Tony

Ive been messing with my idle stabilizer and am re mounting it.

I see that there is a directional arrow on one of the "barbed" fittings. I assume this represents the flow direction that the air should take passing through it .

It is just a simple rotary valve and i was wondering if it could be hooked up backwards as far as the flow is concerened. In the out..and out the in. Its going in a spot where it would be nice fittment wise to have it backwards as far as the flow of air inside it.

There isnt any oneway checkvalve assoc with it, the motor just turns and a small gap is opened to bleed air around the throttle body and regulate the idle.
IMHO, the system does not care about the orientation of the valve...as long as the air is regulated corectly to set the idle.

I personally dont see any problems with it....but, we all know Porsche, they have there reasons.

Any BTDT ( i doubt it )

TIA

aaron3

Tony

Very unlikely that there is a right or wrong way for flow thru the valve.

Are you mounting it in a place that it can be accessed? This would make sense since everyone seems to have trouble with this beast. I wonder why the P engineers felt the need to bury it. I'd love to see pics.

Old & New

Tony,

Great minds think alike. I was speaking, with Worf I think, about moving that valve at the last local P-car congregation. He's an intake manifold guru; maybe he would have some insight about that arrow.

SharkSkin

It's possible that there is some kind of thrust washer/bearing difference between one end and the other. In normal operation I would expect the rotating part to be pulled in one direction, and there may have been engineering choices made with this bias in mind.

Some things you might try:

1) Pull a vacuum the "wrong way" through the valve. See if it binds or operates just as smoothly as when pulling a vacuum the "right way".

2) Pull it apart and look for evidence that it was designed to work better one way than the other way.

3) Slap it in there and hope for the best.

worf928

Arrow? What arrow?

I think that answers your question...

I'd start with SharkSkin's advice: mess with the thing and see what you find.

Since the idle control is adaptive I suspect that even if there's a difference in the mechanical operation of the actuator when the flow is reversed the loop will "learn" the difference - As long as it will pass say 75% as much air as it would with the flow unreversed.

Rich9928p

The idle control valve is absolutely directional. This drawing explaines the reason.

SharkSkin

Ah... Thanks Rich. so it looks like it would work if installed backwards, but not well... especially if worn. It's designed to pull the rotating assembly against the outlet tube, sealing it around the edges. Reversed, it would pull the rotating assembly away from that surface, causing it to seal badly or not at all... especially as it wears.

Old & New

AH! it has an adjustment screw! Something new to mess with!

Tony

That pretty much sums up my approach to this whole thing.
I can mount it "properly" but id rather have the air flowing through the other way as the stabilizer is longer on one end than the other, especially with the wiring at end.

SharkSkin

Can you pull a vacuum on it... at least with a shop vac... and verify that it operates smoothly when hooked up backwards? Might save you some hair-tearing later...

Jay Wellwood

Thanks Rich. I was thinking that as well. Oh well, likely it was designed directional...that is until Tony decided to take it out & play with it.

Tony

If it doesnt work, it wont take me 2 minutes to remove it and turn it a round and have flow the way the factory intened.
Its just a convenience/fit issue more than anything.

Guess Ill see what happens.