I'm about to take out my TB and finish polishing it, and I'm thinking of "debadging" my injen top tube and sending it to be coated with Jet Hot or some similar heat-resistant coating.

Do you think this will help the heat soak problem when you change the top intake tube from plastic to metal?

 

Use thermo wrap. Works better and its much easier.

 

Yea- Thermo-Tec makes a CAI wrap. You can get it from Summit for about $40. Just do a search for the manufacturers P/N. http://www.thermotec.com/products/full/14500/14500.html
I wrapped my Injen and it dropped the intake temp 15 degrees.

BTW- you get enough wrap to do two- so if you have a buddy with CAI you can split the cost.

 

Thanks for the input. It's sounds like thermo tec is the way to go.

 

How were you able to monitor the difference in intake temp?

great find, btw!

 

With a tool similar to Pocketlogger.

 

The more important thing to wrap is the Mass air flow sensor. That makes a critical difference in how the engine runs. There are more gains keeping that cool....though wrapping the intake tube is a good idea also.

 

make sure you are using something that expells heat, not something that keeps heat trapped inside....

 

Here ya go!
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/racingsu...thermotec.html

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Doesn't an insulator do both?

You definitely make a good point about the MAF sensor. I think that might help a little more, but the acutal intake charge will be lowered by insulating the top tube.

 

Heat always travels from the higher temperature to the lower temperture medium. Insulators slow the rate of transfer. The only way to "expel" or force heat to move from one place to another is but putting energy into the system in the form of a refrigeration cycle. Obviously you can't do that in a simple manner when dealing with the intake tube, MAF, etc. Your best bet is to keep the heat from the engine from heating the incoming air.

Keep in mind that the rate of air flow thru the intake is such that it's only there for about 1/2 second. It's not going to pick up that much heat in that short a time period. After all, the intake tube is not going to be a couple hundred degrees so the effect on the air stream is minimal.

 

So, an insulator both keeps heat from entering the intake stream and keeps heat from exiting the intake stream. It only needs to accomplish one of those tasks because the ambient temp of the engine bay at operating temp will always exceed the intake charge temp.

I don't understand why you're trying to explain to me what I already know unless I'm missing the point of your post.

 

Just try and keep as much heat away from the MAF as possible. We sand blasted out Injen intake tube and then treated it with a ceramic powder coating. It def makes a diff made a diff.
Once the actually MAF sesnor its self gets hot it really effects the engine and how it runs.
Keeping heat away from the MAF is i big deal as far as performance goes.....keep in mind we are looking at things on our car for 3 hour races....not short little sprints.

 

How are you planning on treating the MAF housing?

 

some aftermarket coatings expel heat from the pipe they are coating, others retain heat. I would definately NOT wrap the intake pipe on any car...its a surefire way to retain heat in the pipe...good for an exhaust pipe, not good for an intake pipe.

Best way to keep hot air away from the MAF is ducting a blast of fresh air to it, hood vents, pr preferably, both.

Have you monitered intake temps Danny? I hav done extensive logging on my car, and so far, the only thing that even makes the intake temps approach ambient has been sustained WOT runs.

 

We coated the intake pipe......wrapped the MAF with Termo tech wrap....and shielded the air that comes through the radiator from going striaght onto the MAF.
Now we have lots of new data capabilities with the PECTEL system is shouold be interesting.
Even more data to look at.

 

I don't need to monitor intake temps. Others have done it already. I just don't understand what you are saying when you differentiate between something that expels heat or something that keeps heat in. I'm looking for an insulator to inhibit ANY heat transfer.

The intake tube is not venting any heat into the engine bay, it is absorbing it. You insulate it to keep the air molecules from absorbing any heat from the engine. Insulating the exhaust is meant to accomplish the opposite. You are trying to keep the exhaust gas energized so it flows faster. As far as I know, both goals can be accomplished by the same insulator.

I'm not trying to get into an arguement with you. Please explain this statement. I can't figure out how I could retain heat in the intake tube, when the ambient air is 0 degrees right now if I am shielding the intake pipe from engine bay temps that are at least 100 degrees warmer at all times.

 

Hey BJ- did you guys get any temp data before and after you coated the intake pipe and wrapped the MAF?

 

I see what you are saying Danny...misread on my part

 

I tried to keep myself out of this debate, as it angers me when far too many people talk about things they know nothing about, and without any proof. Anyway, heres the deal... unless the ambient air temp is higher than that of the engine bay, wrapping your air intake WILL shielf the intake tube against heat from the engine bay, and WILL make the intake charge colder and denser, it is called physics. Wrapping the exhaust, however, is a BAD idea. Wrapping headers is good, because it lowers underhood temps, but think about the physics of gases. If you wrap the exhaust, heat is trapped inside. You want the exhaust to be dense, as the engine puts out x number of cfm exhaust. The denser the exhaust charge, the less space it uses in the tube, and the faster it gets pushed out... if that makes any sense...

cliffs notes
intake wrap DOES help
exhaust wrap hurts