Quote:
Originally Posted by butters167
I went for a 30 min. drive yesterday and came home and parked the Z. About 1 hour later I opened the hood to show a friend the intake and the tubes were still burning hot to the touch after an hour. I can't imagine how hot they get when driving in traffic. I am thinking about heat shielding the tubes and was wondering how much of a difference it might make if anyone has already done it.
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Yup...As Josh and others have said things will heat soak quickly when stopped. Here are some real numbers (I have a Scangauge on my car which reads IAT's in real time)
Typically at steady cruise the IAT's (Intake air temps) will run 8-10 degrees above ambient with a stock intake. This is actually pretty good, but remember, the intake is pulling from the front (Just like a Stillen). Ideally you'd like to have that air at ambient, but you'd need some direct forced air feeds to accomplish that (working on this) as well as some insulation to reflect radiant heat in the engine bay.
I parked the car one day in the sun on a 75 degree day. Came out 1/2 hour later and the IAT's read 150 Degrees..
Within one block, and not even up to speed it had dropped to 100 degrees. From that point on it gradually worked it's way down.
IAT temps typically have a direct impact on the cars timing maps (and consequently power). The cooler the better as the car can advance timing without the potential for detonation. It's a protective measure just like the oil overtemp system.
On my last car (an '08 vette) I had a custom insulated set-up where the car would run at ambient as long as it was moving. It would still heat soak a bit in trafic a bit which you can't get around. Timing would start to be pulled at 86 degrees IAT. The quicker you can cool the air though, the quicker you are up to full power. Anything you can do to cool the intake charge is beneficial IMO...