wooman

Alright so the biggest problem I see with aluminum intake pipes is that aluminum is like a heat sink. It is very easy to heat and cool but being in the engine bay its more of the heating up. Heat soak is a real bummer at the track when you can see your car getting slower. I thought about a plexiglass box around the intake pipe and filling it with dry ice or even a regular ice pack which might work for the track but its rather pointless or a hassle on the street. Is there some sort of rubberized coating you can give aluminum so that it does not soak up the engine bay heat? I figure every bit helps. I hate the way wraps look on intake piping (dont mind it on the header as weird as that sounds) so what else can be done to intakes to help prevent heat soak?

turbosocks

you don't like the look of wraps, but mentioned a plexiglass box full of ice? LOL



nothing is going to help very much as even if the intake pipe is rather hot, the volume and velocity of the air entering the CAI, especially when racing isn't going to heat up much.



intake pipes aren't like the exhaust, where you are trying to keep the exhaust heat from heating up the engine bay.



notice how some WAI/CAIs use a heat shield around the filter only. this is to keep that initial intake air cooler than the engine bay; but the piping is never shielded.



the best thing to do is get the filter somewhere to get air farthest away from the engine bay (inside splash guard behind fog light)



you could powdercoat/ceramic coat the piping, but its not going to make much of a difference.



also, another thing to think of...



when you are racing, there is actually a significant amount of air flowing through your engine bay, so its not like your CAI piping is just going to keep heating up, the air flow will help cool it down.



im assuming your N/A but not sure. but if your turbo, i wouldn't coat the pipes at all, as it'll hold in heat.



coating it in something might make a difference, but it will most likely be negligible. i would almost guarantee that any coating on the piping will not help any noticeable amount.

steelcoffinx3

Intake pipes can pick up a bit of heat http://autospeed.com/A_109587/cms/article.html, I head coatings are only half as effective as wraps (for exhausts).

187sks

From the IM to the TB heat soak from the head will contribute a lot more to the temp than ambient underhood temperatures. A phenolic spacer will cool it down a lot. If you haven't, do the TB coolant bypass mod, that'll do more than the phenolic spacer, plus it's free.



If heat is your concern, take care of easy heat sources instead, namely the exhaust manifold and cat if stock, or header if not. Ceramic coating or heat wrapping them will do more than any treatment to the intake parts. The engine itself is warm, but as mentioned above when actually driving the air flow through the engine bay is pretty significant so it's not much of a problem.

01steve

can i recomend truck bed coating?



that's what i did to prevent heat in the CAI-...



i would NOT reccomend the spray can one (that's what i did it wasn't what i expected in finish, thickness, and long-term durability). if i were to do it again i would use the brush on formula instead for thicker coverage.



you won't feel a butt-dyno difference but if you hot lapped your car and felt your truckbed coated CAI-... you'd be able to feel the difference in temp.



plus it's durable and paintable.

Stocker

I'm not sure if the coolant in the (relatively small) throttle body is contributing as much heat as direct contact with the flaming-hot cylinder head across the big fat mounting flange, but both are worth considering.



Long, long ago, Random did some testing with an honest-to-goodness high quality thermocouple setup and phenolic spacers make a huge difference in intake manifold temperature. The engine's intake air is actually a source of manifold COOLING until you get the manifold colder than the ambient air in the engine bay.

Random

Actually, I proved the opposite. That with NO spacer, and NO phunky cooling of any kind, at WOT, the air temp INSIDE the intake manifold runners was 2-3 degrees above ambient. that's it. 2-3 degrees. That's not going to affect your HP/torque to any measurable degree.



Yes, the intake air temps did rise when idling, and when traveling on city streets/freeway @ less than WOT. But within 2 seconds of WOT, the air temp was back down to 2-3 of ambient.



you can coat, you can use heat spacers, you can use ice. But it won't matter. @ WOT the air simply isn't in contact with the hot metal of the intake system(CAI,TB,Intake Manifold) long enough to heat up to any appreciable amount. Is it worth your time and money to save 2-3 degrees? Naw, didn't think so.

Stocker

but for those 2 seconds, the temperature was _______



Hypothetically, that's your entire 60 foot time and then some.

Random

If you stage, and raise your RPM, you're drawing cool air into the intake system before you even launch...

Ryanator

If your worried about heat soak... Whats the hottest thing under your bonnet? Your exhaust manifold, where it be standard, extractors or a turbo manifold.



I had my turbo manifold ceramic coated in the turbocoat, and then heat wrapped and I was able to hold my hand on the manifold at WOT!!! next, you want to get rid og the excess hot air before it heats everything up... I removed my undercar engine splash gaurd and installed a set of bonnet spacers. get yourself a open grill, with maximum airflow! Then mount a reverse mount air scoop. As your driving the air passing over the bonnet will suck the hot air from out of the bonnet - much like a venturi effect.



Hope this helps.



Cheers Ryan