it isn't noticeable bro since its on the inside the top of the uim is not covered oh and the manifold is cerma coated in silver.

 

+1 I made a set a few years ago (LIM depicted) and it dramatically slows down the heat soak into the manifolds. Coatings and/or reflective insulating tape can only likely help.

Your observation is fundamentally correct. Where thermal management really makes a difference is by helping keep throttle response sharp while amidst stop & go and part throttle driving, etc.. At that point, airflow is relatively slow and it will heat up--leading to that awful mushy throttle feeling that accompanies high IAT's. With the insulators in place, the UIM & LIM are much slower to heat up and will cool back down nicely once driving at speed.

Additionally, I vent heat that has built up in the intake tract by circulating air out a BOV located at the Greddy elbow. This helps prevent and clear IC heat soak while driving in traffic and keeps cooler, denser air on tap at the throttle plates.

The idea is to have a practical, systematic approach to thermal management, keeping everything in the intake tract as cool as practical. As an added benefit, underhood temps stay at much more manageable temps. Aluminum has a rather high specific heat, and pound for pound, conducts and holds much more heat than cast iron.

 

speed of light- can you post up where you got the material from?

 

Also interested in the spacer material. Sounds like a good idea.

I really wish I had done this when I did the vacuum line job.

 

Someone should do a run of spacers, I'd buy one!

 

You can source it through McMaster-Carr in various sized sheets and thicknesses. IIRC the trade name is Garolite. I have used 3/16, 1/4 and 5/16 thicknesses, all with good result. While the material is very strong under compression, it is brittle and will chip if not cut properly; therefore, I suggest buying extra and anticipating a practice run to perfect your cutting/drilling technique.

The phenolic material is very flat and so you can run it without gaskets (if desired) against flat machined surfaces using a small amount of sealant--I use Permatex 'aviation form-a-gasket' (also a phenolic product) with good results. Hylomar is also a good choice. The forgoing allowing for easy removal and reuse. You can, of course, use other sealants, but removal/reuse may be more difficult and you risk breakage.

 

^ speed of light, u want to make up a couple lets of lim to block and lim to uim "gaskets" and sell em on the for sale section or as a group buy? i know there's at least 5 of use that want these.

 

Albeit expensive, I wonder the benefits, if any, of a full titanium intake manifold.

 

I'd recommend against using garolite G10 or G11 for a gasket. It's fiberglass so it's a good insulator and it handles high temperatures but it will not seal well since it's so hard and you're likely to end up with small pieces of fiber protruding out of the cut edges which you definitely wouldn't want getting sucked into the engine. Maybe I'm not understanding - did you just run it as an insulator and use a gasket on either side of it? It would work well for that minus the fiber issue.

Teflon is a little more compliant and is good for high temperatures - that would be my choice without thinking about the problem too much. Take that for what it's worth.

 

Use Garolite 'grade XX' (NOT G10 or G11), it is paper based product which machines freely. I use it on the LIM to engine without a gasket--just a small amount of sealer as noted above. Works fine, no leaks, has held up for several years and is reusable. Temperature ratings are not an issue on our application.

The Garolite 'grade XX' does not cold flow--it is absolutely rigid and will not smoosh down; as I mentioned, it is suitable for use against other flat, machined surfaces with only a small amount of appropriate sealer. You can also use it with gaskets if you wish, works fine either way.

I would not recommend teflon for compressive applications as it does cold flow and will slowly smoosh down requiring periodic re-torquing.

 

Well, they are not particularly easy to make nor would they be cheap, especially on a small scale. If there were enough of a demand at a price that would support the project, I would consider making a production run for a group buy.

 

The only place I can still find an active link for the phenolic gaskets is Gizzmo USA, and I can't determine whether it's a UIM or LIM gasket. Anyone know which, and whether they are still available>?

I'd try out the UIM, because if it blows it's easy to fix, but not the LIM... too much trouble if there's a problem.

 

I also have the phenolic spacer between the LIM & UIM, and I too did this a few years ago:



You can't really see it when installed:



Also did my LIM the last time I had it off, but used the fiberglass backed, silver stuff:



Lastly I have the FEED vented hood. I've noticed that this trinity of mods helps prevent heat soak on the manifold, as it's not as hot to the touch when I pop the hood. I relocated my air intake sensor to before the intake elbow, so I'm not sure the numeric value of the effects.

Yeah, because you see so much of the UIM's underside, and so much of the LIM's outside when the engine bay is all put together.



Oh, and its more important how they look, rather than how they function. Have fun with your "pretty" manifolds that are more prone to heat soak than our "ugly" ones...haha

 

If you ceramic coat your manifolds, use phenolic spacers, and apply a reflective tape you win at everything forever.

 

Grade XX makes sense. Good point about cold flow, that is the caveat of not spending any time thinking about the problem. Retorquing would be inconvenient.

 

Hm, like the plastic they (didn't) use on the AST and radiator end tanks?

David

 

I did all of the above I can literally keep my hand on the UIM after a 1.5 hr drive. The reflect-a-gold hasnt peeled off neither.

-spacers
-reflective tape tri layer
-cerma coat powder coating from olympic coaters

Gives you this! Now someone said the gold look ugly does anyone else agree?

 

I'm emissions restricted, so I avoid shiny things like the plague. But, to each their own.

 

looks great Alex... one hell of an engine bay!

i would powdercoat the strut tower bar gold to match the other accents.

 

I was thinking about doing a test run on the gold over my thermo-tec to see if it reaped any further benefits...
my LIM is ceramic coated as well