[Zoomer69]

To anyone who's done this before:

Notice on the butterfly how the one side is curved upward when the throttle is closed, and the underside is bowl-shaped. Anyone ever mess with this plate?

I'm thinking if I epoxy in that bowl-shaped area and grind away on the top of that butterfly to flatten it, it'll open things up a little more and give me some more oomph on the top end, because the butterfly would be thinner in profile at wide-open throttle.

Any thoughts? I'm using a spare stock TB, so if I royally screw up my ZX5 won't be sidelined.

Crossposted here: http://pub83.ezboard.com/fteamdfofrm6.showMessage?topicID=123.topic

 

[FociD00d02]

Has anyone ever noticed that the TB is never actually open "all the way" when you push the pedal all the way down?

 

[zetecwagon]

The 2001 t/b is a little different than the 2000, it only has a few ribs, that are easily removed. I've worked on 2, 2000, t/bs and took a good look at the butterfly and though it best to leave it alone.

 

[tdot-zx3]

Theres a magazine article that talks about this.. they made the 2003 Focus TB go completly open at WOT and got a gain out of it.

Ill have to find it.. buy it .. scan it..

Dammit.. shoulda thought about that when reading it.

 

[orangezx3]

I Bored out my TB 3 weeks ago and it made bit of a difference. I got much better throttle response but I am not so sure about extra power. If I did it was a little bit. I however did not go at the butterfly because it was just to risky.

I took the TB off and took a dremal tool to the area at the top (the top is the part of the TB that is closest to the firewall when the TB is on the car) of the TB cone that seems to create an oval. With the sanding drum on the dremal I removed the restrictive extra plastic till I got the opening to look like A circle (do not grind near or on the area where the butterfly seats when closed. This will cause BIG problems). When doing this you will break through the side wall of the TB housing a bit. Take 60 grit sand paper and rough up the outside of the TB when you broke through the housing. Now what you need to do is put your TB in some paint thinner or mineral spirits and take a paint and clean all of the plastic shavings out of the TB and clean the break through area that you just roughed up. Wipe the TB down and let dry. Now you can take a piece of Duct tape and put it on the inside of the break trough area, this will create an area for the materail you are going to use to close the hole to rest on and not pour into the TB. With the duct tape in place you can now use silicone or 5 min epoxy on the roughed up area to build a new side wall for the TB. Let dry for 24 hours and reinstall your TB with duct tape removed. any questions contact me at the address below.

 

[Bmorezx3]

Originally posted by tdot-zx3:
Theres a magazine article that talks about this.. they made the 2003 Focus TB go completly open at WOT and got a gain out of it.

Ill have to find it.. buy it .. scan it..

Dammit.. shoulda thought about that when reading it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">that was Muscle Mustangs and Fast Ford's new "Project Red Hot Chili Pepper" a 2003 ZX5 with an ATX. they found the throttle did not go to WOT due to a tab that blocked the butterfly from going all the way open when the pedal was fully pressed. they used a pair of pliers to rig it so that it would go to WOT. with that, some major weight savings (1/4 tank of gas instead of full and no spare tire), and the K+N cold air intake they went from an initial run of 18.52 @ 76 to 17.17 @ 78.95.

fyi, i don't think that an intake and tb mod really did that much. i think it had more to do with: they had like 80-90lbs shaved off the car (full tank of gas weighs like 100lbs + spare tire weighs about 30lbs) and the first time was only their second run ever with the car. in total they from [email protected] to [email protected] with the addition of the K+N intake, FC TB, lots of cool down time, and a **** load of weight savings (ended up ripping out back seats and passenger seat.)

