You need to understand that after driving the metal CAI becomes heat soaked and is well over 200 degrees, I have seen IAT readings of 140 degrees with an ambient air temp of 75 degrees. That is a 65 degree delta. Once insulated my CAI is cool to the touch and is not adding any additional heat to the intake air charge. The thing I am still exploring is if I should bypass the coolant loop in the TB, many have argued that it is there to prevent the TB from freezing in frigid weather, by my understanding is that without it it will equalize temperatures with the intake manifold which is in excess of the coolant temperature. So I think it is actually cooling the TB.

 

Got it Done. Turned out great.

I HAVE NOT DRIVEN IT YET. SO, I DO NOT HOW IT PERFORMS YET. I will need to wait until Monday. My car is a garage queen on weekends.





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Below, you see how the Styrofoam is wrapped around the pipe. The wrap overlaps 50%, which means that we effectively have a DOUBLE LAYER of Styrofoam.







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Now, we begin Phase 2 - wrap the double layer Styrofoam with the Reflectix.







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Now, we use some HVAC Aluminum Foil Tape to cover the seams.





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Notice the seams running along the pipe have disappeared. The HVAC Foil Tape did a great job of blending into the Reflectix. The seams can not be seen anymore.





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Now, we go back outside to squeeze this badboy back into place. I had expected that it would tear in some places as I wiggled it in place. BUT, NO TEARS. I got luckly, plus going very slowly and carefully helped.
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Below shows the filter-side of the pipe. I am laying on my back, pointing the camera upward into the fenderwell. This shows how the isulation snakes it way thru the opening into the fenderwell.

 

good stuff, that is freakin beautiful

 

Excelent job, that looks really nice.
I think you will notice a pleasant difference come Monday afternoon!
Were you able to gather any temperatures prior to the mod? CAI surface, IAT?
I was thinking that I would be able to remove my insulation easily and take some measurements, but i dont want to disturb it at this point. need a baseline to compare

 

UPDATE

I have not noticed much difference. This does NOT mean the mod isn't helpful. The weather has been 65 in the mornings and 79 in the evenings. I feel very positive that the mod will become more apparent and beneficial when the weather is hotter.

I notice a *very slight* improvement at throttle "tip in". Throttle "tip in" means that point where you first open the throttle. To me, this seems logical. As you set at a red light, the air is stagnant (not circulating) inside the cai pipe. The air is just setting there (during idle) in the hot pipe becoming "hot air". But, this mod prevents the air (inside the pipe) from heating up. So, as the light turns green, and you crack open the throttle, the engine gets a first "gulp" of cool (ambient temp) air instead of a "gulp" of "blow dryer" air.

In conclusion, I am glad that I insulated my cai. I had been wanting to do this for the past several months. In the past, within the first month of having my TL, which was during the Texas hot summertime, I learned *firsthand* how sensitive the TL is to excessive heat under the hood. This is why I removed all of my plastic trim under the hood (including ground-effect panels too). The removal of the panels did help to prevent power loss from the summer heat. So, I know that insulating my cai pipe WILL BENEFIT ME IN THE SUMMER (NO DOUBTS).

I wish to thank "pohljm" for motivating me to get it done.

 

Glad I could motivate you to that end! I think that is a great observation about the starting from a light. The other time that it is obvious is after you have driven for some time and then park it. The tube does not get heat soaked and it feels.......fresh when you start out again. yours looks a bit slicker, mine has been likened to a giant marshmellow. I am not worried about the underhood cosmetics, it would be nice if we could measure the IAT so that we could understand the different insulations performance.

 

uhm, when you are at a light, the air does not sit stagnent in the cai tube. It still sucks air in, other wise the engine would die.

 

lol

I was waiting for someone to post this.

Anyway it does suck the air in at a smaller volume so it still has some logic to it.

I still have to decide if I want to put my CAI on my 06. I removed from my 05 but it rains so much and floods so much... The other thing is now this... The CAI looks so nice, now we have to make it look like its from NASA to get better gains, lol.

 

I dont think I'm a big fan of the reflective insulation... Less of a fan of the paper wrapped insulation.

I do think that this has merit. I was looking into carbon fiber stickers or thin carbon fiber that can be bent and molded... Stickers wouldnt hang in the 180 degree temps. Is there a cf printed foil?

But in order to match the contents of my engine compartment it needs to be the rubber material.

I think that this would be a great addition to the the engine spacers and Throttle body spacers... (in addition to the coolant bypass). But on its own.

