using heat tape around IC tubes???

vivisex666

Registered User
the thought occured to me the other day while i was ordering a fan for my IC. has any one done this? i'm sure it can't hurt, but do you think it will actually help? i'm only asking because it'll prob be a PIA to get at the lower IC tube.

-ian
 
some guys have wrapped the lower pipe and i intend to also. the lower one is the one that is important to keep cool. i don't think there would be much benefit wrapping the upper tube. the heat from the SC needs to be able to radiate off the upper tube.
 
NMxr7SC said:
i don't think there would be much benefit wrapping the upper tube.QUOTE]

Yeah, sorry, i could have worded my question better. i only intended to do the bottom.
and my friend suggested wrapping the headers as well.
 
I've actually taken it a step or 2 further. Here's what I've done to my lower IC tube:

First I had the inside blasted with aluminum oxide which doesn't take a lot of material out, but it does smooth it out considerably.

Then I sent it to Jet Hot and had it coated inside and out with the sterling ceramic coating.

Then I took you basic header wrap and wrapped the portion of the IC tube that passes by the exhaust manifold.

All of this cost me about $150 including all shipping costs. With out the shipping (if you live near a Jet Hot facility) the cost is right around $100.

I have a thread on this modification and you can see that some think it is a waste of money to have the coating applied. So far I have found it greatly beneficial to the operating temps of my SC. Here's the link to the thread:

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45554

If you want more information on it, I can provide it. Let me know. I'll say that so far I am very happy with the results.
 
wow, that was a very *heated* discussion you had there. sorry, couldn't resist the bad pun.
i don't really know much about coatings, but i wouldn't be able to send the tubes anywhere anyway. it's my daily driver.
and as Mike said, <b>it takes a 10degree drop in intake air temp to gain 1 hp.</b> so, i wouldn't want to spend too much money on something that prob wont have much of an effect. but to throw a little wrap on for under $20. . . why not?
thanks for the link and everything though.
 
vivisex666 said:
i don't really know much about coatings, but i wouldn't be able to send the tubes anywhere anyway. it's my daily driver.
and as Mike said, <b>it takes a 10degree drop in intake air temp to gain 1 hp.

First off, my SC is my daily driver as well. So don't let that be an excuse. I simply purchased an additional lower tube and had the stuff done to it as I had the money. I think the tube cost me $25 or so. The blasting was $15 and the coating was $45. Shipping was the killer on it. But I had it back in less than a week too. So it didn't take long at all.

Now, performace-wise, I have yet to test what gains I got from it. Last time at the track I ran a 15.580 on a very humid night. There will be plenty of those left in the summer, so I may make another trip to see what the difference is. What I do know is that it takes much longer for my SC to get warm, and when it does, it cools down much faster than before the install. My cooling fan has only kicked on a couple times since I got it installed and that was simply because I was idling and not moving. The 10* for 1 hp thing may or may not be that accurate. Think about the power the SC has on a 50* morning and then what it lacks on an 80* day. That is a 30* difference in temp. Compressing air (assuming no pulley change) will be at a constant rate for a set rpm. Therefore the temperature change will also be constant once the air is compressed. I don't know about you, but 3hp I won't feel, but I definately feel more power on a cool morning than I do a warm to hot day. So I have to think that temperature fluxuations affect hp much more than 10* for 1 hp. But that's just me thinking too.

Bottom line is that anything you do to help isolate the lower IC tube from the radiant heat of the exhaust manifold will help. Operating temps will go down and performance will go up. It's just a matter of how far you want to take it and what you are willing to put into the SC. I didn't let a couple nay-sayers deter me from doing something that to my knowledge, no one else has. Who knows what benefits will come if no one is going to try. Mike has his opinions on ceramic coatings. I have mine. Obviously they are different, but that's okay. Given the correct coating type I think that they are excellent. Paint that contains ceramic is only good for keeping the paint on the item when subjected to high heat. It has very little insulation value at all.

At anyrate, I think I've said enough now. Anything is better than nothing. I definately recommend the header wrap at the very least. And from what I have gained from the coating, I would also recommend that too.
 
007_SuperCoupe said:
The 10* for 1 hp thing may or may not be that accurate. Think about the power the SC has on a 50* morning and then what it lacks on an 80* day. That is a 30* difference in temp. Compressing air (assuming no pulley change) will be at a constant rate for a set rpm. Therefore the temperature change will also be constant once the air is compressed. I don't know about you, but 3hp I won't feel, but I definately feel more power on a cool morning than I do a warm to hot day. So I have to think that temperature fluxuations affect hp much more than 10* for 1 hp. But that's just me thinking too.

now that you point it out, that doesn't seam right. so i looked it up. from the magnum powers page, a tech article about the intercooler system: <b>"Power increases 1% for every 10° F of air temperature reduction."</b> so, for a 250hp engine, with a 30 deg intake temp change, the hp gain would be 7.5hp
 
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