TMIC Heat Shield Mod
 

Driving around on these hot summer days in CA, I was tired of the heat soak I would get from my TMIC. However, I am unwilling to go FMIC or Vmount. So, I had an idea... why not find a way to lesson the heat soak?

So this is what I did...

I covered the bottom side of the intercooler and heat shield with some thermal reflective type stuff. I found and purchased a 24"24" sheet of this:http://www.designengineering.com/cat...s/reflect-cool
https://www.designengineering.com/si...flectacool.jpg

Along with an Infrared gun so I can measure the before and after (sorry I have no IAT readouts)

First, I drove the car about 30 minutes to my friend's house where I did the mod.. got on it a few times, sat at a few lights, got to his house and popped the hood, and used my Infrared gun to measure the temps right smack in the middle of the inter cooler.
Temps were 136 degrees.

I then proceeded with the mod, basically it was really simple:

I used a can of brake clean and cleaned the crap out of the inter cooler and heat shield to make sure the adhesive would stick.

I used a pair of scissors to cut out the Reflect-A-Cool into sections to make it easier to apply.

Used a 3M vinyl squeegee to apply it
http://pk.b5z.net/i/u/6111076/i/blue...gee_001_i2.JPG
(you could also just use your fingers and it would work fine, I just happened to work at a sign shop at one point)

Finally, a razor to trim the edges.

About halfway done.. (if your wondering where the side bracket is, I never had it in the first place since I did the swap and never cared for it anyways lol)
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...630_155828.jpg

Complete..
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...630_162219.jpg

After installing it back on the car, I took the car to another friends house that was just about the same exact drive cycle: 30 mins of driving, getting on it, multiple stop lights.

The results? 118 degrees measured at the same exact spot of the inter cooler. Meaning an 18 degree drop.


Worth $15 bucks and 30 minutes of your time? To me yes, seeing how I want to keep my TMIC and I won't be boosting more than 10psi anyways. Your call, but I am very happy with the results :nod:

Possibly my lower intake manifold is next :D

It's a game of inches.

Good job.

Very nice and cost effective.

Thanks! Every time I park my car I hop out and check the temps lol. Still very happy with the results! Now time for more boost!

I bought a roll of this stuff for various tbd projects. After seeing your results I think the first will be making and wrapping a divider panel to keep my rad from heat soaking my v-mount :icon_tup:

try slapping that stuff on the underside of the hood as well as the top of the intake manifold. Also, add a layer of foam around the rubber seal to prevent even more heat soak.

I've seen a bunch of 3rd gen guys use this reflective heat tape/sticker on their intake manifolds, even fuel rails. Over the winter I was prepping for my spring/summer overhaul and figured: "why not? buy some, give me something to do, and slap it on my waiting manifold". So it's on my car now. I can't say I've logged anything or used a thermometer, but I can't see that it would not help. Many of us put heat wrap on the exhaust and we know that stuff works, this can't be that far off. :)

My V-mount now shows intake temps (at the throttle body) of 110F in 90F weather. 118F is pretty damn good for a top mount! Great info there, I'm sure I can find a bunch of uses for this stuff :)

Looks like I have something to add to the turbo project!

+1. I know what I'm doing this weekend.

silly question from an na guy here. with the new heat shield in place, and adjusting the boost pressure. how much power are you putting down with the tmic? one of the reasons why i don't want to boost is, people say the tmic is only good for about 250rwhp. i wouldn't run a fmic, probably the same reasons why Funkjaw refuses to run one and vmount setups are expensive. so im curious on how much your getting out of it now that you were able to reduce heat soak? just curious sincing "if" i were to boost, i would prefer to run the tmic.

im building a bridgey na motor, in order to boost on that i would have to run a much larger turbocharger (hotside of .97 or bigger to not hurt the motor) at the same time, i would probably only run 10lbs or less boost (as a worse case scenerio in the future if i decide to change racing classes and go for more power, boost the high compression blah blah blah). i wonder if i could get away with using the stock tmic after heat shielded?

also, by what studies have shown, the hood scoop doesn't really cool the intercooler because of the high pressure area. has anyone thought of opening the scoop towards the windshield as a cowl induction setup, it's been proven over and over that its a low pressure area and should pull air under the hood to the tmic, any in put? just some thoughts and ideas i've been thinking about.

Funkjaw, thanks for taking the time to build a cheap and effective heat shield for the tmic and logging before and after temp numbers and sharing them with the community. great job!

as said previously, im an NA guy but still appreciate your R&D data :)

I'm not the best person to answer your questions... but I can tell you I am currently running stock boost (creeps to 8psi in 4th and 5th) and the TMIC has no problem handling it. Once I get my turbo back from BNR (stage 1) I am going to be running 10psi (~250whp), which I read is close to the max the TMIC should be handling. There are aftermarket TMICs that you could run... but for me living in CA, the closer to stock looking I have the better lol.

I plan on running the top mount with 350 whp. Auxiliary injection as well though. The link you provided was no good, any similar things I could find locally? My dad works hvac and has a silver foil tape used to make duct work air tight. Not sure if that would have similar properties or not.

