Heard of it, seen it in many signatures...now its time for people to tell the tale.
Why did you do it? What does the setup initally do? Why is it more efiicient? Does it really make THAT much difference?

 

I'm not sure there's any hard/fast numbers out there. Perhaps there is a write-up in existence.. I dunno. I mainly did it because it's much easier to not have to deal with antifreeze if I have to do something as frivilous as taking off the intake manifold.

 

http://www.ws6.com/mod-8.htm

6.3 dyno proven rwhp

 

http://www.ws6.com/mod-8.htm

Edit: Damn, beat me to it.

 

coolant passes through the tb to warm it up during cold season, or so i've been told. I'm not really sure how or why it is beneficial to do the by-pass. I suppose that the lack of hot coolant passing through the tb would keep the air intake temps. down a little?

 

The performance gain is very cool, but now what does the bypass essentially do? allow the TB to be air cooled instead of having hot fluid run through it?

 

 

good and simple enough, sounds like the next mod on the list for me

 

GM pretty much designed the motor to operate in a full range of possible driving conditions. The coolant running through the TB was designed to prevent the blades from freezing shut in very very cold temperatures. I've driven with the TB bypass in temperatures around 10 degrees during the winter months and never encountered an issue. If I did I'm sure the engine warmth would take care of it in a few minutes anyway.

Bypassing the coolant keeps the TB much cooler, cooler TB = cooler air, cooler air = denser air, and denser air = more hp.

 

Its a very simple mod to do, it is free, and it has documented gains. Can't really go wrong.