johngreen537 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 I've been looking into some engine bay dressing up, silicone hoses, silicone air pipes etc etc.I know silicone is hard to shape, well, not hard, just you have to replicate the tubes with pipe to set it solid properly!That said though, the cost just disgusts me! £70 + delivery for a EP3 air intake in silicone, that's mad!So, I got to thinking, surely, silicone can be made into a 'coating' rather than a single peice object. Not as pretty I admit, but, for the chemical porperties, a coating will work jsut as well!I want silicone for mainly this:Air intake tube.MAYBE for radiator hoses.Why silicone, I'm sure you lot already know, it looks pretty, but is appauling at conducting heat!This means in simple terms, heat does not pass through it very well, so having it as a radiator hose, it keeps the heat in, and it's not let into the engine bay. Having it as an air intake hose keeps the heat out from the engine bay and the air cool.Someone invented a silicone wrap tape, designed for emergency situations for fixing pipes etc, self bonding, no glue required, just wrap it around the leak and it'll seal it. It will withstand temps of 450oC and -100oC (ish).As it's made of silicone, it will also insulate the heat.....So I'm thinking.... Why not just WRAP (lol there's a surprise from me!) the air intake in this stuff, and SURELY it will do the same job? Got to be worth a go I think! £9 for 3 meters of this stuff, so I've ordered 2 rolls for now.Plans are... Wrap the air intake, and then maybe... the whole AIRBOX! mega cool insulated air supply, whithout the mega expense.With my ODB scanner, I can see that my intake air supply eventually settles down at 23 deg C, while moving! colder at startup, hotter in traffic, in a jam, I've seen it as high as 48 degrees!So when the car is in normal 40mph - 70mph + driving conditions, 23 degrees is the benchmark.I'm going to wrap my intake pipe and WHOLE standard airbox (the intake feed to my standard box is already silicone!) and see if I can make the heatsoak issue disappear...I reckon 6 meters of the stuff will be enough, so it'll be a £18 mod to do the same job that an aftermarket CAI system will do!Even better if you have something like an AEM CAI, then you get double benefit, cold bumper drawn air, AND near zero heatsoak from the engine bay if you wrap the tubing....Updates... Will follow in a few days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_broon Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Will keep an eye on this John matey... engine bay heat is my sworn enemy at the minute 1"£££$££"!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngreen537 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 I always thought it was a bit overstated, until I had live data readouts, seeing sometimes a 20 degree shift in heat over 15 minutes stuck in traffic got me thinking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVEMB2 Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 me to i will keep an eye on your report john even my small d15 could be made cool intake temp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngreen537 Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 The order is placed..... Just waiting for it to turn up now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIKH25 Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Interesting stuff mate, always good to come up with alternatives to the expensive stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngreen537 Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 It's arrived......Air feed to throttle body...Removed all the major lumpy bits....THen wrapped in silicone roll... Underestimated a bit, too 6 meters of it to do the tube!!! It was an awkward shape though! Souuld 'cure' within a few hours!And back in my scruffy engine bay!See how the temp is tomorrow. Not expecting HUGE results, as it's only the intake tube. Want to do the whole box really! Maybe if I get ANY improvement, I'll spend on another few rolls! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyricer Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Blue?? I like heat management bits interested in the results you are the real mans scientist mr green!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngreen537 Posted September 28, 2011 Author Share Posted September 28, 2011 Blue Jonny.. Thinking of changing the colour scheme in thte engine bay As it's only really a test, I just took what he had in stock!Anyways... Results are in!Wasn't really expecting much, as I've only wrapped a 9inch bit of tube, can't really expect a brilliant result from that.In the original post, 23 degrees was the benchmark, so while in traffic or less than 40mph, it would get up to around the 30 mark, but 26 / 27 was normal.Ambient temps this morning were 15 degrees, and intake was registering 18 at start up (this is normal / the same)Getting moving, on my 25 mile drive to work, on a busy A road, 90% of it sitting 30-40mph, with 3 dual carraigeway sections for a good blast!30-40mph normal driving, Intake was 23 degrees SOLID! Didn't move!40-60mph dropped (quicker than usual) to 21 degrees!back in traffic, rose to 23...Blast down the dual carraigeways at erm.. 70+ shall we say, dropped to 20-21 degrees, must have been 20.9 ish as is flickered 20 then 21 then 20 etc.So in short, it worked. dropped my average intake air temps by 2 maybe 3 degrees!That doesn't sound much does it! Put differently, thats 9-12% colder!As it's only the intake tube thats been done, I'm excited! The main source of heat for my air in the EP3 is the airbox.It mounts on top of the gearbox, so it is in constant contact with hot metal!Gonna order another few roll's of the stuff, just to wrap my standard box! This may see another BIG drop!RESULT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVEMB2 Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 nice one john looks like i may be getting some so how much did you use on that bit off pipe then .my pipe is longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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