I recently bought some insulation tape(sticky 1/8" foam with reflective side) and was going to use it on my M2 med IC. After looking at the IC, I am not sure exactally where I should put it. I was going to put it on the cool end tank where the radiator fans blow directly on it, on the IC/manifold pipe, and maybe the part of the hot end tank that faces the turbos(to keep the radiant heat from the turbos from heatsoaking it). Has anyone done this? Am I wasting my time.

 

you're keeping heat in, not letting it escape

bad idea

 

Not if he wraps the cold side, but I'd just stick with the cold side, your intercooler should be plenty efficient and the hot side would at best lower radiant heat when your sitting, at speed it might make the cooling worse.

 

Thats what I was thinking.

 

Put it over the fins

I'd say put it over the cold side. However, the insulation just blocks (slows down) heat transfer. It doesn't really keep heat only in or out. If the hot side of the IC is still cooler than the engine bay, it's not a bad idea to wrap that too.

 

Well let's think about this for a second.... Is the ambient air under the hood while driving actually hotter than the air in the intake (post IC)? If so, then the insulation makes sense otherwise it doesn't as the pipe will cool the air additianally, albeit a very little bit.

Secondly, I think it may be a good idea to insulate the bottom of a SMIC as the heat radiated from the radiator is significant and contributes to heatsoak while idle.

 

I've been having a pm conversation with adamc about this very idea of placing a heat absorbing material between the IC and the rad. McMaster has some alumina board with fairly nice heat transfer characteristics that's moldable. I bought a sheet, and I'll try and get it in there when it shows up. I'm mostly interested in cutting down the high heat soak I see when running around town (stop and go) in 80F or more with the fans on. The intake box and IC get so hot you can't touch them. They do cool down after three miles at or above 40 mph, but that doesn't always coincide with local constabulatory ideas

I don't really recall running across someone who's done this, but I'm wondering if the sages know better?