Engine news...

When too much power just isn't enough.....Frank has come up with a new option for the throttle bodies. There's a local (i.e. Melbourne) guy who casts his own throttle bodies, and is developing a straight through tapered throttle body for the Duratec.

So, now for a discussion on what this all means....

The throttle bodies replace the car's existing air intake (induction) system. Normal cars have a huge air filter with a single pipe feeding all of the cylinders at once. Throttle bodies provide independent air feeds for each cylinder, and incorporate a butterfly valve in each to control the amount of air that reaches each cylinder. Throttle bodies provide a cleaner airflow, and ensure that each cylinder receives the same amount of air.

Tapered throttle bodies start out wide, and end up narrow - as you can imagine, this means that the air arrives in the cylinder at a higher velocity / density - which is what turbo and superchargers are there for, to provide denser air. Now this is nowhere near a forced induction system, but it has the same effect of increasing power.

Most air intakes have kinks and bends in them, which introduces turbulence and disturbances to the airflow. The ideal is to have the air go straight into the cylinder head with the minimum of fuss, hence a straight-through throttle body is desirable. To be honest, the ones I have now are straight through as well....

The other thing about the new throttle bodies is that I can add another set of injectors later if I want to (would require a new computer) so that there would be eight injectors all up. Wrecks the fuel consumption but adds a heck of a lot of power, apparently ;-)

The only change to the outside of the car is that the hole for the throttle bodies will be higher up the bonnet, which as I haven't cut the hole yet, isn't a problem.

Apart from that, the engine is still in bits, so no other news there, I'm afraid.