Grounding Throttlebody?

this. our trucks are advanced to the point of being able to advance or retard the timing for whatever type of fuel you use. I doubt a tiny bit "hotter spark" would change a thing to the point of the end user being able to notice it

now stop debating it, go do it and watch nothing happen. Ill wait here and do the exact same thing...watch nothing happen.

 

Just making sure

 

A tacoma habit and a coke habit are two different things budget-wise. Eh, maybe not

 

Whats funny is that he felt compared to grow a beard.

 

I suppose it does complete the look. I mean, go big or go home!

 

I think im gonna try this when I get home. i already have the Big 3 upgrade done.

 

i can see your ass fire from here, stinks too.

 

I can't imagine that any component of the throttle body uses a local ground. You have the stepper motor (or is it a servo?) that controls the throttle plate, and most likely a throttle position sensor to confirm that the throttle is at the position the computer thinks it is. Both of those should have their own grounds in the wiring harness.

I'm stumped as to why grounding it would have any effect on performance at all. I'd like to see dyno numbers. Should be ridiculously easy to do before/after tests on that.

 

Higher voltage leads to a larger volume of strongly ionized fuel/air mixture, which is what (through heat) begins the ignition process. The lower the voltage, the weaker the spark. At higher engine speeds it becomes a greater problem.

I suspect that with normal system voltage (12.5-14 volts) with good grounds there is plenty of secondary voltage to make a great spark. If your grounds are bad and the coils are seeing less than 12 volts, you might begin to have high-engine-speed misfiring. That's where improving the grounds and the voltage to the coils would help you a lot.

 

Stumbled upon this recently. Decided to be open minded about any of it.

Truck on or off there is a resistance to ground of a few k ohms from the throttle body housing to the battery negative terminal.

Checking the engine ground, showed very low ohms of around .1>.2 ohms. I would say also that the ability to carry high current is there since the truck starter turns fine. The engine seems well grounded.

So yes the throttle body itself is somewhat insulated or poorly grounded.

Seeing what confusion occurs to electronics in modern aircraft from poor grounding, I opted in slightly different than the OP.

Knowing the engine is a suitable ground, I ran a short 18 gauge wire from a throttle body bolt (lower aft) to one of the airbox mount bolts. Actually, the ring terminal is positioned against the actual engine material, with the airbox cushion grommet on top of the terminal. The airbox bolt install looks oem. There is a small diameter tube the bolt secures against, this tube is what clamps the terminal to the engine tightly.

No photos since it is well placed and hidden unless closely inspected.

Does it work or change anything? Initially I would say yes. After more miles maybe not but no real means to prove either way.

As the OP stated, the truck shifts better. I tend to agree with the truck being less confused about what gear it needs.

One time it did seem obviously better was while on cruise control, same route taken each day. Climbing one particular overpass, the truck normally labors and does not downshift. Today, it climbed the hill, downshifted before laboring very smooth and planned.

Needs more seat time to really tell, but the task was easy, can't really hurt anything so I plan to leave it.

FWIW, airflow on aircraft generates static, we take great measures to ensure all parts are electrically bonded to dissipate any static buildup. The throttle body is technically not electrically bonded on account of the high resistance reading. Air does pass through the throttle, maybe it does build static that varies.

My 2010 has always shifted like crap. Soft shifts and sometimes confused about what gear to be in. I spoke with the Toyota tech about it, they even checked for the latest programing and drove it. He mentioned that many complaints are made about the automatics acting this way, especially from owners of older non computer shifted vehicles.

With the wire it so far has not been unsure about what gear to be in. So possibly it does help, not to make huge HP, just a bit more driveable.

On paper it should make no change, on the truck it could be.

PK

 

^ Nice objective write-up. thx!

 

1 year later, any results? did anyone's truck blow up?

 

Bump

 

He results are on the first page.

Point to note, with the factory plastic intake manifold on (N/A) the throttle body is isolated from the grounding/bonding straps that are on the engine block.

The only thing I can see this doing is possibly making the throttle body respond faster than it normally does. Possibly making it more of a linear actuation with reference to the pedal position. Meaning more like a cable TB. POSSIBLY.

The easiest way I can tell to test the theory, is to have someone with an X-1 or UCON do similar pulls of acceleration and datalog before and after the grounding wire. If the datalogs show a difference in throttle positions for the same habits, before and after, then it is validated proof.

 

Yes, but the TPS electronics have their own ground just for this reason as do most other sensors on the motor, for instance the TPS has 3 wires, 1st is the 5v signal, 2nd is the ground, 3rd is the feedback signal. I dont see how mod can help, but who knows...but I have never personally tested it or the signals before and after to even see if there is a voltage difference, or improvement in stability or whatever the benefit may be.