 

Actually most vehicles at idle use a idle circuit for the air supply during idle. The butterfly in the throttle body remains closed until you step on it. The thought is not that the air is motionless in the tube, but it is moving very slowly and is being heated up by the hot metal tube much more than when its moving quickly through the tube. As for the underhood cosmetics, I guess I dont really much care about that as long as it is functional.

 

Anybody in California doing this? Specifically the East Bay counties in San Francisco

 

San Diego here

 

Actually, I thought that "ayethetiense" was just joking regarding the air intake at idle.

I give everyone here enough credit to know that an engine ingest *some* quanitity of air at idle.

 

from some of his previous posts I think that he was serious, you never know. and you know what happens when you assume..........lol

 

I was looking around and saw this:

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

Mfgr Link:

http://designengineering.com/products.asp?m=sp&pid=33

 

So whats the verdict worth it or not?

 

Still winter... I think the true gain will be in the middle of summer.

 

i would be interesting at looking into this...

 

This with a bag of zip ties will absolutely do the trick.

Also we used to take the IAT sensor from the block and plug it into the side off the cool air tube to gain some ponies. You can get another one for the hole or use a bolt.

 

I'm sorry guys... but you don't seriously think this will have any performance gains do you? This has to be the most riduculous thing I've seen in a while.

1) Black plastic holds heat too, in fact it HOLDS the heat longer than aluminum. Granted the conductive principles of plastic are not that of aluminum, I've touched the stock airbox after a roadtrip and found it just as warm as the aluminum pipe of my Fujita. Heat soak happen under the hood, it's "the nature of the beast". The aluminum dissipates the heat much faster though. Wrapping your intake in insulation will only hold in the heatsoak longer.

2) I fail to see how wrapping a shiny heat rejecting polished aluminum intake pipe with a shiny heat rejecting foil will change... anything. There may be some very nominal gain for those with black aluminum piping... but:

3) Under load (i.e when airflow matters), air spends so little time in the intake tube and there's so little surface area for the heat energy to be convected that the temp could be not be affected. In fact, any heating of the air from intake inlet to manifold inlet is most likely due to the turbulence of the air (heat released from molecules bumping into each other).

The thermoblock spacers seem to work because:
1) The manifold gets a LOT hotter than the "engine bay" sitting on top of the engine as it feels both the conductive, and radiative heat transfer of the engine...

2) When the air enters the manifold the "hot" surface area is greatly increased, and that surface area is a LOT hotter (see above). Anyhting you can do to cool this area down is a plus.

Good luck with your experiment... But if someone shows me any kind of temperature reduction at inlet/ext by using insulation... I'll eat these words and throw my degree away.

 

If only I had a real time OBDII reader then we could measure the IAT temperatures, but I am convinced there is a substantial reduction in the temperature of my CAI and that was before the thermoblock spacers were added. I can feel a huge difference with my hand. the cool air rushing through the tube is no longer heated by the underhood temperatures because the CAI is now insulated with 1.25 inches of dense fiberglass. it works for me!

 

It does work. When I belonged to the jeep boards there was a guy "Dino Sava" who lived in UAE that had done this to his inline 6. We all know how hot it gets in the desert. To prove that it worked he installed a temp gauge in the cold air box that ran to the cab. He stayed colder long after the engine heated up.

You gain approx 1 hp for every 10 degrees colder right? Or some thing close to that. But it does work and the proof is in the pudding.

 

wow i actually found his site again lol.

http://www.jeep4.0performance.4mg.com/ramair.html

 

wow, havent looked around here in awhile....

stagnent is not *some* quantity. have you ever looked at how much air it actually sucks in? if you get a chance, have the engine running and stay by the air intake filter. have a buddy blip the throttle a bit to see how much air it sucks in, you will realize that a good volume of air is actually being forced in when the engine is at idle.

ya i was serious when i said what i said, you need to be careful around here, some people misunderstand the simplest things. it doesnt mean they are not knowledgable about things, it just means that they were told incorrect information in the past. learning wrong is worse then not learning.

thinking about this process again... the air intake tube is really hot when the engine has been running. almost too hot to touch and I have kitchen hands too. it does cool down fairly quickly though after air has been running through the engine compartment inlets.

it may help for a very short term if you were idle for a very long time. pretty much negligible though. the air moves so quickly through the tube that it doesnt have enough time to transfer the heat. and once the car gets moving, the ambient temp in engine compartment cools down quickly since the vents of the engine compartment empty out the hot air.

