JustPete

From reading this forum over the much slower CLSAMG forum, I gather they may not be.

On the CLS there's a nice pass through on either side of the radiator.

Yesterday I tested a simple theory to get cooler air to the filter chambers. (I couldn't complete the test because all my supplies didn't arrive._) and it worked surprisingly well as I anticipated it might.

On the CLS there's a pass through behind the grill on either side of the radiator. There are covers facing forward (I assume these are to control too much rain entering the system while driving which would be a problem no doubt) and they pull most air from downward facing vents that face the radiator. This nifty little set up has clips on the bottom to open up a "door" so they face fully forward into the airstream. I decided to open the door and let some fresh air in.

Under the hood, I removed the intake tubes and using the time tested tried and true method for eliminating nasty burns on your legs from drag pipes ... I used some exhaust pipe wrap and wrapped each tube up nicely with a heavy overlap to keep the heat OUT of the tubes. I figured if they can control the scorching heat coming out/off of drag pipes, they can certainly keep the 140+ degree temps under hood from entering those plastic pipes.

Normally when driving hard, a few heavy runs around the neighborhood and I'd start feeling the ECU reigning in the beast, assuming due to high AIT's. This didn't happen. SUCCESS!

I was expecting to receive Heat sheilding that I will use to cover the lower half of the air boxes ... that didn't arrive. and I'd wager that will keep the air entering the TB even cooler because those boxes trap a LOT of heat. But by simply feeding them cooler air I was able to achieve a noticeable improvement in at least maintaining stock performance.

I also ordered K&N's but I don't expect they'll give any better performance. Prior to doing this I pulled the filters, which are oversize and redundant and blasted them clean with compressed air. The K&N's won't breath better ... they'll just breath as well, LONGER, IMO.

Here's a pic of this simple mod.

Pass ^ through ---------------- Pass ^ through

Close up of right side with "door open"

They're getting PLENTY of fresh ambient air from here.
I should have taken a pic when I had the grill off ... sorry.

Have a Happy 4th everyone!

shardul

iTrader: (1)

nice where did you buy the exhaust wrap from?

JustPete

I just ordered it through the dealership that I do work for. Don't know who their supplier is, but I know you can order it on the net at DEI.

https://www.deicycle.com/

They have the heat shielding I ordered too.

I plan on wrapping the lower section only of the filter boxes. No need IMO to wrap the tops and would look bad too.

Wryfox

How did you secure the wrap on each end of the tube. Do clips come with the wrap?

Looking forward to the air box shield> Been wanting to do this myself for along time.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

i am calling up some local motorcycle stores to see if they have some

45acp

ThermoTec makes wraps and insulation stuff as well...

http://www.thermotec.com/full-product-line.html

Ali_E55

i have a crazy idea which will make sure 100% that the air reach to the TB without increasing a bit ^^

but it really needs some woork to make it.

im telling you

it is cheap

no wrapping required also

i will try to make it soon and post some pictures.

JustPete

I just did a wet wrap on the tubes with enough tension to hold them in place at the tops and at the radiator side, I used some high temp tape and wrapped 'em good. Can't even see the tape.

jturkel

how much of the exhaust wrap did you need to wrap both intake tubes? also, what kind of heat shielding are you going to use to cover the lower half of the air boxes? i can't even picture something that would go there lol.

JustPete

I used 20' of 2" and heavily over wrapped each tube for maximum insulation without looking silly. (I did about a 1" overlap) Typically for exhaust we'd wrap with about 1/4" overlap because you don't want to trap too much heat or you can wreck your pipes. With these, we're trying to keep heat out, so the reverse is true. More is better. Cool air entering stays cooler.

On the boxes (Underside only, I don't plan on wrapping the tops) I'll use sheet heat shielding which is self adhesive.

This stuff ...


Easy install.

Should reflect a good deal of that heat away rising from the manifolds.

I expect to see the biggest gain when the boxes are wrapped. Those suckers COOK. When I get my Data Logger, I'll posts results, if Shardul doesn't beat me to it.

Also ... don't forget to open the "doors" on the intake behind the grill so you get max pressure from the jet stream of air passing through the grill.

