with a "Y" pipe and a programmer on a 3v V10 will not do a thing but relieve you of much money and waste a lot of your time... now if we talking a crippled 99 2v V10 with the horrid factory "T" two to one collector there are indeed some free horses to unleash but again the throttle body spacer will be a wasted step and certainly a waste of money....

Does any body know what a small spacer after the throttle body does, and why it works on some motors? Is there magic with a 1 inch spacer that is not there with a 1/2 or 3/4 inch or perhaps a 3 inch long piece of aluminum... how do you calculate how much you need based on cubic inches and plenum chamber volume....?

Sorry but these are mostly placebo effect devices and you go a little faster because your total body weight is reduced by the cash you spent...and if you did it electronically with a credit card, you don't even get that gain

You would be better off with a thin piece of stamped aluminum that spins the air real fast just before the throttle body, at least they are a little lighter and don't add to the motor weight too much and are a little cheaper

This dripping sarcasm brought to you by a grumpy old Fred who thought Charlie's first post was good enough

Biz4Two...if this sounds real harsh, I am sorry...one of my mantras here is to not let snake oil and hyped up BS products be touted as instant bolt on power modifications with out a complete discussion of what the owner has and what he wants to do...

There are certainly folks that could except the $800 to $1500 it takes to eeek out a spare 15 to 35 HP up above 3600RPM... ( I have never seen one device for the V10 in 6 years that adds more then 3-5 HP at 2000 RPM) (well except a blower or nitrous but they are hardly simple bolt on modifications)

Most folks will be real disappointed with all the cost, effort, and warranty voiding that most of the bolt on commercial aftermarket products entail.

 

Yes...does sound like a grumpy OLD Fred to me.

OBTW...I am not going to purchase the throttle body spacer, install it, and dyno it...so that I can PROVE it works/does not work. That is what the company is for...or third parties.

However, if you would like to start a class action law suit based on the false claims they make...I would jump on board. I could always use a little extra $$$.

biz

_____________________________
2003 F250 SD SC 142" XLT FX4 V10 Auto 4x4 3.73s

 

Well, it looks real nice, and is certainly a quality piece of billet, I'm sure

 

fred
thanks for beating me and posting what i was thinking in better words.

i have to back fred up 100% here guys as we spent all most 7k in dyno time and parts on mine only to find the biggest punch with mine was all in the programing of the pcm. and how fast we got the power to the ground.
yes we where able to make more noise and make things look preety but brass facts are on the rollers and all we got out of my 05 was a stinking 35 hp all upstairs above where it's not needed.

so heres how i feel. when fred told me to order my truck with 30's i got 10's thinking highway mpg's were what i needed. me wrong! FRED correct! they are the perfect gear set for a v10. yes there is NO problem with haveing 4:10's they do the job very well, just the 30's make this big comfie heavy ride haul A much better. my free parts set of 56's made such a difference it's like a totally different truck. NO MORE hp just much better accel.

cold air kits . yes they look good but up stairs it was only a true 2 hp gain. headers. help in breathing out. esp. the gibson i now have on after a pipe weld broke on the ford racing ones." NO WARRENTY on the pipe only the coating" gain 7 hp all up above 3k. tb spacer well that went to the metal yard as scrap metal. looks good only.. the sctflash excal2 programer thats where we pulled some power. 25 more to be on the head . mostly in the torqe reduction programing ford uses to extend the trans life. and fuel, timeing curves. one would not beleive what just 2 extra degs of global timing gives this motor while still allowing 87 blend gas. exhaust wise yes i still have the flow master on and thats only because i like the sound . the trans pan i had on . well i keep that major very costly problem to my self. but will say cutting the y pipe up to make it fit was a $1285.00 waste of coin , a big fan cooled cooler dose as much if not more in oil temps when towing. if you want a trans pan ford racing sells a 2 qt extra one thats a bolt on .and dose helps beef up the trans case. helping against twisting.

the inside of a torqe shift is hudge so are it guts ."new planitray set sizes in mid 05 run help remove the one problem it had" still the materials used in the clutch packs are weak and no after market is out yet last check which was last week.

so here is how i feel about moding a v10. save your cash . gear sets and super charger are the ways to make a mod motor ford shine for hp gains. on the early and 2 valve motors the y pipe mod, force feed it.program it, and regear it. then you have power.

