While waiting for the filter to dry... Cleaning the Throttle Body Shawn is holding Emmy's Traction Control (ASC) throttle body in his hand, below is the main throttle body Showing the throttle body closed and then open exposes the black ring of carbon inside. Shawn cleaned this carbon out. Compare it to dpeete's Traction Control Throttle Body and Main Throttle Body. dpeete's pre-2001 M engine is very much the same. The important differences for this discussion is his bored out main throttle body from Dinan, and the fact that his throttle bodies are already clean. Shawn makes all this seem like playing with Legos. You can see that the bored out Dinan throttle body has a wider opening to allow more air into the engine faster. There is some discussion on the merits of a wider main throttle body. What difference can a wider main throttle body make if air has to pass through a narrower ASC throttle body first? dpeete removed his ASC throttle body in the hopes of taking advantage of the wider main throttle body upgrade from Dinan. Please check out his marvelous article, ASC Modification, for mo' better info. This opens up a discussion of throttle bodies and traction control. Newer Z3s have "drive by wire" and DSC instead of ASC- so they don't have the ASC throttle body pictured and discussed here. The gas pedal controls the new main throttle body by computer, and so does the new Traction Control (DSC). On older Z3s like mine and dpeete's, the throttle is controlled by cable from the gas pedal, and the Traction Control is this additional ring. So, if you have a newer Z3 with Throttle By Wire (3.0 and, 2001 3.2) that doesn't need the additional traction control throttle body as the computer has direct control over the throttle.

6 ThanksFoggening Part 1 Thanksgiving~~ Part 2 Air Bag Light Reset~~ Part 3 Throttle Position Sensor and Leaves~~ Part 4 Filthy Cold Air Intake Filter~~ Part 5 K&N Filter and HFM~~ Part 6 Throttle Bodies~~ Part 7 Filter to Manifold, Superchargers~~ Part 8 Contact Points, Hood Stops, Spark Plugs, Coolant Leak~~ Part 9 Reinstalling CAI & Wheel~~ Part 10 Happiness is a Clean Engine~~ Part 11 Decorating Storage, Radio Anti Theft, Zpack~~ Part 12 Ski Harlem, 50,000 miles~~

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