Wrapping the lower IC tube with rubber neoprene

1FSTBRD

Registered User
I was perusing the insulation aisle today at the local hardware store (Canadian Tire up here for us Canucks), and was looking at some options for the discerning gentleman who may like to politely keep heat in or out of a certain place. On the cooler early spring days here, heat soak from the engine bay doesn't affect the intercooler tubing too much (even when idling), but the hotter days really make everything that much hotter in there. It's been a bit of a freak spring here.....feels like an October day one day, and then the middle of July the next.

I had an "a ha!" moment....I found some 2" wide black rubber neoprene that looks like it will fit the bill....it's about 1/4" thick, and is meant for the bottom of garage doors. It stretches nicely, and the bonus is that for $16 a roll, it's 9 meters long, and that's before stretching it out. I wonder if I might not be able to double wrap it the whole lower IC tube.

I have a DIC with fan, so the lower IC is always cooler to the touch than the upper IC tube. Next question: do you think that a layer of reflective aluminum foil tape would work well, sandwiched in between the two layers of rubber? I'm thinking that the heat that does make it through, would get trapped in between the outer layer of rubber, and the foil. I wrapped the rubber fuel lines in reflective aluminum tape on my Mustang and it reduced the fuel temps by a significant margin......but i'm going for a more stealth look on the IC tubing. At any rate, I think that I may still place a layer of foil right where the exhaust manifold is, at least on the part that faces the manifold.
 
I'm pretty sure it might catch fire where it's close to the exhaust. You would be better off with header wrap if you want to try something.
 
Yeah, I don't see that material doing anything but cooking on the grille...

I use this (AZ has it, etc.) on the lower IC tube (above the exhaust manifold), held on until I want it off by stainless steel tie-wraps.

If that manifold ever comes off, it's getting wrapped before it goes back on.
 
Thanks for the suggestions! For some reason, I thought neoprene was fire retardant up to a very high temperature.....turns out that it's fire resistant until 212 F, which isn't good enough in this application, and the resistance to oil was something that I thought would be a good quality (might stay cleaner). The only reason why I didn't just go with the header wrap in the first place, is because some have mentioned that once the wrap gets wet, sometimes it rusts out/ corrodes what's beneath it. Has anyone noticed any adverse effects on a daily driven car? The Thermo Tec stuff seems like a great idea, too.
 
I'd say the short distance and the velocity of the air you will gain approximately nothing in cooling be doing this
 
I'd say the short distance and the velocity of the air you will gain approximately nothing in cooling be doing this

I don't look at any of this as a cooling aid...the goal as I see it is to block radiated heat from the manifold when airflow thru the engine compartment is low.
 
I don't look at any of this as a cooling aid...the goal as I see it is to block radiated heat from the manifold when airflow thru the engine compartment is low.

Yeah, that's the way that I look at it, too. On my car in particular, the temp gauges read just below the "n" in the norm, to about in between in the "n" and the "o", when the car is idling for small periods of time. Bumper to bumper traffic, the temp shoots up to the middle of the gauge, or just slightly above the middle mark. When the car is moving, however, the airflow cooling effect really has a huge effect.....i've seen the temp gauge drop to noticeably below the "n" (to the point where I wonder if the gauge is working, but it is). We can't trust these gauges as absolute gospel, but when the rad fan kicks in, the cooling temps seem to drop pretty fast in what seems to be generally proportional, overall, to what's on the temp gauge. I've noticed that the double IC, fan, and removing the cowl strip on the hood have helped this year, as compared to last year when i'd got the car in stock form......even on the colder days, where the temp gauge doesn't seem to read as hot.

Being a daily driven car and sitting idling in bumper to bumper traffic (especially in the heat soaked summer months), that heat from the engine bay inevitably slips into the lower IC, and I can definetely feel it on the butt dyno. If want to reduce any possible heat soak. I was even thinking about wrapping the return plenum around the temperature sensor, and seeing if that has any noticeable effect, or whether it's trapping hot air from the lower manifold in there. Probably about time to invest in a infrared heat temperature sensor gun. :D

I've ordered a roll of black graphite header wrap, in the meantime.
 
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That FLIR thing that i'd seen in another thread was pretty cool! It shows just how hot everything really is.

I had wrapped my lower IC with some Thermo Tec header/ heat wrap, and had drove the car in regular traffic (and a couple of spirited runs on the highway) and the metal below it was as if the car wasn't even on. I'd wrapped the return plenum in the rubber neoprene (because the header wrap only had enough to cover the lower IC tube), and it kept the return plenum metal underneath cool to the point where it was basically as cool as the lower IC tube. It's working! I don't think that there was a huge gain of power or timing that was pulled due otherwise to heat soak, but every little bit helps.
 
I did my lower IC pipe when I had one. I bought the reflective coated wrap. Being this is the already intercooled air its a good idea especially running that close to the exhaust manifold. You are not only insulating the heat in and out you are also reflecting it. In my opinion you need both.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEI-010416-...-FT-/181552851899?hash=item2a4564abbb&vxp=mtr

I was worried that the exhaust wrap was going to trap the heat in the lower IC tube, but it isn't. It's working wonders to actually never allow the tube to heat up almost at all. After driving the car in some hotter summer temps, the header wrap is working well enough that any reflective tape may be redundant. Even when the car is sitting out not driving, baking in the sun, the rest of the metal in the engine bay is much hotter than the lower IC tube. That's another thing in summer.....by the time you get in the car on a really hot day, the ambient temps are no longer ambient temps anymore, because the metal in the engine bay has heated up and starts to give off the radiant heat that starts to raise the underhood temps.
 
It's working wonders
Actual, recorded, repeatable temps or it didn't happen :)

Reason I say that is my lower tube was cold enough to lay a hand on before I did anything, and for reference, 140° F is pain threshold, so... A stock lower tube could easily be that without too much help.
 
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I still wish that I had bought the infrared heat gun! :)

At this point last year, in terms of just driving the car in heat soaked temps, it felt like the car had almost lost a gear. It just wasn't as fast as it was in spring, with cooler temps. This year, in that same timeframe, the car still pulls as if it hasn't lost anything (if it has, it's not much). Could be the overall boost cooling mods, but last year, my lower IC tube (on the car in stock form) reached basically the same temps in the engine bay as the rest of the metal in the engine bay.
 
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