I just read something in this forum that caught my eye and will take serious consideration...

heat wrapping a z-tube???? help keep the pipe cooler since it is blocking off heat??? BUT if you think like "the air" air is being sucked from the outside and very little of the heat radiating from under the hood...

 

No!

 

Where's DaveO when we need him? He investigated this back in 2003. The whole idea of heat shielding the intake is to prevent heat soaked intake components from transferring the heat to the intake charge. The idea is that keeping the IAT as low as possible will prevent the factory ECU from pulling timing. You don't make power, but you can prevent power loss. Hydrazine is revisiting this and I'm 100% sure he'll provide some good engineering stats as time progresses.

 

my nismo intake is used, i bought it from a co-worker, he heat wrapped his and when he took it off it left a nice cf-effect on it from i guess the thread pattern being "burned" on to it. I actually think its wearing off now.

 

if anything wrap it in gold-wrap!

 

If you have a plastic z tube it doesnt realy get to hot.
The metal one might get hot.

Id like to see you do it and tell us the resuslts.

 

Or aluminum foil so the government (or aliens) can't see what it is doing.

 

 

that's why i bought a carbon fiber z-tube

 

I don't see the point. Yes, the Z-tube and airbox do warm up when sitting at lights for prolonged periods of time, but the air going through the intake, ASSUMING YOU'RE USING THE STOCK AIRBOX, does not warm up a whole lot (about 15 above ambient) because it's constantly moving and doesn't have a long time to warm. I've datelogged intake air temps (IATs) at a stop, accelerating, and at a cruise. The IATs are about 15 degrees hotter than ambient while at a stop on a warm (80+ degree) day, but the IATs drop very quickly once you start rolling. If you run an exposed airbox, the IATs are far higher and take a bit longer to drop because of the significant difference in intake temp.

From the data I've seen, radient heat does little to impact intake temps. What kills intake temps is the air box design and simply the ambient temps. If it's hot outside, you're going to loose power. Simple as that. If you use any sort of aftermarket intake, even the Stillen CAI, you'll see higher IATs.

 

If your intake is plastic, probably not much effect from wrapping. But if its metal like mine (secret weapon), then the heat soak from the exhaust manifold may be a power loss. I wrapped mine a long time ago. Don't know if it did any good (no dyno), but it cant hurt.

 

im running a jwt heat shield but thinkn of running the stillen box with my jwt popcharger looks more efficient

 

if all your running is a n/a g35, it is not going to be a fast car. going to the extremes of heat wrapping an intake is like a stock honda civic worrying about the ambient air temperature when trying to race a ferrari, it just doesnt matter.

dont overcomplicate things, there is no reason to heat-wrap an intake, its just going to make it look worse. i came from the cobra world, where the average car is running 500+ hp, and the fast ones are 650+, and we still get spanked by cammed out or blown z06's, now i have an automatic g35 that i drive daily and i love it. but you can see how i think heat wrapping an intake just seems so trivial its silly.

 

I agree + good info.

 

i heard the only thing worth heat-wrapping is the fuel lines