I noticed some of you guys are wrapping your supercharger intakes with thermal insulation, presumably to isolate the intake air (from SC to engine) from engine heat. This would make sense if the engine compartment temperature at speed is significantly hotter than the compressed air, but is this really the case? If the engine compartment is actually cooler than the compressed air inside the intake on the way to the MAF, then you may be hurting yourself by preventing any heat transfer the other way, that is from the hot compressed intake air to the cooler air under the hood.

 

Well, basically, the reason why some of the blown guys wrap their pipes (mwuha) is so that the heat xfer from the engine wont affect the air. the compression alone from the blower bumps up the air temp well into the 90 degree F range on a "decent" day. i know of this when i used the MDM on skimax's blower.

also think of it as one of those thermal bags for food. keeps drinks cold, keeps hot soup hot.

well if you thermal wrap all the intake piping, then theoretrically, it will keep the "cooler" air inside. also the piping is metal! it retains its temperature longer than say aluminum because AL has a faster heat xfer rate than say mild steel (which the stillen pipes are made of)

to reduce the effect of heat due to compression and from overall engine heat soak, options include water injection (ask Keving), Air to Air Intercooler (which i'm about to do) or Air to Water aftercooler (i30krab).. all of which is precautionary steps to make sure your car doesnt blow or bog due to hot air into the engine.

also, it will help significantly if you use a cold air intake for the S/C. Keving said he got a 0.5psi boost gain just by using cold air taken from outside the fender wall...

i never could get a constant boost reading, too busy driving, but when i touch the pipe leading to the SC inlet while at 3k rpms, the CAI piping is cool to the touch.


--Cheston

 

The CAI is a great idea, but no one will provide installation\modification details!! It's like a secret power-adder or something. Come on guys, share the wealth! I don't want to have to rig up something crappy, not after you guys already went through the ordeal .

 

SC CAI how 2

 

Hmm, after looking at it on Iansw's car, I think the wrap does more harm than good. Feeling the wrap and the heat, seems to me it can cause more heat to stay in, more heat soak, IMO.

 

That's for 4th gens. Who cares about those cars, I need instructions for the 5th gen .

edit: I need specific information on the MAF, vacuum line, and length of tubing (is it the same for 4th and 5th gens?).

 

that's cause IAN has it on inside out..lol

 

ur explanation makes sense assuming the blown air is COOLER than the engine bay air when the car is in motion. But i think what he meant was, while the car is moving, and if the engine bay air is actually COOLER than the charged air, the wrap may be doing more harm. i guess someone could do a project to prove this, measure charged air temp, and engine bay temp, and find which is cooler while car is moving.

 

That is exactly what I was wondering about. Even though the SC piping is routed over the front exhaust manifold, once the car is moving and getting fresh air into the engine bay the temperature outside the pipe should be close to ambient air temp. So using heat wrap would prevent cooling of the air charge under that circumstance. Whether or not it has a significant effect is arguable, though.

I have access to temperature measuring instrumentation here at work. Maybe I'll do some testing after I get my SC installed. Sounds like a fun project.

 

Umm, no he doesn't. where did you get that from? It is reflective side out, just like it's supposed to be.

 

I have actually been playing around with this lately. And, in my opinion, the charge pipe insulation does more harm then good. I have a dual channel Autometer Phantom intake temp. gauge installed and I have been driving around with an oven thermometer in my engine. I have been moving the oven thermometer around to different spots in the engine bay.

In a nutshell, you would want your pipes wrapped if all you did was stop and go city driving (but then you are not boosting, so who cares?). But as long as you are moving at a decent speed with few/no stops, then you definitely don't want your pipes wrapped.

When not boosting and driving in stop and go:
Intake temps reach about 100^F
Engine bay (around charge pipe) reaches 150^

When cruising on an open road/highway and boosting:
Engine bay temps (around charge pipe) do not exceed 90/100^, usually equal to ambiant plus 20^ish
When boosting, intake temps quickly rise to 150^

Therefor, I don't think thermal wrap on the intake charge pipe is beneficial.