anyone running or looked at any turbo blankets? I find with the intake being right over the turbo it could be a little more efficient if I bring those pre turbo temps down a bit. I was looking at these guys who seem to have a decent offering: https://funkmotorsport.com/product/m...et-b48-engine/
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I want to get a downpipe at some point and considered a coated one and doing a little heat management in the area, but haven't considered a turbo blanket. Seems like something that'd come after an intercooler upgrade. What real world impact do turbo blankets have on spool time in general? I'm curious to research this.

Thank you so much for sharing this link btw. As someone with a Melting Silver Metallic car, I am obsessed with the aesthetic of this, and the company in general!

Added to the parts list lol

 

This was really helpful to learn the benefits, although the design of the engine in its bay would have a huge impact on what improves:

 

I have only recently started looking into it as even with my upgraded intercooler it felt things could be better. I have heard that keeping the housing hotter increases spool response etc but I have not dug into any practical theory. For the price I might just give it a shot anyway, it just sucks the turbo is between the firewall and the motor hindering access a bit. I removed a bunch of the plastic / padding between the firewall and the motor and it seems to have made things quite a bit more accessible but at the cost of things being noiser in the car. I can really hear that hpfp and the injectors from in the car now.

 

From what I've learned, the efficiency of the turbo is based on the delta between the "hot side" and "cold side", and its durability is based on the cold side staying cold. If the hot side is hot then air moves more quickly which spools the impeller faster. If the cold side is cold, more air gets in faster since it's denser, plus the oil and bearings experience less extreme heat cycles and wear down less.

When people measured the effects on spool time with a blanket in the multiple videos I watched, the improvement seemed to be 250-300 rpm earlier for one bar of boost, and in the one research paper with a large V8, there was 140 Nm more torque at a given acceleration point.

Some turbos have heat shields in between the sides for this reason. A blanket is a vastly more effective solution at a vastly higher price.

Then of course because the turbo can otherwise get very hot, blanketing it keeps other parts cool such as intake, oil, and coolant as you alluded to. I could see you being right, since you could drop 400-500C down to 50-100C right below that intake (there's a valve cover heat shield but don't remember what there is for intake so maybe the delta would be less since you'd be improving over an existing shield).

 

Did you end up getting and installing a blanket? I'd love to hear how things have gone.

 

I have a blanket from funk on my R56 and they do work. I installed it under the stock heatshield. The main purpose of the heat blanket/shield is to keep the heat in on the hotside turbo and not spread throughout the engine. On the R series the location of the turbo ( in front of the car as opposed on the F series in the back, Intake and Exhaust location and flipped from R to F series) will melt the intake scoop. The blanket will help with better spooling and efficiency as well. On the F series I can see it being a pain in the A to install the blanket with the location of the turbo by the firewall; I replaced the intake resonator with the Forge one on my F60 (not a hard job) but the clearances back there makes things very uncomfortable.