Akademiks

I have to respectfully disagree. I never was a fan of K&Ns until I first bought one for my B7 A4-- and acutally noticed a performance gain. I raced a friends stock B7 back to back, before and after the K&N and I was able to pull on him with the simple mod. I've since purchased them for all my cars, and again noticed minor gains with all.

I think with what you're doing, you should definitely notice a gain.

jturkel

wow.....looks good. i'm having major temp problems....IATs are through the roof (hit 210 F last night), and with the 110+ degree weather, i'm willing to do anything to cool my temps. damn pulley just makes too much heat and stupid coolant system needs to be separated now lol.

where can those adhesive insulators for the airbox be purchased? are you just going to line the bottom and the sides up like half way?

JustPete

Don't get me wrong. I think K&N type set ups help restrictive systems.

I just don't think this system is very restrictive at all. It's overkill in the area of filtration. Probably 2times what it needs to be to give the Kompressor enough air. That being said ... the stock filters will protect the motor better, but will clog faster.

So I'm of the opinion that I'll stay stock and simply pull them often and blast em clean.

I'll wager on a dyno, clean stock vs K&N will not give any gain at all or less than 5hp. (I'd be very surprised to see 5)

I'd love someone to test that theory. Maybe I will.

I just priced a 55AMG crate motor ... $74,000 ... I'll take better filtration.

JustPete

Yep ... after a drive I was checking surface temps and they were scorching. Hell ... if even 5 degrees cooler air hits the Kompressor, I call it a success.

Go here ... https://www.deicycle.com/ They have everything you need at a decent price.

I'm just going to wrap as much of the lower half as I can and still get the boxes back on. Maybe wrap right up to the covers. Obviously the boxes will have to be pulled to do the job right.

Ultimately ... I'm doing the hood (A spare hood that is.)

jturkel

thanks for the help/advice!

by hood, do you mean you are going to insulate the hood or you are going to vent it (make some additional vents) to allow heat to escape (the latter i have thought about doing but am not sure what kind of opinion i will get,....might seem ricy?)

JustPete

I've got a number of ideas but this is the most likely, with a completely new intake system I've already designed.



Trust me when I say ... this will NOT look RICEY.

With an all black hood and keeping the lines almost stock, it will look BADASS.

It will both vent under hood temps and feed the motor ambient high pressure air.

I can't believe when I bought this car, I was of the frame of mind that I wasn't going to mod this one. That lasted a whole minute.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

i did the wrap yesterday. same product justpete used, I could find it at a local motorcycle shop.
IAT before wrap were 105 at constant freeway speeds 70-80mph. ambient temp was 97-99
IAT after the wrap were was steady at 100 at constant freeway speeds 70-80mph. ambient temp was 97-99.
didnot do WOT runs.
total cost was $21 for the DEI titanium exhaust wrap. worth it.

jturkel

well i cant wait to see the results! i would love to do something like this for better ventilation. maybe when i have time in the fall. good luck with the project! looks good so far!

JustPete

I call that a success

And you left out that you didn't wrap anywhere near as heavily as I did. So your R-factor is much lower I bet and it still worked.

Can't wait to see what happens when the box is insulated.

Thanks for the data logging Shardul!

jturkel

hey pete

how would this compare to the DEI insulation for the airbox you posted a pic of?

http://www.thermotec.com/adhesive-ba...t-barrier.html

JustPete

Looks good to me!

The stuff I'm using is a little thick, (About 3/16") ... my main concern is, like the wraps on the pipe, not so much the temperatures the product can take, but the R-factor you create to prevent heat transfer through the material into the pipe.

I had actually looked into aerogel to make pipes filled with it. But too expensive and hard to find.

Akademiks

Just a thought...

Why not wrap the tubes once with the adhesive stuff Jturkel posted, and then wrap with the motorcycle stuff you used? Wouldn't that be like... ultimate heat protection?

jturkel

well yah....less heat transfer to material = more power saved (gained back) by having lower temps. thats the plan!

JustPete

I'm not sure you could get the tubes back in then

I definitely agree, in this case .... more is more. Keeping the heat out requires more insulation.

JustPete

Just got back from doing some heavy driving. Pulled into the garage, opened the hood, and started taking surface temperature readings.

Outside surface of the airbox I was getting readings near 160 degrees. Shot inside the intake tubes ... low 130's

How much you wanna bet those surface temps inside the tubes used to be 150's range?