does anyone have pics of their insulated airbox and what did you use?

 

Good call on making this thread. I'd also like to know

 

i used the insulation with the stickey stuff on one side, than insulkation and silver stuff on the outside.

don't remember the name of the stuff.

got it at local hot rod shop.

 

i used the insulation with the sticky stuff on one side, than insulation and silver stuff on the outside.

don't remember the name of the stuff.

got it at local hot rod shop.

 

did you do the whole box or just the tubes? any pics?

 

This is wht you want to use:

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

Wrap all the tubes with this stuff, then fasten it down with hose clamps. As far as insulating the box, that might get tricky because it's an odd shape. Just look through summit racing under the name thermo-tec and see what they have. The only thing keeping me from persuing this is the thought that it will come undone in time and make a mess.

 

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/...g/results.html
check this out. this site should be a stickey like everywhere. they dont show exactly everything everywhere, but there are some amazingly great ideas on power, acceleration, and mileage. and ya, that thermal barrier stuff is the right way to go. did it on my SVO and it worked great. gonna do it on the f350 sometime soon.

 

I did this to my '89 302 air box, hoses, and intake tube a couple of years ago. I also got a 460 intake tube and a K&N drop-in filter at the same time.

It added a little more than 1mpg and a few hp. I followed the Project MPG example. I bought the insulation at the PAW speed shop here in L.A. It's the same as one of the Summit products. I am a little bit leary of handling it because it has spun silica (SiO2) as the middle layer. I know of no health warning but I wore a mask when cutting and apllying the stuff.

Remember any powerplant's maximum output is simply dictated by the difference between the input air temp and the output air temp. For every 11* that the incoming temperature is reduced the HP goes up by 1. I remember that from high school physics over 35 years ago. In stop and go traffic here in L.A., I can get a 100* reduction resulting in almost free 9hp. I get over 180* under the hood and 70* in the air box. Not bad for less than $40.

I'll post some photos tomorrow.

 

 

Looks awesome Lance! Thanks for the pics.

 

i gotta a question for you lance???So how did the tape stick on the air box/tubes...Is any pealing or anything???


brad

 

There is a wax like paper that sticks to the back of the insulation. Just peel and stick. The product comes on a 2" wide roll and in sheets.

Well, not quite. I found it much easier to trim the insulation with the wax-like paper on the back. I used metal shears to do the cutting. I also wore a filter mask while doing the work.

Preparation is the key. I took out the box and tubes, hosed them down, and cleaned them with Simply Green near full strength. The rubber hoses between the air box and the throttle body were though to clean.

I also have a little flap of insulation on plastic that goes over the emissions sticker that I held down with an elastic strap. Smaller pieces are easier to work with. Cut little slots where support struts are. Don't try to bend the insulation around them.

This was done about two years ago. The insulation is starting to unpeal on at the top of the hoses. A hose clamp would fix that.

I bought the material at PAW. They are a very big catalog/telephone outfit here in L.A. Their prices are cheaper and selection better than Summit. They are more racing oriented than Summit. Call them up and ask for the Ford book. It is about 3" thick and has a blue cover.
http://www.pawengineparts.com/

 

One set of tubes looks like the stock SD tubes and on the truck it looks like a single 3 inch for a MAS. Is the MAS set up insulated?

And about the 11 degrees = 1 hp thing, thats entering the air cleaner right? By the time that air enters the cylinder it will have been heated up by quite a bit in the TB, plenum and manifold right? So how is all that figured into the equation? Also, did you remove the engine coolant hoses from the TB? I would think that removing that system would help alot with the air temp entering the plenum.

 

I just converted from SD to MAF about 3 weeks ago. I have not yet insulated the new airbox top or hose to the TB. Insulating the new top and hose are my February project. My old airbox top and hoses are shown in the third picture.

I did not remove the coolant hoses from the TB. I got a 1mpg increase leaving it connected. I don't know what the what the purpose of the coolant to the TB is. If it is to keep the TB functional in cold climates, than it would help to disconnect the coolant here in Los Angeles. I have heard of people doing that and putting a spacer between the upper and lower halves of the manifold to keep the air as cool as possible.

The 1:11 formulation is for any powerplant input vs. output temperature. With automotive engines, the longer you keep the air cool, the better. What is price performance for engine manufacturing related to this? As fuel has become more expensive since '73 we have seen air cleaner boxes move from metal to plastic with an obviously much lower specific heat, allowing less heat transfer. We have seen air cleaners move from the hot spot on top of the engine to the cooler fender area. We have seen air drawn from the inside of the engine area to the cooler front of the car. In our trucks much of the intake manifold is suspended above the block with only the smallest possible portion touching, eliminating the heat transfer we saw in previous year's intakes. A few years ago Mercedes tried a plastic or composite upper intake manifold instead of metal. I was amazed when I saw it. I don't know if they still do it.

 

Don't the newer modular engines in these trucks use the plastic intake manifolds?