To wrap or not to wrap?
#1
To wrap or not to wrap?
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
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
#2
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iTrader: (83)
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...
#4
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Florida
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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.
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.