Removing the turbo did not cool things off as much as expected. I need to think about how to modify things under the hood. The main problem is that the trans tunnel gets pretty warm while driving. I would like to cool down the passenger compartment as much as anything. The thinking falls into six parts:

1. Insulate the trans hump on the inside. There is a hole for the shifter which is going to be hard to deal with. I have a fancy leather shifter boot,which looks nice but does not have much insulation value. Any thoughts on materials to use here? On my 70 Dart I had a 79 New Yorker parts car and I stripped all the heavy floor insulation from that car and applied it to the Dart. It worked well, and would use such stuff again, but buying it new is out of the question, and most junk yard cars have allowed that stuff to get soaked and ruined by the time you see them.

2. Heat shields or insulation of some sort under the car, or on the firewall. It would have been easier to apply something like this when the car was being restored. Now all the components are in the way. A month ago I helped a friend of mine replace the drive shaft on his BMW which involved removing the exhaust all in one piece. There were multiple creative heat shields under that car to keep the floor cooler. It would be nice to copy that approach, or maybe even use some recycled parts off another car towards this end.

3. Wrap the exhaust pipes under the hood. Does the heat wrap tape do much? I had it on my old turbo manifold, but off course had no before and after comparisons to run. Much of the heat under the hood comes from the exhaust pipes. I now have two 2" exhaust pipes sitting where the turbo was. They are painted black. Many new cars have heat shields on the exhaust manifold/headers. I wonder how hard it would be to make such things for the exhaust pipes. If the tape works, that would be an easy improvement to make.

4. Heat baffles or shields of some sort under the hood to direct heat up into the louvers I have installed in the hood. I have also thought about trying to direct it out through the inner fender on the driver's side.

5. Better directing of air through the radiator. I am not trying to cool the engine here, just get better flow through the engine compartment. The engine cooling system seems to work fine. This would mean applying sheet metal on both sides of the radiator core to get all the air through the radiator.

6. Maybe go back to conventional coolant. I have Evans coolant in the radiator now. This stuff apparently works to draw more heat out of the engine, but the coolant and radiator stays hotter by about 20 degrees. It seems this is pretty iffy thinking at this point. I suppose the total heat under the hood would be the same. It would just be a matter of whether it was in the metal of the engine or in the coolant with air blowing over it.

Any and all thoughts on this idea are welcome. The no-brainers, it seems to me, is interior insulation and maybe the pipe wrap. Suggestions as to suppliers or materials to use would be appreciated. There is much more to say here, but that will come in subsequent posts.

Thanks, Sam

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You know Sam, some German engineers came up with the silly idea of mounting the engine in the rear, and they even skipped the radiators to avoid dealing with all that heat!

Olaf

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Aspenized

Maybe I could drive around in reverse? How hard would it be to turn the seats around?

Seriously, I have found several kinds of exhaust wrap which claim to reduce under hood temps by 50%. That sounds high to me, but if it reduced it some I would consider that a step in the right direction. I put aluminum coated bubble wrap around the trans tunnel under the console this evening. That might help a little. I am going to see if I can track down some wrap locally before I make my drive down to Lou's next week end. That would be a good test of the effectiveness of the wrap.

I drove the Dart on my piano tuning jobs Saturday and hence became more aware of the heat issues. I think the two down pipe tubes from the Dutra Duals put out a lot of heat. The wrap folks also claim more HP, but that seems to be just a standard claim all after market folks throw in.

Sam

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Very good idea. Reflectix insulation available at most big box home improvement stores is popular, Lizard Skin and other paint on solutions are also popular but more expensive. Don't forget installing insulation on the firewall under the dash.
This is another VERY good idea. Air is actually a pretty decent heat barrier and a metal shield will reflect heat away from the interior. As you point out it will be very difficult to engineer and install such a shield now that all the mechanicals are back in the vehicle.
I have always read that exhaust tape properly applied cuts underhood temperatures considerably. I see no reason why you couldn't just wrap the manifolds as well as the first five feet or so of the pipe. This would achieve all the goals of heat shields and further insulating the interior. You would just stop the heat at the source.
Sounds complicated. Maybe a larger scoop on the hood to force air through the louvers while the car is moving and then out of the engine bay?
Sounds VERY complicated. I don't know if it would be worth it in the end.
I agree it is iffy thinking. The heat will still be there, just in a different place.

