Hello,
When I bought my car the original owner had a few things heat wrapped including the downpipe my uicp and an ac hardline. Now I never really thought anything about it until a couple of weeks ago when a friend mentioned the downside to having the uicp wrapped. Now the way I see it there are two different sides to the story:

The heatwrap will shield the air in the pipe from the heat present in the engine bay. After all this air should already be fairly cold as its traveled from the turbo through the licp through the intercooler and now into the last stage the uicp.

Now the other theory is that the heatwrap will trap the heat inside the pipe as opposed to the aluminum piping absorbing the heat thus cooling the air.

I would appreciate it if people would chime in and explain which is better and why. Hard evidence is always great so I would love for people to back up their answers with just that as opposed to just thinking one way is better than the other.

Thanks in advance

 

The intercooler has a purpose. Most of the time, the air in the engine compartment is hotter than the air inside the intake post-intercooler... Thus wrapping the lower intercooler pipe to protect it from exhaust downpipe heat is useful, and wrapping the upper intercooler pipe post intercooler keeps engine heat out of the charge air...

 

i dont think you use heat wrap on the uicp its something else

 

I wrapped my intake pipe. I did a test by myself.lol
I grabbed my wife's hair dryer and blow hot air outside the pipe while my other hand was inside the intake pipe.(this was off the car of course) Boy it was getting hott inside!!! Then after I wrapped it and tried it again and it didn't get hot at all.

 

There are thermal coatings that are used on cold charge pipes that PULL heat out of the pipe.

Wrapping it would just look goofy.

 

+1

any links where you can buy the thermal coating for the uicp?

 

That coating would be nice for the UICP. How much would that cost?

 

I suppose you could use heat wrap, but I assumed that the OP meant other kinds of wrap. I use reflective film wrap on my LICP (see the Indy Evo thread), and two layer reflective film with small bubble wrap "sandwich" on the piping from the intercooler to the TB.

 

where did you get it from??

 

Earl's Indlanapolis store. They know exactly what it is when you ask. It's $24.00 per running foot (15" width). Does not take too many feet to wrap a 2.5" or 3" pipe

 

^^ can you post a link or something? can you get this stuff at autozone?

 

Earl's Indy phone # 1 800 331 INDY it's called Aero Lite Foil

 

The originator beat me to it Thanks, Indy! That stuff is nice! ( BTW, Indy is not the seller, just the guy who knows where to find all the good stuff )

 

cool thanks!

how much do i need for the uicp & whats the cost of it?

 

$24.00 per running foot, 15" wide. Take your intercooler pipe, measure the area you want to cover, see how much you need in square feet, and give them a call.