Heat insulation on Intake Pipe

[shorty123]

Is there any point or benefit in wrapping the long intake pipe with fiberglass wrap or silverised insulation such as that used on manifolds or headers to reduce intake air temperature, thus reducing 'wooly' responsiveness when driving on hot days or slow traffic... has anyone tried this?

Or is there any other pipe option e.g composite, carbon, or similar with less heat conducting properties?

any ideas much appreciated.

[shpub]

Waste of time as everything heats up PDQ in traffic and cools down as soon as the car starts moving.

[philr]

I have done this with silver insulation material. Can't say that I've noticed the difference really. But its the thought that counts.

May be if I could compare side by side I might notice the difference, but since each engine/car is pretty much unique this is hard to do.

I have been considering wrapping the the manifolds in insulation tape to try to cut down the imense heat that my enging seems to produce....even for a TVR.

There seem to be 2 schools of thought on this :
1) it works fine
2) it works fine but moisture is retained around the manifold and rust the manifold.

I'd be interested to hear people's views on wrapping the manifold especially if you have already done it.

[shorty123]

I wrapped the manifold on a stage 3 tuned Ford Ka... Yes a Ka!! I used to own,

The wrap had dramatic effects on performance, it smoothed out the power delivery lovely, and reduced localised heat soak into the plenumm etc.

So come on, now you can rib me about my 1.3l four banger...

(historically i always had bigger cars than this, but it was a little go kart)

[Nevin]

philr said:

I have done this with silver insulation material. Can't say that I've noticed the difference really. But its the thought that counts. May be if I could compare side by side I might notice the difference, but since each engine/car is pretty much unique this is hard to do. I have been considering wrapping the the manifolds in insulation tape to try to cut down the imense heat that my enging seems to produce....even for a TVR. There seem to be 2 schools of thought on this : 1) it works fine 2) it works fine but moisture is retained around the manifold and rust the manifold. I'd be interested to hear people's views on wrapping the manifold especially if you have already done it.

I've just had mine done and it seems to be pretty beneficial. For a start, it stops my left foot burning when I am riding the clutch a lot in heavu traffic. It has also smoothed out the delivery a bit and I could swear that it is now a bit faster as well.

[jamesuk28]

Ive done both on mine. technically the engine will be more reponsive as you have denser cooler air in, and hotter faster gas escaping.

I used just tin foil for the inlet pipe, cheap and just as effective as tape, and that was recommended to me by TMS racing.

Wrapping the manifolds is a different ball game. Very fiddly with them in situ, but does work. dont wrap the main cat otherwise you will cook it.