beneficial upgrade to metal/aluminum turbo intake pipes.

I have a PD 150 Turbo inlet pipe(TIP) and I was curious what could be done to help the fact that the TIP is made of aluminum and runs very close to the exhaust manifold, and after a bit of driving around that pipe(TIP) can get very hot, which cannot bo good for the air going into the turbo being compressed. cooler air in is better.

I bought some exhaust wrap and some silicone heat spray: http://www.designengineering.com/products.asp?m=sc&cid=3

I got them from Advanced Auto Parts, but almost all auto parts had them.
I painted the TIP with a few coats, then wrapped the TIP with the header wrap. it is a long job, waiting for paint to dry and the wrap to dry(it suggests soaking it in water before wrapping, and that is a highly recommended step by me) I put it in the oven and baked it dry as I was kinda in a hurry.

anyway, initial indicatiuons of the project seems very favorable. I cannot get my IAT(ait intake temp) as per scangauge above 165*F and I have had a few WOT runs to see how high it will go. I have hit 180*F on an uphill offramp but that was only once. I was able to routinely hit 180-200*F before doing this. so the initial observations says this is a worthwhile project to do if you have a metal TIP.

I know I need an intercooler, but I am having issues getting it installed, so it is sitting in my trunk till I can figure it out.


Eric B

Pictures of yer OMI after all this work?

I dont have a camera, since a friend of mine, Cough<oily> cough stole my memory card. but as soon as I get it back, I will post some pictures.

I wonder if heat-reflecting paint alone would do some good. I'm not up for heat-wrapping myself.

180 degrees IAT? Mine never goes over 120. How much boost are you running?

What temps do others see?

I'd be down for doing this mod this weekend...whatyasay?

turbobooster said:

180 degrees IAT? Mine never goes over 120. How much boost are you running?

What temps do others see?

Click to expand...

All these cars with high IAT's are a: running aggressive tuning and b: in very hot environments.

The AIT sensor is post turbo, so your numbers are completely useless using that as a gauge.

You need to use a laser temp meter and check it after a hard run, or put a temp prob in the inlet pipe itself. If the car sits it will heat soak, but under driving conditions, i bet it makes little difference to wrap it. But glad to see you making an effort to try it out. good luck

Oliver, as I agree with most of what you are sayiong, I do disagree a little bit.

as Far said, we are down here in Very hot environments. I was in Milwaukee a few weeks ago, and and AIT were very low as compared to here on the Gulf Coast and that was before the wrapped TIP. just environmental differences, that is a Major difference.

as to the effectiveness of it, you have to remember the proximity of the TIP to the exhaust manifold. one has cold air one has very hot air. the TIP being metal soaks this heat up quickly.
AND YES, the sensor IS post turbo, that I know, but if you have cooler pre-turbo air, then the turbo is compressing colder air,per se. yes this being a not effective way to gauge it, BUT I know what my scangauge is telling me. the AIT is Cooler than before the wrap. the only difference is the wrap, because here it is ALWAYS HOT. mid 90's High humidity, everyday. dont think I can be anymore clearer. running 15-25* cooler seems good to me.

And Turbobooster: I am running RC2 about 13-17psi normally

Eric B

interested in this thread as i was just looking at these intakes and heat aside for now has anyone felt any improvement in performance with these intakes stock 2.5 or 3" as i live in a much cooler climate and freezing to death is more my worry

As IBW likes to say, and I'll concur, doing air mods won't necessarily give you more power, but it will allow you to run more fuel smoke free. You could also look at it from an EGT standpoint. The more air you have, the less your egt's are, or you could just add more fuel and bring the egts back to where they were, but with more power now...
That being said, there also comes a point where thermal management could come into play as Kook has demonstrated here. I'm not sure if I would isolate my TIP from the heat, I may isolate the heat from the rest of the engine bay though by wrapping the exhaust manifold and even the beginning of the DP. I'd love to put turbo blankets on but fear they hold the heat inside the housings, which I don't think is a very nice thing to do to your turbo. Sorry if I went a little off topic here. Nice results Kook! You've indirectly lowered IAT's significantly.

besides from me being a total slacker. I am posting the pic of the TIP wrapped.

the later 150 TIP's are exactly the same but made from plastic for this very reason!

