The “Gadgetman Groove”
The late Ron “The Gadgetman” Hatton pioneered what he called the Gadgetman Groove — a 1/4” quarter-round groove carved just manifold side of the throttle body (or carburetor) plate. He developed a special tool that fits the typical 1/8” shank Dremel Tool to carve it. He made some fairly remarkable claims as to what this Groove does. He believed that during the 1st half of the intake stroke, a pressure pocket would build in the corner at the bottom of the Groove. On the second half of the intake stroke, this pocket would explode back into the air stream. What this does is increase vacuum on the 1st half (increasing fuel vaporization) and volumetric efficiency on the 2nd half of stroke (increasing power). He made some unbelievable fuel economy and performance claims as well.
Ron spent several days at our Ecoceptor R&D lab where we tested the Groove — using science. The first test was to map out the flow characteristics of a stock throttle body. Testing was on our Super Flow SF-1000 SB flow bench (see chart). We tested at a couple different depressions (vacuum levels), and mapped from 0% to 100% throttle opening. Next, the throttle body was treated to the Groove and retested. Then we softened the sharp edges on both the front and rear of the Groove with a sanding burrel and tested again. The results shocked me. I expected the flow to dramatically increase from about 2% to 15% throttle angle. Surprisingly, flow remained close to stock there. However, there was a few percentage increase once the throttle got above around 20% and maintained to about 85%. Max flow increase was at 70%. It certainly was NOT following expected cross-sectional surface area fluidynamics laws as I understand them.
Next, we rigged up an automotive MAP sensor to our X-Prize Sonata. It converts vacuum signals to electrical signals we can view on a scope. We recorded several scope patterns (at different loads and throttle angles), then added the Groove and retested. The scope patterns showed higher peak-vacuum and lower low-vacuum extremes. This supported Ron’s claim about what happens in the 1st vs 2nd halves of the intake stroke. A “knee” developed around mid-stroke as well. This supported his pressure release claim.
There are currently over a thousand satisfied Gadgetman Groove users. Upon Ron’s death, his close associate Tracy Gallaway took over the business. You can go to https://gadgetmangroove.com and https://members.gadgetmangroove.com/forums/ to learn more. We posted an instructional Gadgetman video in our Ecoceptor Library as well.
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MPGenie Basics 051 Training - Gadgetman Groove
