Sorry Sleepless, but strut brace heat wasn't the issue in this thread. Like I said, the tape solved the hot stress bar problem. In hindsight I should not even have mentioned it, since my question was about insulating the airbox (to which your answer was "remove the stressbar"??) Touché, I guess, but not very helpful. Saving people from making the wrong performance part decision is surely a nobel undertaking, but you could always start a new thread to do that...

 

You are right. Sorry for contributing to hijacking your thread. I missunderstood the issue.

I've deleted my posts...

Motor on

 

Getting back to business-
Insulating (not insulting) the airbox is not a bad thing to think about given the heat of the engine compartment.I know that my strut bar is super hot after I park the car- even hours later it is really hot.
One idea is to enclose the airbox completely. Most of the intake boxes come with sides but no top- they rely on the bonnet to provide the top cover. I wonder if anything can be done to construct a tight fitting top to the intake box and in the case of a strut bar- maybe have a layer of insulation on that cover. Also have a notch in the cover to fit a strut bar for those of us that have one. If the top cover is clear like acrylic then it doesn't have to hide the nice large filter of the intake.
Just some ideas to get us back on track.
I can fry ham and eggs on my hot strut bar- damn I was surprised

 

True, but if you do randy's airbox mod you should be getting enough air to pass through that it is minor that the box itself is getting hot, but if you are a perfectionist then yes, it would help but probably not enough to measure the gains... :smile:

 

I wonder if a thermometer sensor can be placed on the air intake to measure the relative temp of the air at the point of intake. Wire the sensor back to the dash board and display the running temp. This would give some idea of the cold or not so cold air intake either run stock or modified. Obviously hot anything would be worth minimizing if possible.
When I felt the steel intake box wall after the car was parked it remained hot to the touch for a long time.

Lets just make a big snorkel out the top of the bonnet for some really fresh cold air.

 

A few weeks ago I installed a Pipercross intake on my MCS and after the first trip out with it I opened the hood and felt the cone part. That aluminum "heat shield" wasn't doing much shielding (aluminum is actually a great conductor of heat), so I decided to try this. I actually picked up a piece of scrap fiberglass house insullation with an aluminum foil backing from a construction site. I cut it to size and placed it on the outside, facing the engine. Looks jerry-rigged, but I definitely noticed that the interior surface of the intake was not as hot (and therefore not heating up the air as much).

The intake manufacturers need to be making their heat shields out of thick plastic, not metal. HINT HINT if you're listening.

I wonder if this brush-on heat shield stuff would work... any comments?

_________________
[img]albums/album25/aln.gif[/img] see my MCS at VinceAndJessica.com
Alta 15% pulley, Stebro exhaust, Pipercross intake, Progress 22mm rear anti-sway bar.

 

>>Bwaaahaaaaa <<< laughing at myself
>>
>>I know it's time for bed, because when I read this thread's title, I saw:
>>
>>Will insulting the airbox help?
>>
>>You're a damn no-good lousy airbox, ya can't even keep this expensive cool air in.
>>
>>Goodnight everyone

Too funny Kim.

 

I think I've decided on this adhesive backed heat shielding. 9 bucks for enough to do the pipercross intake box.

_________________
[img]albums/album25/aln.gif[/img] see my MCS at VinceAndJessica.com
Alta 15% pulley, Stebro exhaust, Pipercross intake, Progress 22mm rear anti-sway bar.

 

>>Hello Minhune,
>>
>>Here is the link to the strut bar we now sell:
>>
>>http://www.diamondracinggroup.com/ca...rut_brace.html
>>
>>Customers can modify there Battery box cover on the NASP or the ECU cover for the "S" .
>>
>>We will be releasing a full carbon fiber Battery Box and ECU cover that work with this strut brace soon.

A quick question on the strut braces, seeing as how hood clearance is at a premium, does the brace push into the padding on the underside of the hood at all? From the looks of things, the batter box on it's own may just touch the underside.

Steve

 

Sniece: My Mini Mania brace required some channeling of the hood padding. Not a big deal, though. JR