What is the best thermally nonconductive material I can get that is thin?
Need to put it between the intake side of my IC and a airbox I am making.
Thanks

 

Stainless steel has a high heat rejection factor. You will find it is widely used as heat shielding.

I used 22 guage stainless sheet (from the scrapyard) for my IC/radiator duct divider.

 

AL, **** take al foil bake it in the oven around a potatoe for 45mins at 350 take it out unwrap adn hold foil in hand not even hot..., makes you thin
made a heat sheild outta Al sheet 22 ga for my audi worked great

 

AL is fairly heat conductive. The reason that AL foil is cool to the touch shortly after removal from the oven is that it has very little thermal mass. If AL was thermally insulative, we wouldn't use it for radiators, heater cores, heat sinks, etc.

 

how about thin sheet Al with a bake on ceramic coating

 

My scenario is that the IC is going to be around 200*F and pressed up against a aluminum airbox.
I wish to use a very thin nonconductive material with properties like asbestos or ceramic matting.
I am just not sure what material would be the best to stop energy from transferring through one aluminum surface to another in direct contact.

Here is a link to some materials I am considering. Anybody care to elaborate on which materials have the most desired properties and that can be found in a thin material, around 1/8 to ¼ inch?

http://thermal_insulation_material.m...s.alibaba.com/

 

Those Ceramic cloths will prolly be your best bet. You could prolly even use it as an epoxy composite to make a shield or bond it directly to the airbox. (inside or out)

FYI: the V8 guys like to use phenolic spacers between the intake and heads, but I don't know how well it'll do in this situation.

 

could you use the texturized fiberglass tape made from bulk yarn to rap intake pipes and the like?

 

24 carot gold plating

it's is the best heat reflector....that's why the entier engine bay in the Mclaren F1 is covered in it

and it's not as expensive as you think

 

Yes, but I have a piece of HOT aluminum pressed up against another piece of aluminum I wish to keep at the lowest temperature possible!
Putting any kind of material that is considered a great conductor i.e. gold or aluminum inbetween the two is a bad idea!

As long as nobody tries suggesting to use nonoxidized silver (simply because I know somebody will point out the insulating capabilities of silveroxide) or copper I will keep this thread alive a little longer in hopes someone will have some kind of knowledge or experience with this kind of situation and have a good idea of what material would be best.

Another thing if somebody knows the thermal transfer coefficient for carbon fiber I cant seem to dig it up, I would think that it would be ok at insulating, just not really the best or approaching a good solution to what I am trying to do.

Thanks for the suggestions guys

 

There are many materials that will be suitable at 200F that we wouldn't normally consider. Most automotive insulation materials are just fine at those temps. You could use mylar, thin (24ga) stainless foil (Or pretty much any metal layer) held 1/16" off the airbox by a bunch of trapped spacers, dynamat, CF, fiberglass, or even plastic tool dip. Personally, I would just make the box out of 20ga stainless, roll the edges and call it good.

 

Yeah, I often have to tell some of my friends that there's a difference between heat conductivity and heat reflectivity. I recomended the ceramic because he specifically said that there would be contact. If it was just radiant heat he was worried about, alot of the other suggestions would be great.

Aluminized Mylar is an awesome radiant heat shield, it works great and looks freakin awesome in your engine bay. Its that gold colored foil you often see on the outside of satellites. Its also available rather cheaply in the form of those emergency "space blankets" you seen in military surplus/survival type stores. You just gotta make sure you get the right kind.

 

rotarypower101 - send me a PM

 

Phenolic plastic. Happen to have a 12"x12"x.25" sheet of it as well.... was going to make intake spacers.

 

SPO you have a PM

Liquid Anarchy, I know that it is a popular material for separating manifolds, do you have any specs on that material? Where did you get your Phenolic plastic? I need about 3”x12”

 

Unfortunatly you can only get it in 6"x6", 12"x12", and other various full-foot increments.

The 12x12 I bought ran me ~$50 after shipping.

It can be had for less, as I lost intrest in my intake manifold spacer project... with me supplying materials, and tooling, it was going to cost me $175 to have the toolpath ran... weaksauce.