The prob with the car manufacturers is that they aren't considering pure performance. They have laws to obey, in the US they have CAFE standards, noise reduction and all kinds of other crap that suck for performance. That's why we all tne- to make the car EXACTLY what we want. Some want noisy, some want quiet, we all want more power.
I wrote this for another forum and I'll copy and paste it here.
I have wrapped things in my 13 2.0T engine to try and protect the intake/IC piping from heat but I haven't touched anything that may mess up my warranty in any way. I figure wrapping a pipe is safe. My IAT has come down a lot since I started this thermal management. Sure, I'd love to do a phenolic spacer, bigger IC etc but I want to preserve the warranty.
There's 2 types of heat wraps I have found for my car. Exhaust wrap which is thick woven glass fiber in a roll that you get at auto parts stores. It's pretty expensive and is held on with metal banding. There's also metallic heat-reflective tape with a thin woven glass backing that sticks on. It also costs a lot for what you get.
-Exhaust wrap is good at keeping heat in and insulating piping. It's a good barrier against convective heat.
-reflective tape is good at keeping radiant heat out, but not insulating. Don't wrap hot stuff in reflective tape as it will only help the hot things radiate heat.
I have my Injen SRI piping wrapped in exhaust wrap and covered in refective tape to protect it from the flaming snail next door. That piping was getting hot to the touch before I wrapped it because of radiant heat AND convective heat in that area. Wrapping it brought my IAT down by about 50%. I measure my IAT over ambient after a 30 min run on the highway. In stop and go traffic it changes so much it's hard to get a definite number. Then I wrapped the post-IC upper part of the piping and the TB with the reflective tape. That piping runs right next to a big hot coolant line that radiates heat. That brought my IAT down about 2C. Just by wrapping (I did some trial and error and ended up wasting a $22 roll of reflective tape) I brought by IAT down quite a bit. With the drilled out hood vents and wrap, my warranty is unaffected and after that 30 min run on the highway my IAT stays steady at 5-6C over ambient. After 2 miles from leaving my house with a cold engine I hit that 5C over ambient and it stays there on the hgihway as long as I keep moving.
What else can be wrapped? What about fuel lines? Cooler fuel is also denser just like air and carries more energy- but will it make any difference in that part of the engine bay?
You don't want to use reflective sleeving on hot piping. It just turns the piping into a radiating heat source unless you have insulated the pipe underneath.
I originally wrapped the hot side IC piping with reflective tape and it INCREASED my IAT. It turned the black silicone into a radiator as the reflective material radiated out the heat from beneath. Use refelctive material on the cold stuff or wrap it with insulating material first.
I'm not sure of the brand that I used. I got it at Advance Auto. The reflective tape is silver, comes on a small roll. the exhaust wrap is right next to it in the same aisle (the exhaust wrap is under the reflective tape on the SRI. The difference in heat soak is dramatic, the SRI aluminum tube only feels warm to the touch, before it was too hot to hold your hand on for more than a few seconds)
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