QUOTE=Eagle;3666928]Plastic is a pretty crappy conductor of heat, pretty sure the aluminum tubing is going to maintain cooler AIT's across the board[/QUOTE]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuck33079
Are you sure? Usually plastic has a much lower thermal conductivity than Al, so the long tubes would transfer more of the engine bay heat to the air within the tube. Granted, I'm not sure what type of plastic the stock intake tract is. I think the best case for an intake would be a long tube setup with the reflective gold foil wrapped around the pipe, but the way the factory intake is set up is pretty good for an OEM.
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I think you're both on the same track, just going different directions. In this case, I think Chuck is correct... you WANT the non-conductive plastic inside the engine compartment because it will resist heat soak.... if the plumbing was seeing ambient air, you'd rather have the aluminum piping to dissipate any heat.
That being said, I don't think it matters much one way or the other when the car is in motion and the engine is eating. Thin walled AL tubing is not going to change the air temperature all that much I don't think.