 

If you guys want an OBDII scan tool to read IAT sensor before and after insulate the intake, I can lend it to you for free, I have Brockway R920. Just be sure you know how to measure all the readings correctly. I will have the scan tool ready on 23rd, I'm still using it for the same purpose, but not on a TL. I'm curious how effective the wraps are.

 

Insulating the cold air box (even the factory one) and the battery are both good and fact based to-do items. These cars are very tightly cowled to improve airflow around the car to meet drag standards- not work perfect for us

We wrap many things on the race car (including the drink box), the airplane and the street car.
Every little bit helps!

Pop the hood after an hour on the freeway or 10 minutes in Vegas and tell me cutting down the "heat soak temp" is not a good idea

Would you care for a condiment with your degree Sir?

 

My boss owns a beechcraft, I've seen his engine bay on one of the many pre-flights we've taken, and there's no insulation on the intake or batteries... and as I'm sure you're aware, airplanes have to be inspected regularly by certified mechanics. You can't just go throw some "certainteed" insulation in the engine bay because you think it's a good idea.

Race cars are different as well. High output engines with no epa standards, probably could benefit somewhat from this, given they spend thier entire duty cycle at or close to WOT . Given I have had a TL for over year, I've been to WOT I think 5 times... I fail to see what a street car could gain.

Bender's example has some good data, but it's from an F350 Ford, hardly the TL's engine layout. Look at the pics of the Ford, over 1/2 the intake tract is physically ON TOP of the engine. The TL's intake (which most here are running a CAI), runs across the tranny and down the fender... an already cooler design.

Again, if the intake was prone to heatsoak, it would happen at idle. An insulated intake will also heatsoak at idle. 10 minutes in Vegas applies here. Radiative heat is gonna get ya, insulation or not. It's like putting a bundle of insulation in the oven, and it will get hot too.

After an hour on the freeway, my aluminum pipe CAI is cold. It's idleing that makes it heat soak due to lack of airflow.

Show me some real empirical improvements on the TL (1/4 mile times, fuel milage increase... something), and I'll take mustard. I have no doubt it works, I'm questioning the value of a few degree improvment, which I suspect will be the maximum improvment.

 

"Bender's example has some good data, but it's from an F350 Ford, hardly the TL's engine layout. Look at the pics of the Ford, over 1/2 the intake tract is physically ON TOP of the engine. The TL's intake (which most here are running a CAI), runs across the tranny and down the fender... an already cooler design."


Ford? JEEP OMG! Inline six. The airbox is running beside the engine not over.

So as long as we are talking about this, what are the benefits of AEM's ICE BOX filter system? I saw that it costs more money that the regular ram/cold air tubes.

 

meh....Im gonna do it. Gain or no gain I think in the summer it would help....

 

At $51.95 it's gonna be one of my cheapest mods. I'll try it next year...if I remember.

 

Ill remind you Ray

All I know is that Ive touched my intake after running it and its fucking hot. So if this in anyway can keep it cooler then what could it hurt?

 

I for one had this done months ago; from winter through summer. Even though the intake still feels hot, my car feels peppy when ever I drive it. Take it for what it's worth.

 

Just bought the materials. Gonna do it tomorrow..

 

trancemission,

Take some pics for show-n-tell.

 

I will

and like I said in the PM, I have some stickers for you as a thank you for that awesome PM DIY explanation...

 

It still is working fine for me, keeps it nice and cool. people thinks it looks like the CAI is covered in marshmellow.

 

Here is an intake shield that looks good too!

It works for intakes 2-1/2 to 4 inch. It is a lace up so it handles curves well and its only $46!

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...10002_84868_-1

 

That's what I have on my intake.

 

can anyone report how it faired through this summer... now that we are moving into the fall???

 

After living with mine thru this past summer, I would not want to be without it. I have the Outlaw thermo plate too, so it is hard to know where to place the credit. I can say this. One evening recently, my MID indicated 104 F degrees. I was a few blocks from home after driving in rush hour traffic, so the car was completely heat-soaked from putt-putting in stop-n-go city traffic for 45 minutes. For a test at a red light, I did a jack rabbit start with about 1/8 throttle with VSA turned on. The two front huge 255 Goodyears let out a hair-raising howl.

Rock on !!!!

As for "holding up" construction wise, it still looks like the day that I install it.

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