Nate

 

[ENZI]

Originally posted by Bmorezx3:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">that was Muscle Mustangs and Fast Ford's new "Project Red Hot Chili Pepper" a 2003 ZX5 with an ATX. they found the throttle did not go to WOT due to a tab that blocked the butterfly from going all the way open when the pedal was fully pressed. they used a pair of pliers to rig it so that it would go to WOT
[/QB][/QUOTE]

Can someone post a picture of this tab and how to modify it for full WOT or post link to mag article. Is the mag still in stores? Thanks

 

[Shiva Chaos]

Originally posted by ENZI:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Bmorezx3:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">that was Muscle Mustangs and Fast Ford's new "Project Red Hot Chili Pepper" a 2003 ZX5 with an ATX. they found the throttle did not go to WOT due to a tab that blocked the butterfly from going all the way open when the pedal was fully pressed. they used a pair of pliers to rig it so that it would go to WOT
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Can someone post a picture of this tab and how to modify it for full WOT or post link to mag article. Is the mag still in stores? Thanks

[/QB][/QUOTE]

Sweet baby jeezus someone share this info

 

[tdot-zx3]

Its in this months issue.. Its still on store shelfs..

Ya they did get some weight reduction.. But it cant be all accounted for that big drop in times...

 

[FociD00d02]

just go , open your hood... and clip off all the ugly plastic tabs you see that don't LOOK LIKE they do anything... you'll shave off a pound if your lucky, or screw your car up ...

 

[Zoomer69]

I'd like to steer this thread back on course for a minute and clarify what it is I'm doing.

I'm talking JUST about the butterfly itself. One side is flat and uniform thickness throughout (on the TB I'm modding), the other is sloped upward, with a bowl-shape underneath. What I would be doing is filling in that bowl area and grinding it down so both sides match.

The only concern I have about it is the risk of the epoxy not holding up like it's supposed to, and having my Focus eat half it's throttle butterfly. But I also run that risk boring the TB in the first place, so what the hell.

Some example photos:

These show the bowl-shaped area on the bottom of the butterfly that I would fill in with epoxy.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the right side of the butterfly is the side that is raised slightly - underneath that is that bowl-shaped area I'm referring to.

This shows the cross-section of the butterfly, and where that raised part of the butterfly blocks some of the incoming airflow.

The infamous MM&FF article. Notice how different their TB is than mine? Is this the 2003 model TB?

[ 01-28-2003, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Zoomer69 ]

 

[Zoomer69]

Obviously (or maybe not), I'm going to mess with the butterfly on it in addition to the normal areas that you port on a stock TB. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.

 

[ZX3S2]

the only thing that looks different is the butterfly itself on the 2003. So why not just order a 2003 butterfly and put it in an already ported TB?? if you look in the pic it's only held on by those 2 set screws just like ours.

 

[Zoomer69]

I doubt you'll be able to buy a butterfly by itself. No guarantees it'll fit an early TB either.

The 2003 looks a lot different, and not just because of the butterly. Look closely at the top of the TB, and notice the hole for the butterfly is ROUND instead of oval. It's also differently shaped. That will make more of a difference than just the butterfly.

I didn't bother touching the butterfly (it looked like more trouble than it was worth), but I did bore all around it real nice, and it was worth the bother. Throttle response is crisper and more linear than before. It seems to rev more easily, and it pulls harder above 6000. None of these are dramatic changes - it just makes it feel more natural to drive.

The screws holding the TB onto the intake manifold are the trickiest to mess with. They are much more willing to go ****eyed than they are to go straight into their holes. You have to start them with your fingers carefully, so that they don't strip. You'll know when they're right when you can tighten them almost all they way with your fingers.

One mod where I didn't break anything, lose pieces, or otherwise screw up the car. I could get used to this.

 

[orangezx3]

ZOOMER69 - Sorry I did not reply to your questions but I was in SF california for work. You really should not grind anything on the butterfly if you are going to bore out the TB. Plus you should not put any epoxy on the buuterfly it self I was only recommending using it to fill the hole that is crated when boring out the TB cone itself. But it sounds like you did the boring with out issue...

[ 02-03-2003, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: orangezx3 ]

 

[Zoomer69]

I was a little worried myself about how epoxying the butterfly would turn out.

Honestly, the way the stock TB is set up, the bore job is about the only thing you can get away with that will help you. Any more changes and you might as well buy an aftermarket TB - something that's NOT plastic.

But for $20, I like the change in character. It feels a lot more natural than before. It's not a mod that'll give you more power - it just reapportions it in a way that's more useful.

 

[mattndew676]

I made a whole new butterlfy from aluminim.