I say try the pipe wrap first. Just run it far enough back to get under the floor of the passenger compartment.

Depending on exhaust configuration, 50% sounds reasonable to me.

I experienced much greater improvement with my configuration. (Dual Dutra Duals into 2-1/4" head pipes.) The heat was so bad, the Fiberglass hood was warping, and I couldn't open it. Now, after making a pass, I can touch the wrap with my bare hand.

The gasses at the tailpipe are considerably hotter now as well. More heat in the exhaust system means higher volume, and velocities. That's a good thing!

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

How about a cowl induction hood open in the rear to let the heat out its normal path to the top? I know they are GM items but there are some nice ones out there for our Mopars. I like the look.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Thanks much for the thoughts guys. Does anybody have a brand of heat wrap to recommend? A brand or line called Inferno is getting good press these days. I saw a calculator on line recently to figure how much you need to buy for a given exhaust size, and now I cannot find it. How much overlap should one figure on, and how wide for the tape? There are several different widths available. CEEJ, did the stuff you applied go on wet? This set up now has several fairly gentle bends in each pipe. They are no where near as tight as header bends. Thanks again for thinking about this.

Sam

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Rick, the cowl induction takes advantage of the high pressure just before the windshield, and is used to force-feed the air intake. If you have openings in the rear of the hood, that are not connected to the intake in any way, you may need baffles that close the opening at speed. If not, you push air into the underhood compartment, as soon as the pressure start to rice from vehicle speed and overcome the pressure caused by the openings in the front end of the car. The pressure in front of the windshield on a car with a steep windshield angle can be surprisingly high! The openings in the cowl area will maybe only help letting air out of the engine compartment at very low speeds, and during idling. For the slick, modern cars with less steep windshield angles, the situation may be different, but I'll guess you need a wind tunnel to find out in advance.

Olaf

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Aspenized

DEI makes a good header wrap, and might even have a boot to cover turbos with. Another source of extreme heat under the hood is of course the radiator. Back in the old days, thats what was used to heat many homes, so an older, ineffecient radiator can also add to underhood heating problems. You might have already done this, but have your radiator cleaned out or updated to a modern crossflow type if its not already, or install an aluminum radiator.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

I like the header wrap ideas. I would also change back to std coolant/water (mostly water). If the rad and engine temps are higher by 20 deg, that will translate directly into more heat inside the car.

As a side note, I used a 180 deg tstat in my recent 64 Dart buildup, and the car runs right around 195-200 (according to MS1-ECU) when everything is equilibrated - perfect. I was running 195 tstats in this car and still have one in the 68 Dart. Car runs 215-220, which is fine for most conditions, but does heat soak the injectors some, so I'll likely switch back to 180 stat.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I also Run a 180 'stat in my duster with the EFI..

it comes up to about 205 in the summer with the AC on.


Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

I just ordered DEI kit from Summit. Should be here by Wed and on in time for test trip to Lou's on Sunday.

Thanks again. Sam

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Last time I did this it was a God-Awful mess. You had to soak it in water, and then wrap it around the pipe. Think about this. Even if you cut the 50' strip into 4@12' long pieces you are dragging the tail of the wrap around and over and through everything around the pipe with every wrap. It gets the adhesive all over you and everything else. I was thinking about laying a plastic tarp over the engine and fender.

I could take the pipe off, but then you are supposed to start the engine and let the heat bake it on. Which means putting it back on while wet. Then you are supposed to paint it with high temp paint to seal it. The kit provides you with a can of spray paint, but there again one would be hard pressed to do a good job without taking the pipe back off the car. Getting under and around all sides of the pipe is going to be a challenge. It seems a truly good job would involve R&Ring each pipe twice. An advice here?

Sam

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I think this tape has no adhesive (hold on with hose clamps or metal tie wraps), and does not get wet before wrapping. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

This might help,
http://www.designengineering.com/techco ... l-heat-dei

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Mattelderca
78 NYB (gone now), two S series, three old Snow Cruisers and a Doo.