What are the best materials for insulating around the intercooler under the supercharger?

 

Gold heat reflection foil
insulated heat wrap
ceramic coating the intercooler, you can do the sc housings if you pull them apart
A good start is the use the gold foil on the valley of the motor, since alot of the heat soak comes from that area. then wrap the intercooler in it, then you can use the insulated heat wrap and place it between the intercooler and supercharger to take up the air gap

 

You mean the header wrap type stuff??

 

look at brianbraves thread on the s/c and see hwhat he used for the i/c wrap. this is fairly involved unless you are pulling the s/c to work on or i/c replacement i wouldnt do it

 

gold ceramic thermal coating, better then any sort of heat wrap, $80

 

+1

tuna he is referring to the same stuff i was talking about except the gold stuff is the best...this also reflects in its price.

 

I was luckly to score a free roll of this stuff.

Thermal Ceramics - Our Products - Superwool Plus Blanket

 

Thanks guys, I ordered DEI Heat and Tunnel blanket. The stuff looks impressive and it was spendy. I got enough to cover the IC, the valley on the top of the motor and also to better insulate that airbox thingy I made. I also bought that 1/4 thick phenolic that goes between the charger and IC from 240. So that will be a first.

 

Oh, that looks sweet! Are you saying you'll do this for $80??

 

Yep, I'm learning from you all. I'm digging in as soon as I have everything on hand.

 

Tuna,
Did you ever finish wrapping your intercooler? Pics?

Cheers,
KrzyFast

 

Nope, sidetracked by other projects (motorcycles, house, recording music). I've got all the gaskets and got some nice DEI foil wrap stuff ready to go. Hopefully I'll have time soon, I'll definitely post pics then.

 

I thought about that but changed my separate water antifreeze consentration to 20 degrees to carry away more heat from the intercooler. 50% antifreeze carries about 20% less heat, so I changed it and that was an easy upgrade.

Radiant heat to the intercooler is a concern, but I dont wanna pull it for that small gain. I feel that the larger heat exchanger ( super cooler ) and lower water flow restriction [ over 4GPM ] nets a goodly bit of heat rejection.

If you can record any improvements, we will all be interested in following your mod. Woody

 

now this is the way to go ,, , jim

 

Just a little heads up for guys shopping for heat wrap. Stay away from the jegs stuff. We used it to line our torque tube brace on the z06 as well as the bellhousing and some other locations within close proximity of residual heat sources. On the first 25 miles test drive the heat wrap failed. The adhesive backing came clean off of the fiberglass, the rolls and sheets both did the same thing.

Stick with DEI

 

Infinite,

Thanks for the heads up!

What about the DEI floor and tunnel shield? I was going to get the 4' x 21" (7sqft) amount to wrap the intercooler and possibly the engine V. That should be enough - at least enough to make a difference from stock. What do you think of the adhesive that is one this particular product? Do you think it is strong enough to not require additional heat tape to keep it in place? Obviously I will degrease the inter-cooler prior to application.

Woody,

I am going to separate the cooling systems while I am at it. Unfortunately, I do not have the equipment to measure the IAT's to post before and after results. I wish I did. I am gambling that applying the heat shield will provide a noticeable improvement along with separating the two systems.

Cheers,
KrzyFast

 

before you go thru all this trouble i would suggest you read brianbraves thread on just this subject. minimal gains. a lot of work. you may want to rethink this project unless you already have the s/c off the car

 

That's kinda what swayed me to put it further down the list. Although I think it would be fun to pull off the SC and clean up the IC castings and port match, my car has about 75K w/no catch can so I'm sure the cooler is coated with crust. I've watched my IATs through the OBD port and they are not very good. always around 126F even in cool weather just putting around. No cooling mods yet just seperated systems. I bought some of the DEI floor and Tunnel wrap. I used it on an airbox. The glue seems very strong, I'm planning on using it on the IC also.