Keep it cool, engine comparment and fuel delivery Options

[Trekkor]

Had an interesting conversation with my mechanic about increasing power/performance by lowering engine compartment air temp. Also, introducing a cold air intake.

This is a new topic for me.

He suggested ceramic coating the intake manifolds and engine tin to help. Also insulating the fuel lines and rails.

Anyone doing this?

[SirAndy]

My thought is that ceramic coated tin would keep the HOT air on the HOT side. Andy, you mentioned reflecting the heat. I beleive the heat would stay contained or reflected within the tin and forced out under the car and safely away with a lower temp in the compartment.

yes and no (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

- coat the UNDERSIDE of the engine tine to reflect the heat instead of absorbing it.

- don't coat the top, paint it matte black insead. that will give you maximum heat absorption on the top side and keep your intake air cooler.

the point here is, you will get heat on the top side of the engine, one way or the other. if you modify your engine tin to reflect all that heat, the heat will warm up your intake air instead, resulting in a loss of HP, even tho you might keep the engine itself a few degrees cooler ...
hot air has a larger volume, meaning less oxigen (sp?) to burn per liter of air meaning less HP.

what you want is a combination of all of this, reflect as much heat as possible UNDER the car, where it goes into heating up air instead and that air is channeled away from the engine while you drive. btw. the "cooling" rubber flaps that were added in '74 (i believe) do exactly that!

but at the same time SOAK as much heat as possible into the metal on top so the intake air stays as cool as possible, the hot sheetmetal is constantly cooled by the fan and the intake air is as cool as possible.


soooooooooo, underside nice and shiny, top side flat black!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) Andy