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Mine were looking a little weathered and the heat shield on one part was falling off and had no insulation....so got bored and decided to try this exhaust wrap, any thoughts?
Well, it looks ok, good job on the install. The wrap will hold moisture and promote corrosion. It may reduce under hood temperatures a little but really, the idea on the cold side of the turbo is to lose heat.
I think so. I don't know how much heat they actually lose, but I'm sure it is some. It may not make a big difference either way. I'm not sure what those pipes are made of, they do have an aluminized coating but if you scratch them they will rust and they are much too heavy to be solid aluminum.
Cold side (intercooler to intake) the air is cool from the intercooler so it will lower your inlet air slightly, and could produce a little more power.
Hot side (turbo to intercooler) it probably won't do much as the air is pretty hot from being compressed, more so under high boost. I noticed they put a small patch of insulation on the hot side to keep it from melting the 4WD vacuum lines and starters cables. It must get pretty hot!
It's all relative. The air coming from the turbo has just been compressed and is dang hot, after going through the CAC it's cooler but still hot. Think of your radiator, the return hose isn't cool. I've used that wrap stuff on car headers and it ruined them in short order. It seems as it cools (it also cools much slower with the wrap) moisture from the air condenses on there and it is often damp under the wrap and I suspect inside the pipe. The headers turned to crumbly rust at the first bend coming out of the cylinder head. I had a similar experience on a motorcycle. That was enough for me, while it does look nice I don't like the stuff and don't plan to use it again, at least on anything I plan to drive.
On my 2003, The hot side of my CAC pipe came stock with fiberglass insulation. It was falling apart and previous owner had wrapped electrical tape around it to hold it together. that side is all aluminum on mine. I scraped it all off, sanded and polished it up and made sure it wasnt touching anything that would melt. dont know about the later years but Ford thought they needed it for a reason. pic I found online..
I have never seen an OEM CAC tube that was metal and wasn't aluminum, so no they will not rust. The only other material was the plastic cold side they changed to.
