As some of you know, in some posts I have said I was going to do a CAI test with a sun shade. If a sunshade can keep your interior cooler during the blazing summer, I figured it had to work if wrapped on a CAI to keep IAT's down.


Results are in!

Ambient Temp: 82* (taken from the GF's passat for accuracy)


IAT temps after 20mins of idle w/o wrap on an aluminum CAI: 104*

IAT temps after 10mins of idle with sunshade wrap: 86*
*** Both results were taken using Neptune after the fan cycled a few times.

Now dont laugh at the pictures as I didnt know how well this was going to work and just used plain old masking tape for experimental purposes.

I just cut into 3" strips and wrapped it up. Its not the best looking pipe, but if lower IAT's are what your after, this is a decent 10.00 fix.



I had to poke a hole for the sensor after this pic was taken.



I still have some fools that keep saying "Wrapping the pipe will hold the heat!" But as we all know, take the heat out of the equation, and your left with cooler temps closer to ambient.

 

Interesting experiment, it looks like you achieved your intended goal.

On a side note you have an amazing clean engine bay

 

Must try this.

 

EDIT: Im thinking of wrapping my battery and keep that from getting hot as well.

 

I actually have a couple of those already.

 

Curious as to what the actual manifold temps are. I see you're using the OBD2 Civic air intake sensor, could you hook up the intake manifold sensor and see what/how the temps are there between the two?

 

Ahh, well Im OBD1 and I would have to solder the other plug to do it. Maybe someone could check with their car.

Im using thermal TB and IM gaskets, so the IM has to be cooler with this wrap as the air will start heating up right at the TB instead of the point inside the hot engine bay.

(You know this already, but its for the noobs reading this)

 

I think you should go for the next step - a phenolic spacer between IM and head - has anyone gone that far? Wrapping the IM? The longer you can isolate heat from your intake charge, the larger the charge entering the combustion chamber will be - theoretically, yes?

 

In the post above yours he said he is already using those for the IM and TB

 

Well they are fools cause you are creating an insulated barrier as to NOT let higher underhood temps heat up the aluminum pipe to begin with, especially a CAI setup that gets cooler air originating from outside the engine bay.

Now when wrapping an exhaust its the other way around where you are trapping in the heat to raise cat effiecency, reduce emmisions, and try to battle away some of the excess underhood temps.

And with the testing you did, it is obvious that the intake air temp was lowered substantially, the real question is....

Does the ECU getting this lower temp reading make corrections within the ECU that benefits horsepower.
Logging the correct parameters with a datalogger and loading those logs into a opensource dyno software will give you that answer.
3rd gear pull from 3k to redline with pipe unwrapped, and the same pull with it wrapped.
Upload those two log files and see which one made more power.

 

Gaskets though - seems pretty thin to stop the soak.

 

You guys feel free to continue this experiment.

Of course, hwy speeds will show better performance.

This can be most beneficial to the boosted people keeping the temsp down after the FMIC


EDIT: The gaskets do help with the soak, but the studs are connected to head and IM. cant do anything about that.

 

OK Just got the car street tuned,

Ambient: 90*

Humidity: 82%

IATs in traffic at a light: 96*
Iat's on hwy speeds 60-85mph: 88*

 

looks like a little mod worth doing.

why not just trick your IAT sensor with a resistor inline . . . it will put a different signal out making the ecu think the air is cooler or warmer . . in turn the ecu will richen it up or lean it out a little. . . put them on a 2 way switch . . and it could be normal operation and modified operation . .

 

^^
Because its not needed.


Tricking the computer doesnt change the fact that hot air is entering combustion chamber. Especially in boosted engines. Lower Iat's means a little more timing, lesser chance of detonation.

 

cool experiment. interesting to see intake temps dropping substantially with just some wrap.