single throttle body upgrade to larger one

[Jungle_Jim]

Hi guys,

I work with someone who knows his stuff about cars as he sets up and races MG ZR & MGF's as well as offering trackday driving instructions. he mentioned to me i could get a fairly good power gain by increasing the size of my single throttle body to that of a larger one. Obviously i would only see a gain if the restriction in air flow occurs at the throttle body rather than the inlet manifold. I just wondered if this has been done before. what size my throttle body was on my 1.2 16v 2003, what size / model car i could simply upgrade too. He has done this on his cars by swapping the throttle body to a larger one, but he doesnt really know much about clios

any help would be great
cheers
James

 

[sideways danny]

there's some value to it, but it's not quite that simple. Total waste of time on a 1.2, it's not even slightly a performance engine, the compression is too low, and the cams too mild. get something else, or just drive it

 

[Jungle_Jim]

what sort of gains would i actually get though, as ive seen single throttle bodies going for as little as £40 on ebay, so if it does actually provide some benefit then for £40 its not a complete waste of time

 

[sideways danny]

it's only worthwhile if the engine actually needs more air. Dont bother, you'll be disappointed

 

[powey]

Did this on my rover 1.6, fitted one from the vvc lump. Gave a nice small increase in throttle responce

 

[Martin_172]

you wont get any gains on the 1.2, the standard throttle body isnt small enough to cause any sort of bottle neck, that engine doesnt need much air to run! plus the crappy plastic inlet manifold is the main problem on it being so long, you would probably get better gains swapping to a newer style 2004> inlet manifold and airbox setup.