No it will not. And have fun running 350whp on the stock to mount, heat soak aside physics will be working against you.

Again, I am not an expert, but my better judgement would advice against running 350whp on a top mount... maaaaybe if you added an inter cooler sprayer along side the aux injection.. but even then, I don't think it is physically possible to get 350hp out of a top mount. This mod is more so intended for people who like me, live in CA and want a mild 10psi setup due to emissions regulations and dick head cops.

Here is another link: Aluminum tape is fine for low heat applications... but it probably isn't suitable for the amount of heat it will be exposed too sitting on top of the engine practically. If you think about it, it doesn't take much to burn aluminum foil, and once it burns, it loses all it's heat reflective properties. The I stuff used, is not only good for a continuous 400degrees Fahrenheit (with the ability to withstand 2000 degree spikes), but the adhesive it comes with is also a high temp adhesive; so unlike the aluminum foil tape, this stuff will continue to stick for a very long time (3-5 years fully exposed to heat).

Anyways, good luck with your project!

hmmm...damn. I thought i read that it was good for 300 hp or so, so I figured with methanol/water injection it would be good for a little more. I'll see what it does when it gets tuned and report back!

^I'd be more concerned about the restriction of running 350whp worth of air through the 2"(?) diameter intercooler piping.

Good job on the mod! Decent cost/benefit when aftermarket TMIC's are a few hundred and FMIC/VMIC's have their own issues.

Why you want 2 run a top mount on a bridgy at only 10 psi?
With a 1.15 divided and front mount with a 76mm i see full boost by 4000(19psi)
Do a streetport.

Actually the 2" piping is the least of his wories the outlet for the stock top mount is an awful design. Sen2two modified it and had some success, but he never ran a turbo larger than stock, so who knows what it would have made?

I'm currently datalogging enough airflow to be in the 300-315 whp range with a TMIC. It's on an extra rich tune (10.5-11.0 AFR), boost is only at 10 psi at redline, and the water injection is not yet set up, but it has not shown to be a significant airflow restriction. With a good 10 seconds at full throttle, IATs will climb 50-60F, but the 250 cc injector in the end tank will take care of that issue.

Where exactly are you placing the water injection?

D'oh! :facepalm3: Guess I need to go read more build threads. I'd be curious to compare post turbo, pre-intercooler air temps vs a stock turbo @ 12psi. But, if post-TMIC AIT's are held in check, I guess it doesn't really matter. 1 point for TMIC's!

According to these calculations 2" piping will support 585cfm before becoming hindered...
intercooler piping size - Honda-Tech

which according to the supra guys is 40.43 lb/min.

Since a rotary engine requires 1.92cfm to generate 1 whp dividing 585cmf/1.92 = 305 whp

This is not to say that more air cannot flow through 2" piping, simply that doing so is inefficient as it will require greater and greater velocity, creating more heat and potentially creating less power despite higher boost levels.

Water injection will help deal with the heat, but its airflow that makes power and 2" piping is working against you beyond that level.

Even reworking in inlet and outlet of the tmic to just 2.25" would boost theoretical capacity to 740cfm / 1.92 = 385whp. Although none of this takes into account the limitations of the tmic core itself (iirc pressure drop of 1 psi even at stock boost of 6 psi :( ) Or the flow-hindering design of the outlet.

Food for thought.

Very good info! I guess I will be only making 300ish HP until my budget will allow for a larger intercooler...

I wish this info was more easily available!

I may have to try the stick-on heat shielding to see what the datalogs show. If I drive somewhere, and let the car sit, AFM and IAT temps will tend to be around 100F (on a 70-80F day). So everything under the hood heat soaks, and it takes awhile of driving before cruise temps return to closer to ambient.

Right at the back of the intercooler. It's in the end tank about 6 inches from the outlet. The location should allow a little time for the water to vaporize before reaching the IAT sensor.

I expect to see the IATs drop a good bit, but most of the water will not vaporize until it gets past the intake ports. If I end up using 50/50 water/meth with a larger injector, more of it will vaporize sooner, which should generate lower IAT numbers from the sensor.

There are some claims of 400+ whp on cars with TMICs and AI.

This thread mentions BDC making 440whp with that setup: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...cooler-624172/

There was another vendor that mentioned a customer making 400whp on a T04E TMIC setup with a lot of methanol. I can't remember the name at the moment.

I don't doubt that it'll become a restriction at some point, and that the pressure drop probably gets fairly large at high boost levels, but it's been so-far-so-good with 25% more airflow than my stock turbo produced (the stocker made 12 psi tapering to about 8 psi by redline). I do wonder how it will behave once I up the boost to 1 bar. I'll share the info I find.

Since I have to pass smog every 2 years, any custom intercooler setup wouldn't be CARB legal, so it would run the risk of the tech failing the car during the visual inspection. I'd have to buy an overpriced name-brand FMIC kit to get a CARB sticker. No thanks.

There's always the option of using no intercooler at all, and just a whole lot of 50/50 water/meth. But if you do that, you'd better get a nice progressive controller with built-in fail safes (aquamist). Bad things can happen when AI systems fail.