I wrapped the 512TR air filter boxes in heat reflective blankets, which seemed pretty effective & I could feel a small increase in power. I took the blankets off cus they were a bit complicated & ugly & I had the boxes coated with heat reflective paint which makes them look nice, I think the blankets were probably more effective though. I wrapped the intake on my Mitsu 3000GTVR4 which is a twin turbo & saw what must have been a 30hp jump, impressive but cooling the intake is more effective on a turbo engine. Basically cool dense air allows more air to be packed into the engine than hot difuse air which is less dense, thus less air If you look at a race car or airplane engine they wrap everything they can find to keep the intake air cool, so you know it works or they wouldnt do it
Yeah, but they were shielding for all sorts of nasty radiation, not just heat... so a heavy metal that doesn't corrode is a bit more reasonable investment. Any suggestions for sources of nice-looking heat-reflective insulated material?
Also, the 360 intake boxes have a hole in the bottom (to allow water pulled in to naturally drain out). I wonder if the air pressure from forward motion is greater than the engine draw, or vice-versa? IOW, I wonder if, in motion, air is being sucked in from the VERY HOT engine bay through those holes in the bottom of the intake? I wonder if it would be worth running a hose from the bottom of those to the bottom of the car, so that it is sucking from the outside air below the car. That would also prevent that water from just dripping down on the hot engine/exhaust parts, making a mess... it would drip neatly out the bottom. Thoughts?
Brian I wonder if that hole tunes the flo or prevents turbulance. Ingested water would help atomise the fuel and make the car run better no?
[For the 360 I would suggest getting the air boxes painted in heat reflective paint, you can get it in several colors. The 360 probably has snorkels under the fender like the 512TR. You probably have to wait for the engine to come out to access them more easily, ask your mechanic what it would take to pull them you can wrap them in reflective material & have him reinstall them. I'm sure you will see some power gain, maybe 10 hp or more. Also you can paint the tubes that go from the air boxes to the engine. Reflective paint looks better than material so it would be my choice for the visible parts
If you didn't care... you could drill a decent size hole in your airboxes, and run dryer hose (or some "racing" equivelant) from the airbox, to the snorkles on the fenders, but you've gotta be willing to butcher your airbox. Another option is carbon fiber airboxes; a matrix/lattice type material, like carbon fiber, more readily dissipates heat b/c it has more "open space" in it's structure, but that isn't going to get you the positive charge of cold air that you're looking for. I wouldn't run anything to the bottom of the car , b/c it wont last very long (as evidenced by my brake ducting -- which get replaced, often). Lastly, even with a challenge grill, I think it'll take quite a bit of "engineering" to noticably lower intake temps on a 360 for the very simple reason of where the exhaust is; you could wrap your exhaust pipes, etc., but that's not at all pretty. There are, however, thermal coatings available that insulate exhaust parts, but then taht leads to a higher rate of failure/fatigue to the coated components (not immediatly, but over time, it can happen). Heat is one of those annyoing quantities that you can't just whisk away, and so anything you do one end, gets affected on the other side. In the end, however, I don't think the effort is worth the gain. The 360 is a pretty efficent motor, and the money you spend chasing nominal hp gains on account of intake, could be much better spent on reducing weight, etc. hubert
Note that the 360 already ducts intake to the outside (the upper inlet you see on the driver's side "hips" goes to the intake). So, bigger isn't needed... just need to keep out the very hot air in the engine bay. The 360's bottom is nearly sealed... I wouldn't expect to have any issues here. At most, I may need to cut a hole in the bottom tray and do something to fasten the bottom of the tube there. Or I can just follow the example of the radiator overflow... maybe even tie into the same tubing. You might be right... and why I haven't done anything to date... but also why William's comments so interested me. However, in the case of the 360, I think it makes more sense (as William suggested), to wrap the existing intake tubing to keep the heat out rather than trying to wrap the exhaust to keep the heat in (and suffer the issues that you mention). If I were talking about my 360, you'd probably be right. But I am talking about my coming Stradale... in which case, I think Ferrari has removed all the weight that's cheap to remove, plus some that's expensive to remove. The question then is this: Did Ferrari not insulate the intakes because: 1) it won't have any notable impact on performance? 2) it wouldn't look pretty through the glass? 3) they just didn't think about it? I think #3 highly unlikely; not sure on #1 vs #2; hence, my curiosity about William's results with heat shielding. Brian
Brian, you forgot #4, they're too cheap AS for not looking good the airboxes I had painted look better than the stock black ones + they are more functional
LOL... no, I rejected that one... given all the other money they spent on the 360, if they could get 10 extra HP from heat shielding, I am sure they'd consider that a bargain. Yeah, when I spoke of look I meant if you go all out and use insulated heat shields wrapped around it... might seem a bit cheesy. I guess, ideally, I'd use some of the insulated ducting that's going into the building I am constructing... hmmm... But, I'll second the call for pics, William. I'd love to see your painted airboxes. Thanks! Brian
I'll see if I can find some photos of my parts, meanwhile check out this site. Its pretty much the same heat resistant paint I used on my stuff http://www.jet-hot.com.au/product.htm#JET_HOT__Hi_Temp__rating_704C__1_300F__