Ry

I had this problem with my aluminum aftermarket TIP. I initially installed it and was concerned with how close it was to the exaust manifold. After my initial run my upper intercooler hose elbow was so hot I took it back off. I got some of the header wrap to wrap the intake and put it back on, things were much better with the wrap. Since my package came with so much wrap I got carried away and put three layers on it. I still have lots left over.

Without the wrap my TIP pipe was too hot to touch for more than a second (even up near where the flex hose mounts to it)

Did you see a drop in IATs after wrapping it?

I bought 15' of 1" wrap to cover my PD150 T.I.P. Think this is enough? I figure it will only give me one layer, hope that does something.

As soon as I bought it I planned to wrap it; just way to close to the exhaust manifold for the aluminum to not pick up some serious heat.

Farfromovin said:

All these cars with high IAT's are a: running aggressive tuning and b: in very hot environments.

Click to expand...

I've hit 220 on a stock car, stock tuning.

milehighassassin said:

I've hit 220 on a stock car, stock tuning.

Click to expand...

In Colorado!? Thats insanely hot. I geuss you have some seriously long uphill grades to deal with... My stock car never got over 160F in flat Michigan.

So my 15' of heat wrap only got me this far, but I think it does the bulk of the critical insulating:

I think you got the most critical parts that are close to the exhaust.. if you want to go further overkill, you can paint it with the ceramic heat paint just to do a little overkill like I did. did you soak the wrap first? I think that is the best advise for this procedure as it makes it kinda stretchy and then it wil dry and shrink tight to the pipe.

Eric B

shizzler said:

In Colorado!? Thats insanely hot. I geuss you have some seriously long uphill grades to deal with... My stock car never got over 160F in flat Michigan.

Click to expand...

It was a hot day as well but the long pull at full throttle up the hill, was the cause.

I keep seeing people do this using heat wrap for EXHAUSTS. A better solution is to use insulation with a reflective (shiny) coating ,like aluminum foil, to reflect thermal IR.

Someone on e-bay is selling a good thick fiberglass insulation with reflective coating for like $5. I bought some to use on my intake mani and some other stuff. You get much more, better insulation, and much lower cost. I think they are 1' x 5' sheets. I'll try to find and post a link. I was really impressed with how fast the person shipped it too.

this is exactly what I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/EXHAUST-TURBO-PIPE-HOSE-GAS-LINE-INSULATION-1-x-4_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1171Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c39Q3a1Q7c240Q3a1318Q7c301Q3a1Q7c293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem140315524392QQitemZ140315524392QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

orion2.0 said:

I keep seeing people do this using heat wrap for EXHAUSTS. A better solution is to use insulation with a reflective (shiny) coating ,like aluminum foil, to reflect thermal IR.

Click to expand...

Hmm thats a very good point. A very obvious point. doh.

I suppose I only take short trips which would still make this wrap somewhat effective. But on a long highway trip or fully heatsoaked around town on a hot day, the wrap is not going to keep the temps down forever. And then once the pipe gets hot its only going to stay hotter.... depends on the ability of the intake air to keep the pipe cool I geuss. Too bad I sold my thermo book.

Insulation works the same in both directions. An insulation that is made to keep heat in, is also going to keep it out if the heat is residing from outside. A thermal wrap is made to keep COOL (heat) out. So it insulates the manifold from allowing a heat exchange. The opposite is also true. Cold air in the intake will also be insulated from hot air coming off the motor.

I found this thread interesting and was going to order some of that fiberglass insulation stuff. Then I did some thinking and was wondering if anyone has any insight into perhaps plastic coating the intake pipes/manifold.

A friend of mine had a WRX STI and under the hood, the pipes are coated in a red plastic stuff. It kinda looked like the spray on truck bed liner material. Would painting the intake manifold and OMI with that help to insulate it better, or should I still go with the fiberglass stuff?

here is a pic for reference. You can see the red pipes and they are painted in a special coating.