Insulation for SC?

[RON]

OK...TAKE A LOOK AT THIS PICK:



You can clearly see the intake runners comming off the SC on the right and you can see the fins on top of the *SC* portion. The intake runners should benefit from heat shielding because they are [b]CLOSER TO THE ENGINE[b] and absorb more heat there than they release. ANY of the heat that could possibly be released in the SC portion, has ALREADY been dissipated (ie, radiated out by the fins) by the time it hits the runners!
I want to cover that area with heat tape.

[bigbirdSCed]

the SC will create MUCH more heat the it can soak up at boost...period. out of boost then yeah it may help...but at that point who cares. and at boost the air is moving through thoes runner so fast that a little cooling there would do little.

as i said before, heat tape is designed to keep the engine bay cool or protect items close to whatever it is thats creating the heat. since the SC is attached to the intake manifold and the rest of the engine heat will transfer much faster through that connection point then the air around it, so it will move through the metal from the intake manifold and be contained in the metal because of the heat wrap, thus transfering into the rest of the SC and the charge.

you can wrap it if you want but with out hard data about temp then your just guessing and id be willing to bet my car that wrapping the runner will do nothing. but i may be wrong, and the tape isnt expensive and would cost much to put on. but adding heat sinks, lower heat transfering gaskets and cooling the air before the charger will likely work much better.

[TMMK Toy]

The heat transfer gaskets, ala, hondata, would be a nice idea. Now if only they made an intake manifold kit like that for the 1mz

[RON]

I guess the bottom line is:

Is there a NET absorbtion or release of heat at the runner area? If there is absorbtion there...some of it is comming from the engine bay (engine head for sure). ANY absorbtion of heat will transfer to the ENTIRE SC! So any REDUCTION of heat from ambient heat wil help. You're right though...the only way to know for sure is to measure the intake temps in that area...with and without insulation.

[bigbirdSCed]

thats the reason i posted the link of the test i performed, the heat soak would be helpd more by cooling the engine bay itself rather then wrapping the SC. as far as engine bay temps...that little slit of a vent made a big differance in the temp around the SC and that was hard data.

if it were me then id spend the money and/or effort on venting the engine bay rather then wrapping a small section of the SC. the only real way youd be albe to tell if the wrapping helps would be do run it on a dyno or use an exhaust temp sensor to look for small changes. but, i dont think wrapping it would hurt anything and its not that expensive. so i say give it a try.