Thread: Ported throttle body choice

Which ported throttle body would you prefer to have? (Look at the pics before you vote)
BTW, neither of these is for my car, just some I did.

I have a '97-'98 TB that I removed a fair amount of the MAF bridge from, as well as ported.


I also have a '99+ TB that I ported and epoxied. Don't mind the non-perfect porting, it was a quickie.


From measurements taken, the '97-'98 TB has less intrusion from the MAF housing than the MAF of the '99+ TB. So, the older TB, when ported as I have done, seems like it would flow a little more air.

damn, i picked the wrong one.

the 97-98 TB you can hog out to make it bigger and then adapt it to use the 99+ MAF. that is what i would do.

I vote for what ever is all ready on your car. It should not make that much of a difference.

i vote 97-98

take the 97-98 and take out the entire MAF area and then put in a 99+ MAF and be done with it. best of both worlds.

I have a N* on my car. I am just trying to get others' opinions.
If I put a newer MAF in the '97-'98 TB, it will protrude just as far as it does on the newer TB. Is there some flaw with the earlier MAF that I'm unaware of? Seeing as to how it and it's housing pose less of a restriction than the newer one, why not go that route? I can remove even more material from the '97-'98 to make it even less intrusive.

I'm on the "leave the N* on the car" vote.

northstar has such a ****ty throttle feel though with it being linear instead of progressive like the stock ones.

Dangit guys! I'm not looking to replace my N*... I'm just trying to get some other people's opinions on which TB would flow better. I did my factory '97 TB while the engine was being rebuilt last winter, but stumbled on a N* just in time to put it on instead. The '99+ TB I'm working on for a local. I'm only gathering data with this poll.

the 97-98 TB should flow better because there is more material to be able to remove, especially if you use a 99+ MAF in it. otherwise they should flow similarly to one another when fully ported.

I'm still confused as to how a '97-'98 TB can flow better with the '99+ MAF in it. That MAF is physically larger than the MAF AND housing that I have remaining in my '97 TB. So, wouldn't putting a '99+ MAF in there reduce the flow rate because it has a larger frontal area?

Originally Posted by DanGTP

If I put a newer MAF in the '97-'98 TB, it will protrude just as far as it does on the newer TB. Is there some flaw with the earlier MAF that I'm unaware of? Seeing as to how it and it's housing pose less of a restriction than the newer one, why not go that route? I can remove even more material from the '97-'98 to make it even less intrusive.

Sure you can remove more of the post but remember that all of it was carefully engineered to get the air moving past the MAF correctly. When you cut it up you are altering that so you will need to carefully retune. Some people even remove the whole post from the earlier TBs and just leave the bare stock MAF hanging. It might work with enough tuning, but I wouldn't do it. I say if you are going to screw with it much cut it all out and just get an external MAF (e.g. LQ4) and leave the external MAF stock so you know it will read properly at all air flow rates. I hogged out my 97-98 stage 1 TB from ZZP and hooked up an LQ4.

As to flow, the difference between those two TBs will probably be negligible. The earlier one does look like it has less frontal area so it should be less restrictive in theory. However you are not going to gain much unless you bore out the TB for a 72mm plate. If you want to take measurements, calculate the total area of the TB right where the MAF is. Compare that to the area of the 69mm opening minus the area of the throttle shaft. It is easy to see in the older TBs that the inside diameter is larger at the MAF than at the throttle plate. I haven't done it but I am thinking that even with the area that the MAF takes up it is probably still close to or more than the area at the throttle plate. Bottom line is if that is true then opening that up is not going to do much if anything since the area at the throttle blade is the primary restriction in the TB.

In addition to boring it out to 72mm another good way to get more flow is to thin down the ridiculously thick stock throttle shaft. Some people cut half of it out. I thinned mine a bit on top of what ZZP already did. Don't know if any of that helps you, but there you go.

Thank you for your input! The '99+ TB does have half the throttle shaft removed.

I need some more votes!

use a 98 style maf in a 99 tb. thats what i did and tuned it. less maf intrusion into the tb