I am about to buy, and install a test pipe on my 98 1.8t, and I was justwant some opinions on heat wrapping the test pipe? Do you think that this will help keep the heat down and make it run cooler? thanks

 

heat wrap has been proven to be a bad thing. it overheats the metal pipe, and will cause it to break down more quickly. here's an article on it:
http://www.centuryperformance.com/heatwraps.asp

 

ceramic coating would be a better solution..

a ceramic coated exhaust manifold, TP, and hotside of your turbo would be very beneficial in retaining heat to make more effecient power and keep it out of the engine bay

 

sean hit the nail on the head, ceramic coating is where it's at.

you can even do your intake manifold, and any hard intercooler piping you have. it'll help stop heat from soaking into them.

 

although that is a great idea, in theory.. it is a very bad one in reality..

there is a reason that all intercoolers and intercooler piping is made out of aluminum. it disipates heat more than any other metal out there for the price. so it is ok for it to get hot becase it will eventually cool down.. if it was ceramiccoated then it would eventually heat up, andthen take forever to cool down. thus heatsoak would be more prone..

and on the intake manifold, basicallythe same thing..

best solution you could do to keep engine bay heataway from the IM is to make a heat sheildover/around it.. i would like to see something like that actually

 

that's a good point, and it makes sense. it's weird though, because a lot of the high-horsepower RX-7's I've seen had ceramic coated intake manifolds, and the intake manifold on a rotary is directly ABOVE the turbo...

 

uhhh... not to sure about ceramic coating being bad... lets think about this, the space shuttles are completely covered with ceramic tiles keeping the outer shell just below the tiles cool. Yes aluminum disapates heat better, but if it has a preventative heat-soaking coating, then how could that be bad?

 

i have a jet coated exahust manifold and it keeps the engine bay temps down

 

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are you serious? you need to think about it. i assume you're talking about the intercooler piping? cause that is the only thing that ceramic coating would be bad for..

reason being: heat is built up in the inside, so it has no place to escape if it is coated. thus, it would just get hotter, and hotter, and heatsoak would be excrutiating.. besides, the piping isn't by anything that would heat soak it. andmost of the piping is in the area with the most air velocity. there are just certain things that NEED to disipate heat, and the FMIC along with it's piping is on the top of the list..

otherwise, top FMIC kit manufacturers would all include a ceramic coating option for their piping. and you would see it on every race car

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There's a bit of a difference in thickness... the ceramic coating for your pipes on the intercooler would only be a few mm thick, the tiles on the space shuttle are between 2.5cm~13cm thick, and they are also made of more than just ceramic. The black ones (that absorb the most heat) are made from a reinforced carbon material made from a specially soaked graphite-rayon cloth that is then baked to perfection. Not all heat is created equal, nor are insulations. The thin amount of ceramic on the intercooler pipes could very easilly be enough to just trap heat once it warms up, rather than just block it altogether.