Throttle Body placement?

Is there an optimum place to put a tb? It seems to me that between the big three, they have just about everything covered. GM does it from the front, Ford does it from the side and somewhat from the back, Dodge does it straight from the top like a carb. I would have figured that they would have had it figured out by now.

Thanks
Jeremy

It's a combination of packaging and plenum design of the manifold. Packaging probably is the biggest factor.

For a V-engine, perhaps vertically well above the engine (so the intake runners could be straight) might be ideal, but you couldn't package it in many modern vehicles.

Although I think it looks wierd, the sidesaddle mounting of the TB on a Vortec 4200 I6 dumps the air right in the middle of the plenum. This may be more efficient than the nosemount of the Vette and F-body (as well as GTO and CTSV).

This Dodge (http://cjcfo.fbody.com/members/injuneerzz@aol.com/PhotosZ/ViperCuda1.jpg) seems to have the TB's in the front :D But then, it needs to fit under a very low hood.

After I thought about it, the front mounted tb looks to be the best. The air has to enter and atmost does a 90* turn. With the side mount the air turns 180* and with it on top the air has to turn 180* also. Just seems that it would be limiting at higher hp levels and rpms.

I've always thought the Ford side mount TB would offer the best air distribution, although I don't have the data to confirm that.