Heat insulation for air intake
Discussion
I noticed that on many of the saloon racers these days the air inlet up to the plenum chamber is lagged with heat insulation mat. I guess this is to keep the intake air as cool as possible.
given the run for the intake on the Griff passes close to the nearside headers and must get rather hot is it worth doing on TVRs?
>>> Edited by simont on Monday 22 April 13:31
given the run for the intake on the Griff passes close to the nearside headers and must get rather hot is it worth doing on TVRs?
>>> Edited by simont on Monday 22 April 13:31
quote:
I wouldn't have thought it would do much, once your on the move it'll be sucking too quickly to get warmed up. Someone more knowledgable might disagree though
On the grand scheme of making things go quicker... makes little or no difference unless you have a real problem caused by drawing in hot air from under the bonnet in the first place. Once the car is moving air flow is pretty good. In traffic, you are not moving much so there is not much scope for using the extra power. In addition the amount of air flow is pretty big and this does a good job of cooling anyway.
The problems come when the air is drawn in from under the bonnet where it can be very hot in the first place and then this can cause problems. With the Griffs and Chimaeras it is from in front of the rad so there is no real problem.
Insulating the air intake won't do any harm, though.
Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk
on the topic of heat insulation i remember seeing fuel pipe coolers for sale in the performance magazines for american hot rods. that was back in the mid-eighties so i have no idea if they are still available or if they ever worked but cold fuel and cold air make for a much better combustion at the spark plug - don't they? if so might this be a reasonably priced option to improving performance.
quote:
How much are the plug leads? This sounds like a good idea.....
70-odd quid + VAT for the 8mm versions from ACT, or about 90 quid for the 8.5mm versions. I've just replaced my 5-year-old leads with the 8mm versions, along with a new dizzy cap, rotor and plug extensions, and the car runs more smoothly and starts more eagerly. Or maybe it's just my imagination...
Pete
quote:
on the topic of heat insulation i remember seeing fuel pipe coolers for sale in the performance magazines for american hot rods. that was back in the mid-eighties so i have no idea if they are still available or if they ever worked but cold fuel and cold air make for a much better combustion at the spark plug - don't they? if so might this be a reasonably priced option to improving performance.
If you have an air conditioned Griff you get one for free. The only reason these things improve performance is if you have the problem in the first place. Other than that they are a waste of time as they can only improve a bad situation.
Same is true about magnicor leads and so on. several tests have shown that they do very little but as most people fit them along with dizzy caps etc and then compare the new system against the old knackered system and the result is a glowing report for a set of leads that are three times the cost of normal ones... except it is unknown whether it was the dizzy cap, a faulty lead or what that caused the difference.
If you want power increases, remember the maxim that you get nowt for owt and that more power means more mixture in. Anything else is extremely dubious.
PS my set of magnicor leads cost £10K but I did get a nice new 5.2 litre V8 thrown in!
quote:
If I had 250 quid to spare I'd put it towards a new chip and rolling road set up by Mark Adams. I did this on my last car and it made the biggest difference to the way the car ran than anything else I wasted my money on. If only I'd done it sooner!!
Quinny.
Agree 100% with that.
shpub is right, but ...
.. the main difference with the Magnecor leads is that they will last VERY much longer than standard leads before breaking down. Thats the point of the thicker insulation. Over the cars lifetime they will save you money, plus they look good (esp the 10mm versions). Most people will notice the difference fitting ANY new leads, especially to 500's, as the very hot conditions in the engine bay break down standard leads in a surprisingly short time.
Anyway I'd spend the £250 on more petrol!
.. the main difference with the Magnecor leads is that they will last VERY much longer than standard leads before breaking down. Thats the point of the thicker insulation. Over the cars lifetime they will save you money, plus they look good (esp the 10mm versions). Most people will notice the difference fitting ANY new leads, especially to 500's, as the very hot conditions in the engine bay break down standard leads in a surprisingly short time.
Anyway I'd spend the £250 on more petrol!
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