4Runner throttle body
From Schaffter
Contents |
History
In December 1996, I went to Los Angeles, in the sunny California, again. As usual, this was a business trip for the company I worked for. Nowadays they don't send people for business trips that much, but hey, those were the times.
Anyway, I took the opportunity to bring the old throttle body of my 4Runner with me. In Los Angeles, I went to Downey Industries to get it machined. They overbore the intake tunnel by 3 millimeters. The new unit was then marketed by Downeys as a 'Power Breather'.
Here you can see how it looked under the hood when I had removed the original throttle body from the intake of the engine.
The modification
At the time (1996) the procedure normally took 2-4 working days. Primarily, because Downey did not keep any already modified throttle bodies in stock for exchange, so they needed the original body to work on. And of course, they didn't do the work themselves. They left it to a nearby mechanical workshop. The workshop removed all moving pieces from the throttle body, over-bored the tunnel and finished up the work by honing and rebuilding the intake, of course using a bigger throttle wing.
My problem was that I had almost no time to wait for their work. Needed to get it done immediately. Had to get back to the airport and catch the flight back home.
I was lucky. They happened to have, by chance, the same throttle body in the shop, already machined and waiting to be picked up. I wonder if there was someone else who had never picked up his unit. Or if someone had to pick up my unit after machining. I'll never know the answer. Well, at Downeys we just made a quick swap and I payed for the work.
Here are two pictures of the already machined throttle body, taken when I had got home from the US, but before I re-mounted it on the engine.
Today's availability
I'm not sure if they still do these kind of works these days. I'm not even sure if Downeys are still in business.
For availability and current prices, please check with Downey. Or with Performance Products, that also provided this service at the time. They probably used the same machine shop to actually do the job.
Results and impressions
An easy but rather expensive work that gave a remarkable difference in horsepower. Since I did not have any dynamo bench, I never knew how much. The difference was primarily felt in the higher RPM's, where the bigger opening becomes effective. The finish of the work was excellent!
Then I mounted the exhaust headers...
Additional reading
- My Toyota 4Runner
- Mounting exhaust headers
