intake wrap

asam · Post by **asam** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:19 am

should you wrap your intake? does it provide any performance gains?

Big P · Post by **Big P** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:59 pm

I assume you mean the same type of wrap that you put on headers? I would have to say no. Reason being is that any heat soak or radiant heat that is being absorbed into the intake will be insulated by the wrap. Using an aluminized warap may help to resist radiant heat, but the heat that is absorb by being connected to other parts of the engine is still there. When you say intake do you mean the intake manifold, or the air filter/tube that goes to the throttle body? As the air is passing through the filter and intake tube, and travels down the manifold runners, it is absorbing heat. The best thing that you could do would be to move the air inlet/filter to someplace where is can recieve the coldest air possible whether it be in the fender etc.

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:17 pm

What is a wrap?

AcingTeam · Post by **AcingTeam** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:23 pm

I'm pretty sure it's this:

BosnianLanos · Post by **BosnianLanos** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:13 pm

That, gentlemen, is aluminum foil.

I asked this same question earlier. They do make special intake wrap but it is hard to find and expensive. Header wrap does not work because it is designed to keep heat in rather than out and not efficiently at that. Aluminum foil doesn't work because dammit, it's aluminum foil. What I used on my intake is a 1/8 in. thick foam wrap called Carmacell or something. It is made for either cold or hot, and is used for isolating hot and cold plumbing pipes running next to eachother. I did a test. I got my intake temp sensor out and put it in my intake unwrapped and then blew at it with a hot hair dryer (heat gun would have melted the sensor). Then, I wrapped it in foam wrap and did the same and the resistance was quite different translating to a few degrees cooler. So yes it does work. Only problem is that with the foam wrap, the heat accumulates slowly but also dissipates slowly vs. regular aluminum intake. That doesn't matter however, since a warm intake always helps during start up.

I do agree however that the best way to have a cold intake is to have the coldest possible intake charge (i.e. ram air from front bumper) so that the air doesn't have time to heat up. It always helps with the horsies.

BTW. Carmacell AP/Armaflex Insulation Tape #TAP18230 can be found at almost all hardware stores and sells for like $6.00 for a 30 foot roll (wraps like 8 intakes). It is foamy so it can also be used as dampening material if your dash or something is loose.

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:53 pm

but after the engines running for awhile wouldnt it eventually get hot anyways, then stay that way longer?

AcingTeam · Post by **AcingTeam** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:11 am

BosnianLanos wrote:That, gentlemen, is aluminum foil.

I knew that, I didn't know that they had a special type of wrap.

BosnianLanos · Post by **BosnianLanos** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:10 am

but after the engines running for awhile wouldnt it eventually get hot anyways, then stay that way longer?

Thats where the insulating properties come in. The foam never allows the metal to get as hot as without foam. And if it does stay that way longer, who cares, you don't need your intake to be cold if your car is off. And if you turn your car back on, it doesn't shock the system, as your intake is already warm.

Think of the ocean. It is always about the same temperature, but never as hot as the air and even during the night it never completely cools off. That is because water has a very high specific heat (chemistry). The foam wrap works in the same way, it has a higher specific heat than the metal. It takes longer for it to get hot and it can't get as hot as the metal, it just absorbs a lot of heat and can't shed it, but in theory it should be colder than bare intake.

I'll get my heat probes and do some more tests this weekend.

Hope I was any help.

Damir.

kinkyllama · Post by **kinkyllama** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:38 am

Ah i see. Would this even make a noticable difference?

daewooluvr · Post by **daewooluvr** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:24 pm

I doubt it would make much of a difference. Best bet is to make a cold air intake. That way the colder air rushing through the pipe will keep it cool so that the warm engine air doesn't have any effect on it. Another thing you can do is powdercoat or ceramic coat. These resist heat.

BosnianLanos · Post by **BosnianLanos** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:19 pm

I agree 100%. Cold air rushing 2 ft to the intake manifold isn't going to get hot even if you have hot coolant wrapped around the intake. I just put this in A. If I'm stuck in idle, I don't want to overheat. and. B. Since I have a Honda intake, it has no brackets, adn the foam works really well to dampen the smacking noises. It looks cool too.

It won't make much difference one way or the other, it is just with static air (idle in traffic) will be cooler and you might be able to prevent overheating by a few minutes.