Sure, you’ve heard of an ITB setup but have you ever seen a custom intake manifold setup with three throttle bodies?
The K-series engine might be 17 years old but that doesn’t mean some Honda tuners aren’t finding ways to extract big power numbers from them, in this case, without the help from turbos or superchargers. According to Victor Pena off of Instagram earlier yesterday (Apr. 5, 2018) he shared with us his custom intake manifold he’s got set up on his Honda Insight drag car. What makes this one special is not only is it a one-off, it’s a design I’ve never seen before in my life. Check out what this custom intake manifold looks like below!
Most regular cars only have one throttle body which is a simple enough design for a car’s purpose. Race cars might have individual throttle bodies with as many cylinders as the engine has. In the case of this four-cylinder, there might be four individual throttle bodies or ITB’s.
Not only does this intake manifold have individual throttle bodies, there are only three! According to a commenter on this video, overall, this triple throttle body setup adds up to 2mm more overall (in diameter I’m assuming) in throttle body size when compared to a traditional ITB setup for these NA drag K-series engines. Presumably, more air, when combined with more fuel potentially means more power.
In addition, there’s a huge throttle body spacer smack dab in the middle, a whole 2-liter one. The ones I’ve seen online might be just .5 liters, not as thick as this one. From what I’ve read, throttle body spacers work by cleaning up the airflow coming into a cylinder and by making sure that, if the length is right, the most air gets into a cylinder as the cylinder opens up to receive air.
So, theoretically, with a more effective intake plenum thanks to the throttle body spacer and more air coming into each cylinder thanks to the triple throttle body setup, with the right amount of fuel, this K-series engine should be making more power.
Do you have more insight into this setup than I do? Please let me know by leaving an explanation in the comments!
