Alright so the biggest problem I see with aluminum intake pipes is that aluminum is like a heat sink. It is very easy to heat and cool but being in the engine bay its more of the heating up. Heat soak is a real bummer at the track when you can see your car getting slower. I thought about a plexiglass box around the intake pipe and filling it with dry ice or even a regular ice pack which might work for the track but its rather pointless or a hassle on the street. Is there some sort of rubberized coating you can give alumium so that it does not soak up the engine bay heat? I figure every bit helps.

 

Maybe something like a exhaust manifold/header wrap... http://www.jegs.com/c/Exhaust-Header...10261/10002/-1 94

 

most of the heat soak occurs in the manifold. watch your IAT with and without your intake piping attached.

also, it takes about twice as much energy to change the temp of a piece of aluminum as it does steel.

If it really mattered the way to do it would be to put the intake piping inside of another larger diameter with air in between. The outter pipe would increase in temp but it would have a difficult time passing the heat through the air gap to the inner pipe.

 

i did some research a few years back on this. i just decided to go with some low-gloss black engine enamel hoping the layer of heat resistant paint would have some benefit. mostly for aesthetic purposes though

a quick Google search did bring up some of the stuff i had found before:

DIY instructions (using stuff from the hardware store)

purpose made materials

or any type of durable, flexible, weather-proof insulation with an outer shell of aluminum flashing... neoprene, ceramic fiber... whatever is handy.

 

One of the companies make a cooler that pumps co2 through it that goes inline with the piping. Your can do that or I have seen people use freon the same way.

 

Thought about header or heat wrap but if the manifold is more the problem then what is the best way to cool the manifold? Dry ice in a box around that? Basically I'm trying to replicate cold weather conditions because the motor is a completely different animal when its colder out.

 

I'm sure both the tubing and the manifold play a part in intake heat rise. consider solutions for reducing the under-hood temp altogether. vented hoods can be a little conspicuous.. but effective. wrapping the exhaust manifold can be a double benefit- reduce under-hood temp and improve exhaust scavenging efficiency.

i've also heard of guys undoing all of the small coolant hoses that route through the manifold to help bring it to op. temp. that could help as well.

 

I know about the manifold coolant lines, the Hondata intake manifold gasket blocks the passages off. But lets think of why it has coolant lines going into it. Technically speaking if the air was too cold the fuel wouldnt atomize from what I gathered. There was talk of using dry ice on the intake manifold. With carbs they said no way, with EFI they said it might still work. My question is even blocked off wouldnt there still be a lot of heat radiating into it? Figure the head gets really hot, which is connected with studs and nuts to hold the manifold on. Maybe that alone is enough to heat up some of the runners so the fuel atomizes better? Im not an expert so Im not too sure all the facts behind fuel atomization. Just a thought though.

Also to the exhaust wrapping, yes it is effective at reducing under hood temperatures and improves exhaust flow (hotter gas, faster moving). But I have seen many headers crack from the extra heat build up. I think we need a how to effectively reduce intake and under hood temperature safely to improve power.

 

The hondata img will work. If your worried about everything being cooled down just run methimg injection.

 

Now its $50 and I see "knock offs" on ebay. This is when I wish I still had access to a CNC machine, the things I would be making now. Its so simple to use, maybe I will buy a machine. For now I think I will buy someone elses though. Is the $50 worth it?

 

Knock off img's are made the same as the hondata.