VR6 Throttle Body Coolant Removal

[The_Hawk]

As you may notice there is a couple of coolant lines running to the throttle body. Now these are there to allow the throttle body to warm up when it's icy. The down side is when the coolant heats up your really just adding temperature to your intake. It's probably not a lot, but why add more heat if you don't have to.

Since it doesn't tend to snow in Sydney I figured I would remove the lines which in theory will then provide more power since the intake is cooler...

Tools required:
Pliers to remove hose clamps
Screw Driver to tighten up new hose clamps

Parts required:
House clamps (while you could use the old ones, for the few $$ they cost it's worth replacing them)
House Joiner.

I bypassed the TB and joined the existing hoses, this allows me to reconnect later if for some reason I need to. If you wanted to be really neat (and I will one day) you need to get a replacement hose for the one that runs from the engine to the heater core which doesn't have the extra piece, then you can delete all the excess piping.

For those that are a little lost, the two pipes in the centre of this photo run off to the throttle body on the left:



One runs from the expansion tank (just out of shot on the right) the other comes off one of the large pipes that run into the heater core. As above, you can either join these or get some new pipes and delete the line entirely.


Close up of where they run into the TB:



The process is very simple, remove the pipe from teh TB:



Then use a joiner and some clamps:



I then cable tied the pipe up out of the way so it doesn't fall onto the down pipes/exhaust:




When I was doing this I noticed that my crank vent hose (which replaced a busted PVC) was a little cracked and allowing air into the intake past the MAF.



I keep considering an oil catch can, but since I'm feeling a little poor at the moment I decided to go the cheap option instead and plugged the intake and threw on one of these:




The end results... well the car still runs. I can't say I notice a difference, but then I didn't expect massive changes from the coolant bypass. It's one of those small things you do because you can. I'm suprised the extra unmetered air wasn't causing issues but then there is a slight chance that it was *almost* busted and my jiggling did it in...

Anyway, it's all back together and running well. On a side note, there is still nothing quite like that glorious noise

[mk3pete]

nice write up man

i think i may do this

[DUB 12V]

dub 20v did this about 5 years ago to his vr did not notice any diff, nice work tho hawk.

[Golf Loon]

I`ll be interested to know if the lack of water through the throttle body has any noticeable diff.

I`m thinking probably not.

Nice write up tho

[Mrk_Mickey]

I always wondered whether or not this gave any difference. You've basically justified my thoughts but it's one of those ''psychological differences'' which would always make one feel better about doing it nice one.

[The_Hawk]

As I said in the OP, even after doing this and fixing the air intake issue I can't notice any real difference. But since you can do it for about $10 worth of parts (if you don't already have them in your garage) it's not really an expensive mod.

Consider that you probably wouldn't notice anything under 5% change in power in the "seat of the pants test" so if this gave 1% you'd never really know it. Having said that if you do all the 'little' mods like this for 1% or 0.5% each it's likely to add up over time...

More to the point I was bored and want to do some tinkering and this was a nice easy one that gave me that sense of satisfaction you can only get by getting a little greasy.

I keep thinking I should go and buy a cheap Mk1 to put in the carport and play with in what little spare time I have. Something I could work on with my son for when he learns to drive... since he's four and all I would have plenty of time to play (although it's likely it would be a finished, sold and another one started for fun). Just something to keep me busy and the chance to learn new skills

[The_Hawk]

A week on and I have been keeping an eye on all the bits I have changed. There doesn't seem to be any leaking oil or oil buildup around the crank vent. There doesn't appear to be any leaking coolant and no detrimental effects otherwise.

As for performance increase, it's not giving me about 400hp at the wheels extra...

But seriously, there isn't really any appreciable difference, still every little bit helps hey... what I should do is life the carpet and remove the sand.