I've searched and searched and searched and have never been able to find before and after testing of heat wraps, turbo blankets and heat radiating tape with actual numbers to back up any claims. I'm not being paid by anyone but just wanted to see if any of this stuff works and if it does, how can I use it to not only lower under hood temperatures but to also lower intake air temperatures.
I purchased DEI's new Titanium Heat Wrap to use on my turbo manifold, waste gate dump tube and down pipe. I purchased a turbo blanket designed to fit on a T3 turbo. I also purchased DEI's Reflect A Gold heat tape to apply to my intercooler and piping. Lastly I purchased several Wireless Digital Thermometers with probes to gather and record my temps.
I'm starting off by logging the under hood temperatures at idle, at a steady average speed of 60 mph and a WOT pull to show any differences. I'll be placing probes between the driver's side headlight and turbo manifold, radiator fan and engine, and the intake manifold and firewall. All probes will be measuring air temperature only and not surface temperature. Probes will be arranged to not come in contact with anything but air.
The total amount of data that I'll be recording during every test is:
1. ambient air temp
2. probe temp
3. engine coolant temp (ECT)
4. oil temp
5. intake air temp (IAT)
I'll be conducting the Overall Under Hood temps in the following order:
1. No wraps, blankets or tape (record temps idle/60mph/WOT)
2. Wrap turbo manifold (record temps idle/60mph/WOT)
3. Apply turbo blanket (record temps idle/60mph/WOT)
4. Wrap down pipe (record temps idle/60mph/WOT)
After recording all of the above data, I'll then start taking temperatures of the inside of my intercooler charge piping. The probes will be inserted in the following locations:
1. turbo inlet without filter or tube
2. turbo outlet
3. intercooler inlet
4. intercooler outlet
5. throttle body inlet
Depending on if the temperatures gathered on the inside of the charge piping is less than the temperatures in the engine bay, reflective heat tape will be applied and further testing will be conducted to note any changes. The goal would be to reduce pressure drop and intake air temps. The ambient, probe, ECT, oil, and IAT temps will be recorded during this testing as well to note any changes.
Test Subject:
Purchased Items:
The other day I started recording temps under the hood (hood closed) at idle with no wraps or anything at all to gather my base line readings. The ambient temperature that day was 54 degrees. Probes were placed in the locations described above and the following was recorded. Fan Eng. means how many times the radiator fan kicked on.
The first thing that I noticed with the probe between the headlight and turbo manifold was that every time the radiator fan would kick on the under hood temperature would rise very quickly. After the fan would cut off the temp would lower a few degrees but never as low as it was before. The fan would then kick on again and the temp would rise again and would usually rise even higher then what it was before.
Now after placing the probe between the radiator and engine I noticed something a little different. The temperatures were still rising drastically when the radiator fan kicked on, but after rising the temperature would then go down a few degrees (radiator fan still running). I would see numbers like this:
157 degrees, fan kicks on temp rises to 169 degrees and then drops to 167 degrees before fan cuts off.
Now after placing the probe behind the intake manifold the results were much like the ones taken between the headlight and manifold except much higher. The first thing that I noticed was the higher temperatures, in fact they were the highest temperatures in the engine bay! Of course when the fan kicked on the temperatures would rise every time except the temps would just peak out and not fall back down. My early theory was that maybe the heat is trapped between the intake manifold and firewall, causing the higher temps.
Hypothesis: I can see now how effective those custom setups that you see on S2000's can be. The setup I'm talking about is when custom fabricators direct all the air that passes through the bumper, intercooler and radiator and channel it up and out of the hood, keeping that heat out of the engine bay. I was seeing temperatures increased as much as 12 degrees when the radiator fan kicked on, this may not be a lot, but when your boosted and IAT's are everything that 12 degrees means a lot!! Especially when the highest temps recorded were right next to the intake manifold!! I'm sure if someone could fabricate something similar to what you see on S2000's on a Civic/Integra it would help. Let me know what you guys think and feel free to give me ideas on other ways to do this and stay tuned for more!!