Throttle body warmer, do i need it hooked up? Options

[urbandork]

So before last night this is how i had my set up...... I took the out going water from the thottle body/IAC valve and routed it to the turbo. After entering the turbo i sent it back to where the outgoing coolant originally went after exiting the throttle body.



Last night the hose that flows the coolant from the engine to the thottle body cracked. So what i did was totaly cut the IAC valve out of the loop, taking the hose from the TB to the trubo off of the IAC valve and hooking it up direct to the water junction (where the IAC use to get the water from).

My question is that if it is ok to leave the IAC vavle bypassed and out of the loop. What does it do??? i know it circulates warm water around the TB and this heats up the air to some extent which seems a little counter intutive to what the intercooler is supose to do. The other thing it does is also keep the TB from freezing over in cold areas. Living in Southern California i doubt it will get that cold to freeze the TB over. Plus on initial start up the air is usually warm from the turbo as the FMIC really isnt too effective with out air passing through it.

So why cant i just leave the IAC bypassed/not used?

[Hanyo]

its ok to leave it off, my worries is if i ever go to snow boarding and I forget i don't have this hose connected. Then that could cause problems.

[phattyduck]

its ok to leave it off, my worries is if i ever go to snow boarding and I forget i don't have this hose connected. Then that could cause problems.

Its not a Celica... but I've taken my WRX up skiing and started/driven the car when it was about 15*F outside (and the car hadn't been started in a day) with no issues. I've had the throttle body coolant lines disconnected for about 3 years now. I would reconnect them if I lived up in the mountains or somewhere cold, but you should be safe if you only go to a cold place once in a while...

-Charlie