Thread: battling heat soak

You may think it doesnt help, but my hot pipe(at the intercooler) went from being too hot to touch -> to hot but still able to hold.

Heat cant leave an aluminum pipe that is surrounded by air hotter than it. (especially when the radiator fans kick on)

This all makes sense. In my case, my hot side piping runs right alongside of my downpipe and behind my radiator, so I heat wrapped it down to the point they diverge from each other, and it brought the temperature down a lot. It could still be a lot better, which is why I am going to heat wrap my DP soon.




That was my exact though... but Cliff and Ben seem to disagree which is what was throwing me off. So many different positions!

Ok with that setup I can definitely see why wrapping it would help on the hot side. My piping goes down and under the car, it may help where the down pipe is at, but the rest is better off unshielded.

I will wrap my cold side with aluminum reflective material though. At least the part in the engine bay.



Ben is talking about the fiberglass exhaust wrap as a no no, cliff is talking about not wrapping the cold side at all.

if you wrap the manifold, down pipe and add a turbo blanket your under hood temps will go way down. I agree with cliff do not use fiber glass wrap on the cold side. I never wrap my intercooler piping but have though of using a thermal reflectant. My manifold down pipe are coated and the turbo has a blanket. As for sitting in traffic I have a switch that cuts my fans on if I am sitting for extended periods.

Reflect-A-GOLD 010391 | Purchase DEI, CryO2, Ny-Trex, Boom Mat & SPA Turbo Products | Design Engineering, Inc. - Thermal Performance Products use this stuff on the cold side

How much radiant heat does the engine bay actually have? I would figure most of the heat is conduction heat.

Next thing we'll see on VW's is intercooler piping socks

What engine management are you using? You should be able to compensate for IAT temps by modifying ignition and or fuel. If you can datalog, that will help you take a look at what the ecu is doing at the hiccup.

FWIW, heat soak on a turbo civic looks a little like this.

Doesn't colder intake air help? I always thought putting my intake facing down under the battery helped because heat rises and just getting it lower helped. Also the second you are moving it draws first air. I always left the splash guard off. dunno never been a fan of intake up under the hood like that.

Bingo. A reflectant would be perfect for the cold side piping. Fiberglass acts as an insulator, and the mere surface temperature of the wrap will affect the charged air temps. It will do nothing more than heat the piping you're attempting to keep cool, negating any real cooling abilities.

Thermal reflective coatings and wraps on the other hand (think gold foil) will definitely help radiant heat, and can also assist with convection transfer.

As an experiment, take an egg or something, turn the oven on at 400 degrees. Wrap the eggs or whatever in a heavy duty foil, then wrap another in the fiberglass wrap. Bake them both for say 10 minutes.

When you pull them out, immediately check the internal temps of the eggs with a thermometer and I am willing to bet you'll see cooler internal temps with the foil wrapped egg than with the fiberglass wrap.

Fiberglass is an insulator, but all it really does is keep heat from transferring. Think of house insulation, it doesn't only help in the winter, it also helps in the summer keep the house temperature be independent of the ouside temperature.

If you have fiberglass wrap on the cold side, colder air running through it wont be able to get out, and hotter air from the outside wont be able to get in.

unijabnx2000, since you have an IAT already, want to do an experiment? Take the temps with fiberglass on cold side, no fiberglass, then reflective wrap? I would do it, but with my OBD1 ECU I would have to attach a temp gauge, etc. etc.