m20 throttle heater plumbing

[Mike]

OK, I am dealing with putting my m20 back together that somebody else dissasembled, and took alot of stuff off of it. I plan on not using the throttle body heater, and I am slightly puzzled on what my options are? My old car, I went the easy route and just removed both lines off the TB, and looped them together with a spare fitting, that I came up with. That worked fine for my old car.

This car, I guess I just want to clarify where do the cooler lines go, from the TB? I am pretty sure, that one goes to the bottom of the thermostat housing, and the other goes to the back of the block, correct?

My main question is, could I close this system off completely, by maybe screwing a bung into the back of the block, and figuring out something out at the thermostat fitting? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Also, feel free to correct me, if I got something confused. I'm dealing with a car that was missing alot of stuff when I got it in the first place.

[Knockenwelle]

Yes, that will work. Did the same thing on mine. All it took was a 12mm bolt for the block, and a piece of heater hose with a plug in it on the tstat housing.

[jlevie]

You may want to re-think elimination of the throttle body heater if you'll be driving in Maryland in the winter. The purpose of the heater is to prevent the throttle plate from freezing, which can happen if the conditions are right.

[Mike]

Yeah, I was not too sure about whether my climate conditions should require it, cause it can get cold here too. I'll be trying my best to keep this car garage kept, but you never know. I never noticed any problems with my old car when I did it.

[jlevie]

It isn't so much a matter of whether the car is garage kept as it is a matter of driving the car in a low ambient temperature and having the humidity being just right. In my experience it is more likely to happen when the car is crusing at or near highway speed and you lift off the throttle and "nothing happens"...

BWM included that feature for a reason and it makes no sense to me to remove it unless the car resides in a region that will never see sub-freezing temperatures.

[Mike]

Well. I know that they eventually can leak, and if it can give me a slight improvement in cooling efficiency w/ my 9.75:1 CR 2.8, I will be sure to kill my ignition as soon as I come across any hint of my throttle sticking. But for the record, does this seem like a "somewhat safe" thing to do to an m20?

[Knockenwelle]

Yeah, good call on the location Jim. Didn't catch that. I'm in Tucson, and it never gets cold enough here to worry about it. But MD winter... You may want to keep it. Could always just disconnect it in the summertime. Really, though, I just took mine off to clean things up. I know it only makes a tiny difference in intake temps.

[Dyno4mance]

Could someone post pics of the plumbing you are talking about....cheers

[bmwpower]

How about for a track car? Are there any events in freezing temperatures? I'm guessing not.

Attached is the diagram in question. #18 and #19 are the inlet and outlet.

[navid41691]

How about for a track car? Are there any events in freezing temperatures? I'm guessing not.

Attached is the diagram in question. #18 and #19 are the inlet and outlet.

Bumping an old thread. So which is the inlet? 18 or 19? and is that what I would hook up a flushing t to to flush the system?

[iwantspeed]

Here is how I set mine up.
Write up here.

http://garagistic.com/index.php?page=m20-thermostat-housing---throttle-body-heater-delete

[bmwpower]

Bumping an old thread. So which is the inlet? 18 or 19? and is that what I would hook up a flushing t to to flush the system?

Not sure which is the inlet, but I wouldn't flush from those lines as they are small.