Engine Bbk Vs. Edelbrock Throttle Body For Sn95 5.0, Which Brand Is Better?

[WhiteCobra95]

I have had a new throttle body on my list of parts to purchase for a long time. I was under the impression that BBK was selling their throttle bodies to Edelbrock since hte Edelbrock parts had both logos on them, but I noticed that the Edelbrock throttle bodies recently took a huge leap in price. In the past they were about $40 more than BBK, but now they've shot up to $300 when BBK parts still come in around $200.

Is there any real difference bewteen the two? Did Edelbrock actually change something or make a better part which justifies the price increase?

 

[toyman]

And what is the motivation and expected benefit? Larger isn't always better.

 

[5.0 Ford Guy]

I have seen the BBK and the Edelbrock. Cast pieces of scrap metal IMO. But I am sure they both do the job just fine. I am going to buy the Accufab and do the Fox TB swap. There is no equal to Accufab quality. Holley used to make a really nice Fox TB. I have no idea if they still do.

 

[WhiteCobra95]

I have seen the BBK and the Edelbrock. Cast pieces of scrap metal IMO. But I am sure they both do the job just fine. I am going to buy the Accufab and do the Fox TB swap. There is no equal to Accufab quality. Holley used to make a really nice Fox TB. I have no idea if they still do.

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I just looked at the Acufab throttle bodies and they look like good quality parts. It's too bad they don't make a bolt on part for our cars. I'll have to think about that coversion as well.

 

[WhiteCobra95]

And what is the motivation and expected benefit? Larger isn't always better.

The motivation was a 60 mBar pressure drop across the stock throttle body that I measured at 920 kg/hr air flow on a friend's SN95 a couple of years ago. That's roughly a 6% drop in flow potential at his peak power point. This inspired me to look at the options out there to avoid the same restriction.

 

[5.0 Ford Guy]

I am a machinist and when I bought my Accufab somebody screwed up and sent me a 90mm TB. It was huge. I was so impressed with the quality though I took pics and sent my machinist buddies. They really do good work.

But I agree, I wish they made a 94-95 TB. I am going to do the swap just because they don't

 

[WhiteCobra95]

That's awesome and hilarious 5.0 Ford guy!

I'm a an engineer and I understand exactly what you're saying. When you see a quality piece like that, you can't help but stop and admire the work and attention a company puts into their part to get it to that point. Especially with something large like a 90mm tb, those are some tricky tolerances to hold.

Thanks for both the input and the laugh. I appreciate it. =)

 

[revhead347]

I have an old BBK Edelbrock 70mm. Had it for 15 years now, and it's never given me any trouble whatsoever. I'm sure they are both equally good, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy other one. There is no disadvantage to a cast design. Almost every part of the engine is sand cast. I can guarantee you you will not get that kind of reliability if you do a fox tb swap. The fox tb is inferior by design, and regardless of what brand tb you buy, it will suffer from the Ford design problems. They always jam, and the throttle cables start falling off when they wear out. The funny thing is, in the 90s we were all swapping out our Fox tbs for SN throttle bodies to get rid of the jamming problems, and now everyone is swapping out SN throttle bodies for Fox ones. It's funny how things change.

Kurt

 

[5.0 Ford Guy]

I am sure the BBK and the Edelbrock TB's are good enough to last a long time. And yeah, the manufacturer of our fine cars cut as many corners as they could using sand castings for nearly everything. It's cheap. Is it better? No. Quality is quality. John Force uses billet blocks for a reason. A company develops cast parts to save money. Not to produce a quality part.

I have machined lots and lots of castings in my career. I have seen what lies under the skin. Porous material, casting irregularities, etc. The quality of the casting depends on who made the sand cast and how well they filled the mold. We get castings with .100" variance. I have cut chips on castings that were the size of a softball that cost $1400 each, and they were still not as good as the exact same parts we developed out of billet.

I also machine a LOT of billet aluminum. 6061, 7075, 2024, etc. Never once have I cut into a piece of billet and found a void in the material. Or cracks. The strength of billet without question is a lot better than a cast part. Not that this would matter much with a TB. But I have been on the development side of a lot of parts that were first prototyped out of billet, then went to castings. The billet prototypes are always far superior to the final cast pieces.

One reason for this is the fixtures required to hold a cast part for machining are always less rigid than fixtures designed to hold billet pieces. This is because billet parts are always exactly the same. So they always fit the fixture exactly the same. Cast parts vary so much the fixtures need to be adjustable. So fixtures for machining cast parts are always kind of sloppy. And the cast parts NEVER sit in the fixture exactly the same. So every single part will be different.

I have owned 6 Fox Mustangs and never once has a throttle cable came off or jam. Anyone else ever hear of this happening?

 

[WhiteCobra95]

The only issues I've heard about with the Fox TB's is the verticle orientation of the throttle shaft. Supposedly you get a bunch of PCV build up over time and the worse-case is that moisture can pool up in that lower bearing (although this is mostly a winter weather problem). I've never owned one so I'm just going by complaints my friends have had.

Thanks for the input Kurt. It's good to know that you've had the BBK one for a good amount of time without any problems.

 

[toyman]

The motivation was a 60 mBar pressure drop across the stock throttle body that I measured at 920 kg/hr air flow on a friend's SN95 a couple of years ago. That's roughly a 6% drop in flow potential at his peak power point. This inspired me to look at the options out there to avoid the same restriction.

Let's assume that is correct for discussion purposes. Do you have any data showing other TBs perform better and does it matter if the real choke point is probably the flow through the lower intake or heads?

 

[BANGERSTANGER76]

Well dang it guys. I waited 2 years to buy a TB. I have been researching all this time to figure out if I wanted to make the swap. At first I was very hesitant and was just going to buy and elbow and an SN TB back on. But all I ever here is the Fox TB is the way to go. ITs great. I makes the car run better so on and so forth. Never heard one bad thing about the swap other than it being a small pain to get the cruise control set back up. So finally I shell out the money for a 75 MM Edelbrock Fox TB to do the conversion and now this thread pops up !!!!! Somebody please convince me that swapping to fox TB is the way to go. other wise Im going to buy an elbow and just keep everything sn 95.

 

[5.0 Ford Guy]

Like I said, my Fox ran great. Never had a single problem with it. I have never swapped an SN95 to one though so I can't help you there.

 

[toyman]

I suspect the FOX swap crowd just want to believe it was a good decision. Who on the forums complains about the factory setup? I ran the stock TB with the KB until I did a complete engine rebuild and only then did I change the TB to match the KB intake of 70mm. It's still the SN setup. And if a straight air flow path is so important why would one change the SN to a FOX that requires a 90* bend in the air tube.

 

[revhead347]

There comes a point where you need a bigger throttle body then you can get for the SN Setup, and at that point you have to swap to a Fox setup. The Fox also gives you a little quicker throttle response. Other than that, there is no advantage to it. It's not worth the swap in my opinion.

I actually know the guy who engineers and makes John Force's engines. I say makes, not builds, because he machines the block with a CNC machine from a solid chunk of aluminum. There are plenty of cast parts on that car.

Kurt

 

[5.0 Ford Guy]

They make them right down the road from my house. I live 2 minutes from John Force. I was there a month ago for the Mastercam X7 rollout event and got to see the whole shop. Pretty cool place.