 

biz4two

Here is part of the hype from the airaid site for the $107.94 throttle body spacer(TBS):

Your mission is to copy this set of advertising words into a new post from you and make bold the part that is an out right lie

(Here is a hint...all Ford 6.8L V10s are port injected)
(For extra credit describe why the plenum has a interesting design, what it is, and why the TBS is pure hype and BS)

"99-04 Ford Superduty V10

The PowerAid throttle body spacer raises the throttle body one inch. The additional height combined with the patented Helix Bore creates a turbulent airflow that greatly improves fuel atomization. This results in a more complete combustion and more efficiently burning engine. Increases are greatly improved low-end torque and improvements fuel economy. The PowerAid spacer is 50-state legal, will not void your new car warranty, and can be used with any grade fuel."

For the record I made one of these for my 1986.5 Nissan HardBody micro truck witha VG30ET motor. And on that motor a TBS maks a significant difference.

Can anyone here tell the group why

 

and i forgot we tryed a early 2 valve v10 with the big banks kit. it dose work as stated.

 

My opinion is as car makers, and therefore car owners, bought more and more rigs with fuel injectors instead of carbuerators there were less and less need for spacers. But what were the makers of these to do ? Simple, they try to convince the unwary that these products will also work in EFI engines, too bad they don't.

But, on a carbed engine a spacer can make a whale of a difference. They can increase velocity and equalize cylinder filling. An added benefit of course being an insulator between a hot manifold and the carb. Even on a throttle body a spacer may be of some benfit, but on a modern fuel injected car the intake tract is normally long enough to negate any benefit. And since fuel is sprayed downstream of the intake adding length does nothing.

Same with the 'swirl' mechanisms, unless you can tumble the air flow directly into the combustion chambers, an air disturber downstream is useless. Combustion chamber design/valve lay-out creates swirl in heads, not some screwy, stamped piece of junk between your air cleaner and the MAF.

 

BINGO

Give that man a Cigar!

Thanks 04 Ken, exactly correct

On my VG30ET a Nissan V6 3.0L the Throttle Body had two injectors in it. The Phenolic spacer I machined lifted it two and a half inches and caused a thermal barrier that slowed down the transfer of heat from the intake manifold to the TB w/injectors. It also kept the air and fuel charge tightly packed for those 2.5 inches keeping the initial velocity up for a few micro seconds longer promoting a better saturation of the air and fuel mixture so when it entered the larger volume intake plenum the mixture could be distributed to each cylinder with a more evenly distributed Parts Per Million (PPM) density of fuel molecules in each liter of air and a slightly cooler mix because of the thermal barrier. This parts length was determined by dyno runs with a stack of 1/2 inch spacers. Add one spacer at a time until you get diminishing returns.

Another engine builder and tuner I know did the exact same thing but he machined the "spacer" with a venturi cross section. He ended up with his 3 inch section and two of my 1/2 spacers (one before and one after) with a 21% gain on the dyno.

Both our motors were NA 3.0L v6 and in both cases the dyno showed the increase made a lot of the new HP in a very narrow part of the rpm band something like a 700 rpm spread around 4100 to 4850 rpm. A very noticeable 38 HP bump.

So what we learned is that much more trial and error was needed to determine how to make a simple spacer make added power in the part of the rpm range that is most useful.

In our case the 4-5 K zone was not at a shift point or at cruise in OD or high gear. So not very useful.

It would be cool to tune with one so you could add to the "on the pipe" effect.

Shortly after we both switched to injected heads and twin turbo inter-cooled. Getting 395 HP and 421 Ft lbs out of 3.0 liters was a lot of fun. This was also the motor that I squirted a NKG plug out of a head and completely through the hood sheet metal on a high rpm down shift drifting a corner

 

fred and ken
right on guys. carbs yes fi no way .