matLT1

I have heard a lot of quality complaints against the Holley throttle bodies on this board. I am looking at the possibility of purchasing a throttle body in the near future and was curious what people way have thought about these two TB's. how do they compare? Is one higher quality than the other? I have never purchased a BBk product myself so I don't have anything to compare, but I had always thought Holley made good parts.


PS..this post is not asking rather I should purchase one, please refrain from unrelated comments.

Thanks,
Matt

NJ-LE

I can only address the BBK 52mm I have. It's quality was not very good. The CNC machining looked ok but the center divider part of the casting was so deformed that the IAC air hole was completely in the passenger port! I returned it and received another. Almost as bad except the IAC hole was close to the center so I kept it and took out the dremel and cleaned the splitter up. It works but the cost really is ridiculous. Over $300 for a twin choke air valve! No jets, floats, needles and seats, boosters or fuel circuits yet they cost more than many quality 4 barrel carbs! If I were doing it again I would be tempted to get the "Summit Racing" branded unit and save some money. (Interestingly, after I got tired of cleaning the IAC valve more than once to keep consistent idle rpm I finally put a plastic plug in the throttle body IAC air hole and run without that feed!)

Severous01

they both have some serious issues and it takes a lot of time and patience to fix them. i know you said not to, but i'm going to any way...you'd be better off buying a stock ported unit. i got the ebay one for about 150 bucks. excelent quality port job, even and clean. blades closed with ease and no work needed to be done. i would suggest one thing though...getting your gaskets ahead of time. it was a pain in the rear making them out of gasket paper.

i go stock ported unless you actually need bigger...which from you sig you really dont. 54mm is plenty for anything but the fastest NA cars out there.

2QUIK6

My problem with the borrowed BBK I had was that the IAC air passage on the back of the TB has ports cut in it to open it to the main plenum as shown here in the 2nd and 3rd pic down on this page:
http://members.***.net/chipsbyal/page/idle/index.html

That made my idle quality terrible...knowing that the Holley has some issues to I elected to go with the Holley because the IAC passages are just like the stock ones so that each cylinder gets idle air from the little bleeder holes in the runners...
What I did with the Holley to get it to work properly:
1) Drilled a small venturi hole in the IAC passage to mimic the stocker design..also shown in that link above.
2) Wound the return spring an additional 1 turn because the vacuum from the engine would keep the blades from closing when coasting down the road and sometimes at idle..see my other post on this...I just fixed this just now not even 10 minutes ago!.
*
Bottom line is I need to design & make a TB that is correct..its ridiculous that for $300-400 no one can make one that is flawless for our cars...and I never did get an answer as to if the AS&M ones have the passage like the BBK or not..that was another thread in the past couple of weeks....search on my id and you'll find a few posts/threads about this...

AlwaysCode390

From what I have read BBK has more quality problems than Holley does ---

NJ-LE

I'm not so sure that the IAC passages on the back of the TB matter much. I was able to get a smooth idle with the BBK. (I did have to enlarge the TPS switch mounting holes almost to the edge of the plastic though!) I only had the "normal" idle quality problem of the valve getting dirty and needing cleaning from time to time. That happens with the stocker too. The other annoyance (with stock and BBK) was deceleration on a closed throttle and the ECU would use the IAC to hold engine rpm at least 1500 rpm minimum. (m6 tranny) until the car was stopped for a couple of seconds. I understand there is a value in the ECU that can be edited to allow the engine to try to go to 800 rpm on a closed throttle but I don't have the software. Plugging the IAC inlet port meant I didn't need the software! :-) I haven't noticed any drawbacks.

94TA25ann

I purchased my holley 52mm TB about 3 years ago. I have had problems with it ever since that ultimately has had my car sitting in one spot for a year now.

When I first bought it there was an issue with the buterfly plates rubbing the inside of the bores. I sent it back and to Holley to have them fix it.

The next issue I ran into was that I couldn't get the throttle body to idle low enough because it wasn't returing all the way. I end up tweakng it until I got it to work.

Last problem, which has had my car sitting for a year. You know the little bolts that hold the butterfly plates on, well one decided to back out and lodge itself into my cylinder head (cylinder 8). I just got done this weekend rebuilding the top end on it and buttoning everything back together.

Overall, I think the fnish of the Holley is tens times better, but it shows in price too. I have heard that the BBK's are good in the mechanical dept. but just not that great looking.

matLT1

Thanks for all of the opinions. It almost seems like a crapshoot as to who has the best. It appears as though the BBK may be a lower quality piece, but maybe if more people with Holley's chimed in we could find some things out.

Josh'95Z28conv

I have a new Holley. Ive posted a few times that its a very high quality part. I dont know what the early issues are, but mine is absolutly perfect!

The only thing I had to do was slot and adjust the TPS (normal with any aftermarket TB), and slightly open the throttle blades to feed my LE3 383 at idle. That brought my IAC counts down nicely, and this thing idles perfect!

Two thumbs up for Holley.

2QUIK6

I must add, after reading Josh's reply above..if I would have cranked out the idle screw a little farther, my spring return problem would have probably went away. The only reason I didn't is because once I opened the TB that far, when I shifted from Drive to Park, the rpms went thru the roof for a few seconds until the IAC could adjust and I just didn't like that...but he's got a 383 so it could use a bit more air than mine. Holley definitely looks nice.
If the throttle return spring was turned about another 1/2 turn it would be perfect and nothing would have been needed but the slotting of the TPS.
I just could not get the BBK to idle right and I assume it was because of the IAC passage opening to the plenum, who knows, but the stocker is not that way and the Holley is not either and it and the stocker idles fine with it.

There was some mention of the IAC port not alligning up in an above post, the Holley lined up perfect to the gasket and the supplied gasket lined up perfectly to the plenum holes.
For the known issues, I just could not justify spending another $300+ for a TB not knowing if it would actually work any better so I went with the Holley knowing eventually I'd get it to work the way I wanted if it didn't right out of the box.

NJ-LE

I think that "Severous01" may have the best solution ... have your stock TB bored out. Then the TPS switch should just bolt back on without needing modifications. Perhaps you should post a question for people who have had that done asking the name of the shop and the quality of the work done.

arcticz28the383

I have a 58mm holley. As said above I just had to open up the plates a little for idle. Other than that, theres nothing wrong with the quality, or mechanics of it.