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Grounding Throttle Body

17K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  sequentious 
That's a good mod on cable operated throttle bodies on older cars
I had a LS1 Trans Am and that was a popular mod

But modern cars like ours have electronic throttle bodies so don't bother unless you want break it
The slight gain you will get isn't worth the risk

Here's an example
The one on the right is your standard cable operated throttle body and the one on the left and an electric on the right



On cable operated throttle bodies you could manually open it and port and polish it (and its also an easy way to clean them when carbon builds up)

On electric ones you would have to force it open, potentially damaging the motor inside
Also, it throws out the position sensor and will need to be recalibrated

Cable operated throttle bodies in general always had better response from factory
It is a physical connection between the gas pedal to the throttle body
Response is immediate

On electric throttle bodies the gas pedal is merely a 'suggestion' and the computer ultimately decides how much and how fast to open the throttle body for you
This is just another way for car manufacturers to get better gas mileage for your cars by making the response really sluggish (in some cars) just to save those extra drops in fuel

But that doesn't mean electric throttle bodies are inferior
They can open and close just as fast as a cable operated throttle body, you just need a tune to reprogram the computer to do just that

Here is a perfect example showing you the difference of immediate throttle response compared to how its tuned from factory and how slow it is



Ultimately what I'm trying to say is if you really want better throttle response you should look into getting a tune
The orange virus tune will get you that a long with extra HP and TQ
 
Valor_X, you're talking about porting & polishing, while Selvey808 was talking about grounding. Grounding would only (potentially) affect an electronic throttle body, and perform no function whatsoever on a cable-actuated throttle body.

I agree with gsk3rd that additional grounding is likely unnecessary in such a new car. I know in the forums for my other car, there is all sorts of talk about how adding additional grounding improves performance (spark, etc). That's more due to the 30-year old grounding cables with corrosion and poor connections, rather than an improper grounding from factory. There is very likely sufficient grounding of the throttle body from the factory in our cars.
What??? This is the first time I'm hearing about this so pardon my ignorance

The only times I've ever seen someone do custom electrical grounding is when they add more load in the system, like an amp/speakers - then they add a big ground to the charging system

Why wouldn't the factory electrical grounds be sufficient for a factory throttle body?
 
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