“Angling For More Power” – Vararam’s VR Power Wedge

At first glance, Vararam’s VR Power Wedge ^[2] for LS engines might look like just another simple plastic throttle body spacer. However, we recently started looking more into the engineering and testing that goes into the VR Power Wedge, and quickly found out that it’s much more than a spacer. The real secret of the VR Power Wedge is that that it’s not a spacer at all. Its real job is to change the angle of attack of the air as it moves through the throttle body and into the intake manifold.

Vararam spent hundreds of hours researching the most effective angle to set the throttle body, and what they found with most LS engines is that in the factory location the throttle body is aimed upward at about an 8 degree angle. According to the guys at Vararam, it’s likely that GM designed the intake and manifold with an upward angle to help with water pump clearance and to help facilitate a smoother transition during tip-in throttle response. The major drawback to this upward angle is that at wide-open-throttle the blade of the throttle body protrudes into the throttle neck as much as 1-inch in a negative angle, and can block flow by as much as 12%.

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The VR Power Wedge is CNC machined out of Zytel plastic - the same material that most OEM intakes are made of. That means little to no additional heat soak.

The VR Power Wedge changes angle of the throttle body so that the throttle blade is flat at WOT, and a variable radius air-horn and balance plenum help manifold vacuum move with less turbulence. So far, Vararam’s dyno testing of stock LS3 Camaros and Corvettes have shown gains of between 8 and 12 horsepower and pound feet of torque right in the meat of the power curve from 2500 RPM to 4500 RPM. Not bad for about 10 minutes of work.  

For more info, check out the tech info on the VR Power Wedges for LS1, LS2, LS3, and LS7 engines on Vararam’s Website ^[2], or give them a call at 713-477-8100.