Manifold Insulators - Keeping Heat Out

[Oosh]

Was trolling around Autospeed, came across this, http://autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=0401, and was wondering:

a. Are these are available for RB engines?

b. If so, has anyone used one?

c. If not, would people be interested in them?

Plus any general comment/opinions on the idea.

P.S. You don't need the full article to get the gist.

[mokompri]

im pertty sure there made on a custom basis, so it needs to be modelled in 3d first then they can create them

ive got access to the full article and the results are quite good..

a group buy could only justify a purchase imo, because it starts from scratch it will probably be pricey... and another thing because it spaces out the manifold from the block, your going to need some movement/free-play in your cooler piping to accomodate the manifolds new position

[Turbo Tits]

My opinion is that it doesn't matter how good an insulator of heat it is, the rising heat radiating from the block will heat the manifold just the same. Everyone knows how much heat is held in the engine bay when you pop your bonnet (especially with turbocharged cars) after a drive or even just dribbling around the city in the summer. Its just common sense. Remember the "results" and claimed benefits from Slick50? All fraudulent, and the makers were sued accordingly.

Now, im not suggesting that the results from the tests carried out on the manifold insulators were fabricated, I'm just saying that you really can't believe everything you read.

Mokompri, Could you please post the contents of the article on here? I would still be interested to hear what they have to say about them.

[Gav]

Personally I'm sceptical about the effect of the plenum temperature on air temperature.

There is a huge volume on air passing over a relatively small surface area. Given Julian's fondness for calculating airflow into an engine, I'm suprised it was published.

A quick calc on an RB25 engine:

2.5L @ 6,000 rpm with volumetric efficiency of say 1.5 on a 4 stroke engine sees more than 90 litres of air passing through the plenum per second.

Now if my maths is right, the relatively small internal surface area of the won't have a huge affect as there is simply not enough contact time.

[dangerous_daveo]

Doesnt hot air travel faster? So what you gain you in cooling, you lose in air speed, as Im guessing its rather a small gain?

Also wouldnt a cai, and or an intercooler help more? Not reading the whole article but I would also be guessing its more for aplications where an intercooler is not posible?

[rev210]

Phenolic spacers are as old as the hills. Works a treat on carby based engines to prevent vapour lock. On a turbo motor like the Rb26 I can't see it doing much at all, when on boost even less.

[Oosh]

I have the full article too, and the claimed results do seem a little fanciful, but it certainly was interesting. And please, i don't need to be told "don't believe everything you read", i brought this up for discussion for much that reason.

Also Gav, your post makes a lot of sense, comparing surface area of the manifol to that of an intercooler (which induces more turbulance too), i can't see these things having 1% of the effectiveness of a good cooler.

[N I B]

I have seen ppl using thermal coatings inside and out on intercooler plumbing and manifolds but as gav said the airspeed is so high i dont think it would do much.