Soler ported throttle body install / experience
 

(I paid full price for this throttle body and am in no way associated or compensated by Mike @ Soler Performance)

This is my experience thus far...

Love my 2019 C7 Z06 - with 3K miles on it and several track days - it's definitely monster. But - that tip in throttle... icky poo yucky... just weak. Like weak enough that there were challenges at the track using the throttle tip in to maintain speed in wide uphill turns. Instructor would keep saying "more throttle" and I'd keep trying to feather and nothing kept happening... There there's the ricer challenge at the stop-light... you know - the Civic that wants to bounce off the limiter that you want to jump off the line... and instead your car sounds like a diesel barely not stalling.

So I learned on here about the magic of ported throttle bodies... I was going to buy a Mamo... then a dinglefelter... then - saw a thread about the Soler one and like science... so I figured "this guy is good at using technical words to market his product"... and kept reading... and people who had them loved them. People who had switched to them loved them. And his policy was - 30 days, no risk, send it back and he eats shipping both ways. So with no risk, some good reviews, no negative reviews and lots of technical jargon - I figured what the hell - let's give it a go!

Ordered the Throttle Body on Monday... Was shipped with tracking number and delivered on Wednesday. Packaging was very good - Soler Engineering tape on the outside, TB was packed inside bubble wrap and then padded with packing paper. Included instructions for installing and then the options for ECU "learning".

Installation is simple - 4 bolts and a hose clamp. Hardest part for me was the intake plastic was sorta "stuck" to the old TB and didn't want to come apart. 15 minute job start to finish. No torque specs included in the instructions for the TB bolts was the only missing part of the package.

I opted to NOT do the full ECU relearn procedure because - most folks won't do that - and I wanted to report here the most likely procedure which is just drive cycles and FIFO data replacement in the tables.

Car started right up - idled a little high on the cold start but calmed itself back down after about 20 seconds... that was it... off I went for a drive. Instantly noticed a difference when backing out of the garage and then when starting forward in the driveway... that super low / no throttle slow clutch let out / engine sorta sounds like a diesel was gone. Slight throttle pressure that would ave seemed to be "unnoticed" before by the car instead gave it just enough to make starting from a stop smooth. Same experience at every stoplight, parking lot, and "activate the front camera to pull up to the curb" moment. smooth and reliable - the fear and sounds of near stall seem to be gone. That's 100% measurable / experiential fact.

In the less fact category is accelerator responsiveness when underway - I "think" the car is a bit more responsive in like 2nd or 3rd when are part throttle if you change to more part throttle... but I'm not sure how you can really measure that... the placebo effect is mighty powerful. But - it's also real, in so far as , if my perception is that it's better at partial throttle changes, then my perception is my reality behind the wheel.
Now - I can say - quantitatively - I mentioned the tip in issue at HPDE... well I have a hill by my house that I have been practicing that sort of throttle control for my next track day... and the Soler TB definitely has a positive impact on that. It's been a consistant measure for me while under power and with 3-4 drive cycles and 150-ish miles on the TB with the ECU learning - I know it's not "done" re-learning... but it's got solid data at this point... and the 45mph, sweeping uphill turn, 3rd gear gentle tip in now give the throttle response and engine behavior I'd expect in an incline situation with a 650HP car like this... not the sluggish keep pushing down while losing speed hunting for the point the throttle "jumps" in experience the stock TB offered.

Is it better than a Mamo or other ported TB... I can't tell you that because I never owned one... what I can say is for the few Soler units that are out there right now I have not been able to find anyone with a complaint or anything other than praise - and I'm on that list now too. This had fixed the 2 issues I wanted it to fix and not added anything undesirable to the mix. In car mods - that's a very rare equation :)

The last question might be "why don't you get a tune to solve this" - easy - I bought this car because I had a silly stupid built / Whippled Mustang that I did all the wrenching on. And I worked remotely with 4 of the self-proclaimed "best" Coyote tuners out there... and had issues with every one of them that I ultimately invested in my own HP Tuners setup and training materials and learned to tune the damn thing myself. I don't have any desire to do that again... legit, for HPDE this car is way more than I'll ever be able to manage... and it's amazing in it's stock form... except for the throttle tip in... IF this bolt on solution solves that - that will be all I do - well - except for track pads ;)

I will update this thread again after more drive time / cycles to see if things stay the same, get better or... once all the history tables are full, return to factory behaviors. And then I'll update it after my next HPDE event in a few weeks.

Thank you for the report.

While I have yet to get my Z on a track I can also confirm that this is a huge difference maker for our cars! I had another supplier's ported TB on my car, and it did improve the off idle stumble, but I still wasn't satisfied with the performance.

I sent my OE piece to Mike to be modified and as others have reported it made a world of difference. The car is so much more fun to drive! My car threw a CEL this week however. I contacted Mike, he explained that he'd discovered that the A8 and M7 cars can react differently and put a brand new TB for my M7 car in the mail to me! I installed it yesterday and the CEL is gone and the throttle lag is gone, too.

Not only does Mike make a great product, but he is extremely customer focused, a very big plus for me. We've all probably had the experience of dealing with a vendor who doesn't think the customer is still important after the sale, so working with Mike is very refreshing. I highly recommend Mike and his product!!

Ordering mine next month. Quite a few mods done to my car including a tune. It still feels like I can order and eat a pizza by the time the car gets up to a decent speed. Feels like the pedal has to be pushed too far to get a good response. Hopefully this TB will alleviate that.

