here is my setup for anyone curious:

i have DEI titanium wrap on the downpipe (except the flex section), a custom turbine heat shield made by my fabricator buddy, and a 12x12 inconel shield from turbosource.com (these are very nice and easy to work with)

turbo setup is a borg warner EFR 8374 internal wastegate turbo with shorty manifold BTW.

 

I have a turblown LIM heat shield too, it's definitely pretty nice.

My swain-tech ceramic coated downpipe/manifold/turbine + the LIM heat shield:

 

Road race car, typical session is 20 minutes. I ran a turbo blanket for 2 seasons, it totally destroyed the turbine housing, cracked off the V-band flange 3 times. In the end the center of the housing was egg shaped rather than round. Add to that I've cooked off every ceramic coating I've tried, the ceramic wrap will last on the header for a while but will start to fall apart after a half dozen weekends or so. The turbo itself cooked the oil seals prematurely but lasted until it got oil starved, the bearings totally failed but the turbo was "operational". It was extremely laggy and self clearanced the wheels in the housings, but luckily didn't come right apart on me. I've since switched gears to autocross and have a different turbo with very limited heat management but for autocross I don't really care.

 

I've since switched gears to autocross and have a different turbo with very limited heat management but for autocross I don't really care.

I don't have experience with road race, just 40sec to 5 minute sprints (auto-x, cart track, hillclimb) and street driving.

Keep your limited "thermal management".

My experience is thermal management of a turbo rotary is letting as much exhaust heat dissipate as possible to protect the turbo/manifold.

Even on my set up I have sagged in the shared wall of divided cast iron exhaust manifold and turbo housing where I ported it down to ~ 3/8" thick wall.

It changed shape to accommodate the flow from the curved front runner on the manifold where there is more exhaust backpressure intruding into the rear runner which is a straight shot.

This is with just the main two stock S4 turbo heatshield pieces as thermal management (very open).

 

I've raced with Wouter and run a number of 1 hour long Indy support races. My advice is to avoid all blankets, etc and try to duct some air in where the turbo is to cool it. You can use stainless (or inconel if you need to spend more money) to make a shield which blocks the turbo heat from the intake, but leave the turbo as open as you can to encourage airflow. Possibly look into ducting some airflow into the general area if possible (my heatshield also has a little scoop)

I had a slight lean tune at low RPM during one Indy support race and the Turbo temp went through the roof and seized the shaft as we ran a number of laps under yellow.
So, my feedback, don't close any exhaust off, let it radiate the heat.

I've also warped T4 flanges so much they cannot be ground flat. I currently run a 100% V-band setup and it is wonderful. I'll never again use any kind of bolt up flange on any exhaust or turbo part.

-Trent

 

How's your Swain coating holding up ?

I've had mine on my HKS down-pipe since 2005, and it's holding up VERY well, even with BNR's.

I had it on for 2+ years before going to water-injection, with no issues then, and no issues now.

This is in 100+F HPDE's running 20-25 minute sessions, and sometimes back-to-back sessions (50-minutes).

:-) neil

 

Fine, but my car has been mostly autocross duty lately.

It started doing a weird beading thing on the turbo hot side. I emailed swain about it and they said it was normal. *shrug*

 

Yes, mine did that as well. No issues with it.

:-) neil

 

Has anyone had any longterm road race / track experience with Turbosource's inconel turbine housing heatshield on an EFR? (paging Elliot and Shawn...)

I am considering going this route with a coated manifold, titanium wrapped downpipe, and shielded LIM; I just want to see if anyone has found this approach to work really well with regular track abuse or if anyone has found any better options for longevity and reliability since this thread was last updated


Thanks

 

I'd be more worried about cooking everything else under the hood (electronics and paint) rather than thermal expansion ruining the turbine housing. Interesting to see this result from most of you...

I'd imagine paint on the hood to be totally gone right above the turbo without a blanket. Didn't Rob Dahm just shoot a video about this too? Not saying that he's right, just saying that the amount of heat at a certain location destroys paint and potentially harms electronics and vacuum lines in the engine bay. Mica and Inconel shielding FTW!

 

I would imagine the cheaper blankets like the one I use hold in enough heat to keep the engine bay relatively cool but let enough escape that it doesn't get so hot that anything warps... The really good blankets supposedly makes the turbo only a little hot. Mine leaves it hot enough to put your finger on it for a second, but isn't going to burn you instantly like a naked turbo will. Having only one turbo helps, though.

I mean, turbos are liquid cooled after all... so maybe increasing the size of oil coolers and the oil flow might be prudent.


Time will tell how long my turbo lists...

 

Increasing oil flow to the turbo is not a solution. You'll blow the seals out of the turbo.