For those with the hondata gasket, did you do the TB bypass?

[cbecker333]

I'm wondering if this is really ok to do? seems like a hot summer day in traffic could soak the engine in heat and get the TB pretty hot.

[RMC22]

I didn't do it.

[JSIR]

I did it to my car , but I don't drive the car in winter. I have driven it in winter conditions during short test drives without experiencing any problems such as freeze up, but if I drove it regularly in winter I would leave the hoses connected. In hot summer weather you don't need fluid in the TB at all, everything works great, but its a pain in the ass if you have to switch back and forth each season plus you loose a bit of coolant each time you change it, so I say leave it in the stock setup.

[BlasTech]

Joey, what about those of us who live in the hotter parts? It hardly goes below 30 here on the coldest of days, but the summers can be 60-90 days straight over 100!

Im thinking about doing it as long as its OK for STS in auto-x.

[JSIR]

it works fine in hot weather , Ive used mine like that since April in steady daily driving, works fine, idles perfect. I drove mine a couple times in -15 degree weather and it still idled fine, so I say in your case it will also work well. But if you are in constant cold weather below freezing for long periods of time I say leave it stock just to be safe as a freezing throttle body can be unsafe.

Joey

[soniccar]

With the coolant bypass disconnected, the car should run better in the heat because the coolant just heats the throttle body more. The TB and manifold are like a huge aluminum heat sink and really help to cool the head, also aluminum. Helps even more that it is on the front side of the engine, now. The throttle body coolant hose just heats all of that up. However, you will never notice the power gain in the summer.

I ran my 1988 CRX with the throttle body bypass unhooked for 10 years with no problems and half of that time was in the frigid mountains and half of that time was here on the hot coast. It is nothing more than a way to reduce emissions at start up. The old carb. cars had a pipe running up to the air cleaner with a thermostatic valve that drew heat off of the exhaust manifold until warmup to reduce unburnt hydorcarbons. You'll still pass smog with it disconnected since you smog test with the engine warms where it doesn't help you anymore.

I made sure that when I bypassed it, I filled the tube as much a possible with coolant.

[DynaSpeed]

Has anybody (Joey) ever done any temp testing of this? I'll even settle for a "It feels cooler to the touch".

[cbecker333]

yeah someone did actualy temperature testing on the manifold after installing the gasket....let me try a search....

[JSIR]

Originally posted by DynaSpeed
Has anybody (Joey) ever done any temp testing of this? I'll even settle for a "It feels cooler to the touch".

well it does feel cooler to the touch under certain conditions - this is for both items hondata gasket and TB bypass. On a mild or cool day if you run your car from home to say work or school in one trip with relatively easy flowing traffic, by the time you get to your destination your manifold will be much cooler to the touch than a stock setup. We did this test once with my car and a stock setup Civic SiR, my manifold and TB were much cooler. This was in early spring months with temps around 70 degrees or less.

However, after you park your car the heat in the engine bay soaks into the manifold and TB just like normal. Thus if you are driving to say two or more destinations where you park the car for a few minutes and start off again then the manifold just stays hot like usual. In very hot weather such as we are having now and with some stop and go traffic the manifold heats up just as hot as a normal stock seutp, its still too hot to touch. The rad fans just blow and radiate all the heat into the manifold and TB so it doesn't seem to helpful this time of the year.

Joey

[DynaSpeed]

I shoulda been more specific, but I was just talking about the TB bypass... I have the Hondata gasket, and I can only imagine that it works.

Joey, we actually did some Palm OBDII testing at Gingerman with the RSX guys, and my motor had some of the higher temp #'s out of the group.... I think my intake was 121

[JSIR]

oh okay, well on the bypass is pretty much the same, on a cool day without too much stop and go traffic you can feel a difference, but in hot weather conditions in stop and go traffic it heats up just the same due to all of the excess heat in the engine bay, probably not much difference in those conditions.

my coolant temps are averaging 175 degrees, a bit cooler when driving on the highway and a bit warmer in city driving. But they wont go above 190 degrees as the rad fans kick in at that point and cool things off. My intake temps are measuring up to 120 degrees as well, but I figured out what we are reading is the temperature of the intake temp sensor itself not the air running by it. In the morning if it is 75 degrees out my intake temps are 75 degrees too at first. As soon as the engine bay heats up the air temp sensor heats up and what you are reading is its temp despite the cooler air running past it.


Joey