Heat Management Testing and analysis (DEI heat wrap, Turbo Blanket, Reflective Tape)

[SRDFTITAN]

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!!

[SRDFTITAN]

So next after gathering the Pre Wrap data at idle I went for a drive. Now I know I could have taken the temps and various speeds, as I'm sure it would have reflected different temps I decided to go with an average speed of 60 mph (plus I didn't want to get pulled over) lol. This part of the test was straight forward, I took temps in the same location as last time; between headlight and turbo manifold, between radiator and engine and between the intake manifold and fire wall.

During this test I noticed a considerable drop in temperature in the engine bay with an average temperature reduction of 73 degrees. Here are my graphs below.







Stay tuned for more test! Next test will be after the heat wrap is applied to the turbo manifold.

[SRDFTITAN]

Now the third test that I did was noting the temperature differences after the heat wrap was applied. My turbo manifold was wrapped with DEI's new titanium heat wrap. I have a equal length manifold and all that was wrapped was the 4 runners and the tube running to my waste gate. Immediately a reduction in overall under hood temperatures were noticed (at idle). Another thing that was noticed was that the rate at which the under hood temperatures climbed were much slower then before (no wrap). For these comparisons I used the highest number recorded and the same amount of time was used to gather the results to try and keep the results as true as possible. Now on to the results:

Between headlight and turbo manifold:
Before Wrap:189 degrees
After Wrap:130 degrees
Reduction:59 degrees

Between Radiator and Engine:
Before Wrap:180 degrees
After Wrap:129 degrees
Reduction:51 degrees

Between Intake Manifold and Fire wall:
Before Wrap:202 degrees
After Wrap:133 degrees
Reduction:69 degrees (highest reduction yet!!









Hypothesis: Well for the most part it's pretty straight forward, however the major reduction behind the intake manifold has me thinking. Are the temps higher behind the intake manifold because it gets trapped between the intake and fire wall? Or is it because of the lack of air flow, because of aerodynamics? This is a question that I would like to find the answer to because judging by the results it has some bearing on IAT's. Now I would agree that most of the reason for high IAT's comes from the head heat soaking everything in it's path, but apparently the under hood temp influence has maybe been a little under rated? I don't know but the numbers don't lie. A reduction in IAT's was noted in all three places that temps were taken! The highest in IAT reduction was 14 degrees!! Now thats not a huge reduction, but when you boosted every little bit counts.

Performance Gains: I originally wasn't going to include this in the review but I kind of have to. After wrapping the exhaust and getting the idle temps I went for a little drive so that I could get the driving temps. Well it started raining and I didn't know if that would have skewed the results so I didn't record any data, however I did noticed a difference in my turbo spool times. Now I'm not saying that its a night and day difference but the reduction in spool time is noticeable. I pulled out of my neighborhood and gave it gas like I normally do, the car started pulling a little harder. I changed gears and tried it again to make sure that I wasn't imagining things. By the time I got to third gear I realized that I was imagining things and that the car was actually pulling harder. I wasn't able to record a datalog as I left my laptop at home. I will however record one when it's not raining. Stay tuned for more, next will be the 60 mph driving when its not raining.

[SRDFTITAN]

Got a couple of shots, I forgot to take a bunch of photos the other day so I had to run outside and mock it up how I had it the other day, there is one photo where the probe is resting on a radiator hose, it was not like that the other day, this is just for reference so you'll know where I had the probes.

The digital temperature probe, can measure temps up to 600 degrees.



My Neptune RTP in the back ground, lap top, note pad and digital thermometer.



My thermometer at work.



My oil temp gauge at work.

[SRDFTITAN]

The weather on Saturday is supposed to be mid 50's with zero chance of rain. I should be able to finish the rest if the testing then so stay tuned!

[SRDFTITAN]

Got my turbo blanket in the mail today, talk about perfect timing! Now it is a ebay version, but I'm hopeful that it will still do pretty good. Currently I'm in talks with DEI to try and get one of their's for testing purposes. It's clear skies outside and starting to warm up to our testing temperature so let me get off of here and do some more testing. Here is a quick photo:



Will have some test results in a few hours and I'll be conducting the test on the following:

60 mph roll (post wrapped manifold)
Turbo blanket under hood temps (idle)
Turbo blanket under hood temps (60 mph)
Charge piping temps IAT and probe (idle/60mph/WOT)
*Depending on charge piping temps will determine if Reflect A Gold heat tape is applied. If heat tape is applied before and after data will be posted. Thanks everyone for the ideas and support.

