grease monkey, revisited

tonight it was time to put on the throttle body. at left is the aftermarket 75mm throttle body. it is a much lighter weight aluminum casting (then machined), and has a tapered bore. the stock throttle body on the right has a straight 65mm bore, and then it steps down right at the butterfly rather abruptly. note the hole in the butterfly blade...aftermarket tb's never have that, and usually suffer idle issues, as the IAC (idle air controller) can't compensate. i have always drilled my own hole, and have never suffered the dreaded idle hunt. it's easy and fun, too!!! :)

this is where the throttle body meets the plenum that i installed last night. the rubber piping on the left is the intake plumbing. it is borderline too small for the new throttle body opening, but a little dawn around the lip made it slip right on.

this whole process took nearly an hour. why? the tps (throttle position sensor) is the little black module just below the red sticker on the throttle body. you have to reuse the tps from the stock throttle body, and ford, in their infinite wisdom, choses to use the most ungodly thread locker on the screws. ultimately, i had to dremel the screw heads to get it off so that i could install it on the new tb. then, i had to drill my air hole in the throttle blade. lastly, the notch for the throttle cable was too small. the throttle cable has an end much like a mountain bike brake cable, and i couldn't get the head to pop into place. of course, this meant removing the tb, reaming the hole, and reassembly. i was miffed at the small annoyances, but the result was quite satisfying. it has a very jumpy response, and a faint whistle when mashing the go pedal.

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as i was letting the car warm up and allowing the IAC to figure out the new tb, i finally replaced the brake light bulb in the escape. the mrs keeps asking me if i WANT her to get pulled over. that is, of course, a rhetorical question, but i usually answer "no" and promise to put in the bulb asap. mission accomplished. honey, if you get pulled over, it won't be for the brake light!