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Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:12 am
by Legacy777
I was told that I should put on a turbo heat shield and that it should help lower under hood temps. I got a hold of a stock setup. I cut the stock setup, so it would fit around my downpipe, which really wasn't that bad. I'm not sure whether I like the looks of the stock heat shield. It looks kind of goofy. My turbo is ceramic coated, so I don't know.... Once it's running, I'll try and take some under hood temps with and without the shield to see if it really makes a difference or not.

Was curious what others may have found in terms of other heat shield products and/or whether they really help or not.

John had put the SPT shield on, but the pic links are dead, so I don't remember what that setup looks like.
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=33689

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:41 am
by cj91legss
do you have the scoop splitter still installed on your hood? The stock splitter is designed to take in cold air from the scoop and push it directly onto the exhause housing on the turbos (If you don't have a tmic)

if you have an FMIC (i cant remember if you do or not) then i would use the heat shield and the splitter (If you have it, or source one)

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:57 am
by Legacy777
I have an AWIC core and no splitter/diverter or anything like that. It won't fit with the AWIC core.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:07 am
by cj91legss
hmm, if the shield will fit, then run it :)

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:25 am
by bmxkelowna
im running a stock wrx one on mine since i dont have a scoop to line up to the chimney
it does a decent job of keeping a little bit of heat out of the engine bay for sure
when i have some money laying around im going to try some of that gold heat tape for the inside of wrx shield

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:37 am
by SiCkSTi04
If fitments an issue how about a heat shield blanket instead?

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:40 am
by Legacy777
Fitment is not an issue. It bolts right in. I'm just not sure I like the look of it. If I get a decent heat reduction, I may look into that gold heat tape as well.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:00 am
by SiCkSTi04
Oh ok, I voted for keeping the heat shield on.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:46 pm
by Legacy777
Cool. I haven't ever had one, so it was something I was thinking about adding. When I get it running, I'll take temps and report back.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:23 am
by Legacy777
I still haven't taken any temps, but did get some of the gold reflective tape and put it on yesterday. When I get the car back running again, I'll take some temps :)

Here's pics of my gold wrapped heat shield.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... pdswap/19/

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:00 am
by kimokalihi
cj91legss wrote:do you have the scoop splitter still installed on your hood? The stock splitter is designed to take in cold air from the scoop and push it directly onto the exhause housing on the turbos (If you don't have a tmic)

if you have an FMIC (i cant remember if you do or not) then i would use the heat shield and the splitter (If you have it, or source one)
Actually the stock hood doesn't have a scoop. Its designed to let the heat funnel its way up out of the hood. The hole in the hood is nothing more than a vent.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:02 am
by kimokalihi
I vote heat blanket. Works pretty good and surely much more effective than a shield.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:56 pm
by Legacy777
A heat blanket may be a little more effective, but the main thing the heat shield and blanket block is the radiant heat. The blanket may block a little more, but I'm not sure how much.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:39 am
by jefferson
One of the things like about the stock chimney is when you shut the car off the heat from the turbo is funneled up and out the hood scoop rather than having no place to go. That goes a long way to staving off heat soak.

Jeff

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:41 am
by kimokalihi
True. My intercooler will go from 50 degrees to 150+ easily just sitting for 10-15 mins with the car off. Most of that is from the turbo via the intake tract though I'm pretty sure.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:55 pm
by Legacy777
kimokalihi wrote:True. My intercooler will go from 50 degrees to 150+ easily just sitting for 10-15 mins with the car off. Most of that is from the turbo via the intake tract though I'm pretty sure.
It's probably due to the high engine ambient temps. You don't really have any flow through the turbo and I don't think you'll see much convective heat transfer through the air between the turbo and the intercooler. Plus the compressor side is the "cool" side of the turbo.

You could test this by wrapping the intercooler in some kind of insulation just after shutting the car off and then check the temperature after 10 min and see how it compares to a non insulated intercooler.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 3:33 am
by kimokalihi
Perhaps but that cold side of the turbo gets quite hot. Not something you'd want to touch.

Re: Turbo heat shield or not?

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 6:50 pm
by Legacy777
I understand it does get hot, but I still think the majority of the heat input is from the surrounding engine components.