[SRDFTITAN]

Ok got some more results, sorry it took so long but I was able to do the following test over the weekend:

-60 mph post turbo manifold wrap temp test
-Turbo blanket underhood temps @ idle
-Turbo blanket 60 mph test
*Spool time improvements noticed
-Charge piping temp test @ turbo (14" away from turbo) (idle)
-Charge piping temp test @ turbo (14" away from turbo) (60mph)
-Charge piping temp test @ turbo (14" away from turbo) (WOT 12.2 psi)
-Charge piping temp test @ throttle body (idle)
-Charge piping temp test @ throttle body (60mph)
-Charge piping temp test @ throttle body (WOT 12.6 psi)

I did include pictures of my data logs for the aforementioned test. I was not able to get closer to the turbo during the charge piping test because I was doing this in the driveway and couldn't get to it. Time, money and a lot of effort has gone into this, so hopefully this information will be useful to all! On to the results.

Temperatures dropped dramatically after the turbo manifold was wrapped while cruising at 60 mph. Temperatures dropped from 113 degrees to 58 degrees for a total temperature reduction of 55 degrees from the probe behind the driver's side headlight.



Next I moved the probe next to the radiator and drop in temperature was noted there as well. Before temperature readings came in at 102 degrees, this time after the manifold was wrapped temps came in at 56 degrees for a total reduction of 46 degrees.



Next I moved the probe between the intake manifold and firewall and a drop in temperature was noted there as well. Temperatures before the manifold wrap came in at 138 degrees, after the wrap temps came in at 87 degrees for a total reduction of 54 degrees.



An average reduction of 66 degrees in the engine bay while cruising at 60 mph, that is pretty substantial.

[SRDFTITAN]

Ok next up I installed my turbo blanket and conducted an idle and 60 mph roll temperature test in the same manner as the last test.

The first temperature taken was from behind the driver's side headlight at idle. An average reduction of 10 degrees was noted.



I then moved the probe behind the radiator and an average reduction of 5 degrees was noted.



I then moved the probe between the intake manifold and firewall and an average reduction of 9 degrees was noted.



The turbo blanket netted a total under hood temperature reduction of 8 degrees at idle.

[SRDFTITAN]

Now came the 60 mph test of the turbo blanket. This test was conducted a little different then the rest, as the temperature taken from behind the driver's side headlight was about the same as the temperature taken (Post Heat Wrap @ 60 mph). After taking the initial reading behind the headlight and noticing that it was the same I did not go further and take the other two readings.

The temperature noted was about the same as the temperature noted during the 60 mph roll (post mani wrap). There was actually an increase in temp by 1 degree. So I think it's safe to say that the turbo blanket did not help us here although my oil temps were higher during this test.

*An increase in spool time was noticed during this test (butt dyno) lol, but I will compare data logs to confirm.

[j0nbunklah0m]

awesome write up. keep us posted.

[SRDFTITAN]

Thanks sure will

[SRDFTITAN]

Have a few updates. I was able to build my Cold Air Intake box for my turbo this past weekend. Came out pretty nice. I made a template out of card board and then went back and transferred the template to some sheet metal that I had. All I have to do now is purchase a 3" hole saw and weld some tabs for mounting. I'm also going to fab some 3" piping from the intake box to my turbo. This should lower both my charge piping temperatures and intake air temperatures for sure! The intake box and pipe will be wrapped in the reflect a gold heat tape after more data is taken.

























Keep checking back for more updates.

[SRDFTITAN]

Got the cold air intake box done today, forgot to take a picture after I ran to autozone and grabbed another coupler, but its on there. Not really sure if my mind is playing tricks on me but it does feel like the car pulls a little different. I'm pulling fresh air from the frame rail right now, but I'm eventually going to run a pipe to the existing fog light housing for even colder air. On to the pics (oh yeah I ran out of the gold heat tape) and don't laugh at my crappy welding. Will have some data very soon to document any changes in my IAT's.