Ideas for tackling turbo heat?

[Y-TRY]

What are some ideas and solutions for battling underhood heat from turbos? It gets extremely hot in there, and the paint on the fendeers won't last long with this heat.

Do you shield the heat source, like the turbo heat shields that are available? Do those work? Or do you shield everything else?

I was thinking about building "halo" heat shields around my intake pipe since it gets heated in there. Similar to what you see on the Mule, where the pipes run close to the downpipes. Basically another tube around the existing one, about 1/4" space all around, if I have that much room. But I'm not sure how effective it will be.

What have you guys seen or done that works? What are you planning on doing?
Any brainstorming will be appreciated

[XcYZ]

I have the heat shields for the turbine housings, but I'm not sure how much that will help (but it certainly can't hurt). I also like what W2W did with the hood of the Mule.

[Blown353]

As far as the turbine housings, the best option is multiple stages: having them not only ceramic barrier coated, but in turn run the ceramic fabric blankets over them, and then put sheetmetal heat shields over that (like the Banks kit.)

You can do much the same things with the headers and downpipes-- ceramic barrier coating, then wrap them, then use sheetmetal heat shields as needed between the exhaust and any heat sensitive components.

There's a lot of hot plumbing under the hood with any turbo application, elevated underhood temps are the norm. Anything to keep air moving/circulating under the hood is a good idea. Hood vents (like the Mule) are a good option, as are vents at the back of the fenders (Vettes.) Another option is to remove the hood-to-cowl seals to allow the hot air to escape there, or to raise the back of the hood up an inch or so (it works, but sure doesn't look good...)

Troy

[427]

On my truck we wrapped all the tubing with heat wrap. Also have a heat shield on the hot side of the turbo. My turbo is mounted up front of the waterpump, just behind my drivers side fan. I have a 170f sensor that kicks on my driverside fan anytime the underhood reaches 170f.
In our current weather (85 plus) the fan will run 5-7 minutes after I park. The Mule has the same feature.


Kurt

[Y-TRY]

I'm concerned that wrapping everything will just keep heat IN components that really need to dissipate it. That's why I didn't coat my cartridges- for fear of baking my bearings.

I also thought about running some sort of venting, like you see for brakes, through the engine compartment, but I think taking air from the front of the car and jamming it up into the compartment would end up creating lift.

I have my cowl seals and stuff off, and air escapes through there, but it has already baked the gloss off the paint on the cowl panel near the scoop. Doing any tuning with the car parked and hood up results in incredibly hot outer fenders, too. After cruising, the hood hinges could brand you.

My main intake tube, into the carb, is ceramic coated inside and out, and then powder coated for aesthetics. But the outer surface temp is very hot during operation. Without an intake air temp sensor I can only imagine the super-heating of my intake charge as it passes through the engine bay.

I'll wittle together some shiedling ideas and share them with you guys soon.

Thanks a ton for the input

[Blown353]

Don't worry about keeping heat IN the exhaust system-- you want to! More heat in the exhaust is more energy to spin the turbos.

An underhood temp sensor to run the fans is a very good idea.

Just an FYI, on my Subaru STI the ENTIRE exhaust from the heads to the turbo, the turbo itself, and then the downpipe from off the turbo until under the car is entirely covered in a sheetmetal "clamshell" heat shielding scheme. This is partly to keep the heat in the exhaust for quick catalyst light-off, but I'm sure it does a good job of keeping the exhaust heat off more sensitive components, too. However, after thrashing on it on a hot day (like today, 104F outside and I'm enjoying my drive home) it does get a wee bit toasty under the hood...

All the wrap and shields may not look as pretty as totally open headers, but cool running is better than cool looking in this case.

Another thing you should be concerned about, especially with the turbos and the underhood heat is oil temp. Do you have an oil temp gauge/cooler?

[Y-TRY]

Good point on the oil thing.

I'll add that to my growing list...

[hotwheels]

i would look at hood vent's and a couple of duct's on the front of the car.....that way, you keep good air flow in the engine compartment......i have my header's wrapped, and it still get's hot in the engine compartment....at nite it look's kewl.....you can see the orange glow of the header's.....

hotwheels

[chuntington]

getting enough air in is not allways the problem!! often its getting the hot air out! the best way to do this is to luver (Spell?) the bonnet or simply lift the rear of the hood a couple of inch! you would be suprised what a difrence it can make! also if you have a "hot spot" try ducting cold air from the front end onto it!

thanks Chris.

[hotwheels]

simply lift the rear of the hood a couple of inch

Now that you mentioned that, i have seen guy's at the quarter mile track in denver do that.........