There is no doubt it will! To be honest, it's such a huge upgrade in throttle response that I believe everyone should do it as their first mod! Plus it's a simple 15 minute install.

I'll throw in my $.02. I did allot of research on this issue, because I was shocked at how bad the tip in throttle response was on my "new to me" '17 Z06 M7. I almost stalled it pulling out of the dealer's lot. Embarrassing. I thought something was mechanically wrong until I researched the issue and found that it is the norm with these cars. I've driven 5 thousand dollar imports that were leaps and bounds better throttle response. It just shouldn't be this way for a six figure sports car, but, I digress.

I chose Soler because of the empirical data they presented. It's a new company, so there was a little nervousness there, but I am very pleased with the product. Immediately, I noticed a better response getting the car moving. Before it was like there was nothing for the first 1/4 of the gas pedal, then all of a sudden you are at 4K RPM's. Or, I had to blip the RPM's up to 3-4K before letting the clutch out. And as loud as the Z06 is, I was becoming conspicuous. Now it's even and smooth, like it should be.

I've had the Soler TB on the car for about 6 weeks, and I can also confirm that the throttle response continues to improve over time. I followed the learning instructions to the letter, but I don't know if that's essential or not. I believe there is slightly better throttle response in the upper gears as well.

Bottom line, these cars desperately need a better throttle body, and if you are going to choose one, I recommend Soler.

After about 350 miles on the TB now and over a dozen drive cycles some from cold some from warm - the tip in sill is terrific. Almost now you have to "work" to make a 650HP/TQ car want to stall... Very happy with the results. Seriously how the car should have shipped. I have a concrete pad that slopes up to the garage and then a lip on the garage - every time I used to get as close to the the stall as you can when I'd pull in and press the front camera button (not intentionally but because the throttle was dead and the last thing I wanted to do was go "too far" and launch the car through the garage)... NOW - the car just rolls right in when I feather the clutch - no big deal. The porting is the real deal. And the throttle is more responsive also when not just coming out of the hole - just in general. On the road acceleration is more accurate to pedal input. Period. I don't know that it's honestly changed much since install and initial drive cycle and as I said - I just installed it - no ECU relearn stuff.

One "unexpected" change with the car - and it's not really a negative... Engine braking is greatly diminished. Road to the gym - drive it 4X a week - I'm rural - no traffic - so conditions are constant. Used to downshift from 4 - 3 at around 60 mph, maybe 350 feet before the I'd take the left turn at 40, all under engine braking... ohh hells no that aint happening now. I now either downshift sooner because the engine does not bleed off speed as aggressively now (probably because at the partial throttle it's getting more air) or I apply some actual brake. This behavior is MUCH more inline with a sports car. An instructor with a M3 at a HPDE event drove my car and when he downshifted - he loved the active rev match but when the clutch came out and the car slowed itself so aggressively he was like "dayhum - is this a truck?" - and I honestly used to think this thing LOVES to engine brake... not now :)

Hmmmm? I wonder how my light weight flywheel and balancer will effect this with the Soler TB? Should be more responsive, quicker spin up and down as well.

Wonder if one is worth it on an A-8 GrandSport?

Pretty sure that that would be a YES!

Some people seem to be happy with the electronic throttle vitess thing, it does something completely different than a ported throttle body.

Ive experienced both and hands down the solar TB is The real deal. Throttle control is much more crisp and linear . The electronic throttle control guys use the word linear sometimes but I have a feeling they have no idea what that word actually means since It does the polar opposite and makes it WAY less linear.

I’d go for it, frankly only way to know if you’d like it is to try it .... you have nothing to lose since it’s a money back guarantee.

+1 on this comment. Electronic throttle control changes (either plug in or tune based) don't change the actual flow of air... the porting on this thing does - noticeably... Software fixes are nice and fine and there's a place for them for sure... especially a legit tune. BUT - like this post says - there's no risk - so try it and make up your own mind.

TBH - I was so jaded from all the BS I did and money wasted on my "aftermarket crap" I was sure this thing was a joke and would be going back. It's a legit OEM TB - just WAY more better. :)

My last car was a e92 M3, and has the most linear throttle I ever felt from a factory made car.
so I get what that instructor was saying .... it has a small 4.0 liter N/A V8 with 8 individual throttle bodies, comes with Beautiful oem Headers , light weight internals red line is 8300 rpm. And can take it all day long...That motor is true gem and has won numerous awards.

Its amazing how lazy our lt1 motors behave.

Thank you for such a detailed report.

What is full ECU relearn procedure for C7's?

Short version is - you disconnect the battery for several hours. This clears the volatile memory. Then you follow a set of idle, rev, drive steps in a specific way to expedite the learning of the new behaviors of the TB.

IMHO It’s more effort than is needed - if you just give the car a bunch of drive cycles it will replace the same memory space as it’s FIFO data storage. The benefit to the relearn is - it happens faster, in theory...

You all convinced me. Ordered mine earlier today.

Do the instructions have the torque specs for the bolts that hold the TB to the intake manifold?

I think they do, but dont worry too much about it. Its about 85-90 INCH lbs

Yes (85-95 in-lbf), they are on figure 1 of the installation instructions. Here.

Just curious, how many days are we looking at right now before a reworked TB is shipped out after ordering?

Ordered mine yesterday morning. Hopefully I will get tracking info today.