Throttle body heating circuit

[paultv]

Morning all,

Can't find anything specific about this, but how important is the cooling circuit that passes through the throttle body?

I understand that under certain cold conditions the throttle could freeze open - hence the water heater circuit that passes through it.

So, like mine, what is the impact to overall cooling/heating if the throttle body water passages are totally blocked - considering that the pipes feed from the head to the water pump via the TB -

I'm curious since my head gasket failure ( n.6 cylinder at the rear ) to know if this may have had an impact on the ability to cool the head efficiently.

As the screws that hold the TB water inlet/outlet are sheared off and the unit is blocked, I guess the best course is to bypass it with a short length of pipe .

Paul

[Brianmoooore]

In the days of carburettors, the heating circuit was important, since the heat required to evaporate the petrol was extracted from the immediate surroundings, resulting in the carb. being cooled below the ambient temperature. In a car with multi point injection, such as all E30s, except a few of the M10 engined ones, the only thing passing through the throttle body should be fresh air plus a small amount of crankcase gasses, so the possibility of icing, in any conditions encountered in the UK at least, are small, although not non existent.
I doubt if a blockage in this circuit had any bearing on your had gasket failure, but, if you disconnect the heater, it would e good practice to reconnect the pipework to maintain circulation though the pipe.