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intake manifold heat insulation

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Justin

Save the dawn for your dishes!!!
USNjocson said:
Would this work with the CJ manifold?
it should. again I would just order a sheet and make your own. this kit doesnt stick very well.....the edge tape doesnt stick well at all. if you do go with this kit get some adhesion promoter
 
on a random note, I see in some of the pics the knock sensors that are routed through the foam.

Having come from a Mazdaspeed 3 in the past, the knock sensor on that motor was VERY sensitive, registered high amounts of knock just from the engine running. It was a very poorly designed setup IMO. Took it to two tuners and all confirmed the car likes to just show knock because of how sensitive it was even when nothing was wrong.

With that said, could the OEM foam be insulating them at all perhaps? I would imagine on a race car like the 302S or R that leaving the foam out wouldn't matter much but on a road going mass produced car, if putting simple foam can help the car's knock sensors work a tad more efficiently it would be worth doing?

Just a random thought
 

jneary

Performance Fords
323
0
Norcal
It is a good thought too but the coupling of energy to the sensors through the aluminum in the top of the engine block will be way higher than noise coupled through the air in the engine compartment so I can't imagine that it will make any difference at all. The sensor in your Mazda must have been designed incorrectly. I can imagine that the spectral contents of engine knocking must be much different than normal operation since it sounds so bad, even to the ear. There must be very high frequency components in that noise that the sensor is supposed to be looking for to signal the engine management system. Did you replace the sensor on your car with the same results? It might have been a bad sensor...

On a related note, I installed this type of insulation in the roof of my house (vaulted ceilings). It is called "Radiant Barrier" at home depot and it made a HUGE difference in the comfort inside my house. On a hot day, the inside ceiling is at least 30 degrees cooler to the touch than areas that do not have it so this technology definitely works to shield from heat if installed properly.

If someone has access to a thermocouple, it might be interesting to test the efficacy of this type of material. I do but don't have the shield material so it would take me a while to do this testing but I am interested now. I might do a test with the foam in-place and with it removed just to see how it differs. I am betting that the foam is for NVH as stated earlier. It can't be good for engine cooling at all and also like stated earlier, Edelbrock makes air gap manifolds to cool the intake charge. Of course, these are aluminum intakes and don't have the insulating properties of the composites in our intakes so might work better....

John
 
Ran with the intake foam insulators removed all last summer, 4.5 track weekends in all. No engine knock problems that I could detect. Got one P300 random misfire code during one track day when I bounced off the rev limiter on an upshift, but doubt that was related to the foam being removed.
 
What id the gold stuff that is used on the Boss 302S & R? That should work without much issue. I know that people mold it all the way around the intake tube.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic

302 Hi Pro

Boss 302 - Racing Legend to Modern Muscle Car
2,009
441
Southeast
I see that our intake manifold runners are molded without air gaps between the runner tubes. Has anyone drilled out, (or used a Dremmel), to open up air gaps between the runners?

Was thinking about this when I get around to installing my IM insulation. Also, has anyone seen any testing on this product? I have a 12 and have no idea what my intake temps are running.

Thanks,
302 Hi Pro
 

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