I bought a vented carbon fiber hood to help with reducing underhood temps because like many of us I'm tired of melting plastic parts under my hood! I moved everything as far away from the manifold as possible but still had heat issues. These issues all but disappeared once I installed the hood...but one of my concerns now is with keeping the hood in good condition. I know that extreme heat can damage carbon fiber in the long run, and the hood was so hot over the turbo that I could barely touch it, despite a vent being right over it. There is only so much the vents can do. Anyway I just bought the thin duct insulation and cut it to size (the stuff you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot, about 1/4" thick, made from dense foam with an aluminum cover) but the adhesive will most likely not stay tacky for long so I need to get a high heat adhesive to ensure it stays...but before I make the insulation permanent I wanted to see if anyone here has had experience with doing this. I know the vents help with the cooling but does the fact that the hood is carbon fiber with no insulation add to the cooling effect? By adding insulation to protect the hood am I just making the hood a "heat blanket" again? I know carbon fiber generally will not hold heat in as bad as metal...I just don't know in this situation how much of a difference it makes...if it will hold in heat almost as bad as the OEM hood then I will most likely just shield above the turbo since it does get extremely hot. Also has anyone had trouble with melting the plastic frame on these hoods? I haven't had the issue yet but it seems that was a poor choice for the skeleton considering the temps it has to endure. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if it matters it is a Seibon MG hood. Please give me some feedback before I tack it on permanently! Here are the pics

 

Thats actually a pretty interesting thought. Though I have no idea if adding the insulation will 'reheat' up the under the hood temps, but I can tell you this. I've had my real J's racing hood for over 6 years now with a supercharger, and within this time, my hood has taken a lot of heat abuse. The clear coat right above my engine area is completely gone, no matter how I was sealing/waxing, it didn't make a difference because it was getting cooked from below.

The front and rear of the hood still looks great, but the center looks completely dull and not shinny anymore. This however does give me an excuse to repaint the whole hood to match my car, so perhaps I will try out your idea and just put a small patch over the engine area.

 

Thanks for the info! Although I'm not sure I wanted it...it's bad news knowing that a J's hood did that with a supercharger...when a turbo obviously creates more heat and, although Seibon quality seems good to me...you wouldn't figure that it's finish would be better than J's so in a couple years I may have to get it refinished...great! Well luckily I only drive it about one or two days a week so maybe that will help...is yours DD? And as far as the shielding helping keep the hood looking good I have no doubt about that. It's not the ambient temps in the engine bay that hurt things...it's the direct, radiant heat that hurts things. If you can stop that radiant heat from hitting a surface the actual temperatures won't be that destructive. That's how cooling tape works...it doesn't really lower any temperatures, it just keeps the direct heat from baking the surface of things. Kind've like putting your hand in a 400 degree oven and not touching anything. It's still 400 degrees but it won't burn you...right away...but touch a piece of metal or get really close and the cops won't be able to track you by your fingerprints anymore...LOL! Maybe someone will know about it holding in more heat though...I wonder how much good just the vents do over the fact that the hood is made from a material that better transmits heat out of the engine bay...

 

I cannot help with this as i am in the market to buy the same hood. Can you please let us know the fitment as i want to buy exactly the same hood

 

Gee S2000 FUN way to kick me while I'm down My hoods off while I'm waiting for an answer and all you care about is fitment! LOL JK man I'm glad to help. I know that a lot of people on here say that fitment of aftermarket hoods such as Seibon and VIS are horrible and to buy the $3K Mugen or Topsecret ones instead but really, I installed the hood in 20 minutes...by myself...and although fitment isn't as good as stock no one could tell except me. And probably the guys on this site b/c we all have S2K's but from five feet away it looks perfect. But not many aftermarket parts do fit exactly as stock. I'm very satisfied with the fitment and appearance of it. It lines up great, and latches perfectly. The only place it's fitment is off is the gap on the passenger side is maybe 2mm wider than the one on the drivers side. Hardly noticeable unless you're looking for it. Hope that helps.

 

Just look at the 2mm gap as extra heat dissipation help.

 

Thank you very much for your reply and i am sorry if i could not help

On the other hand insulating the hood inside might protect the hood it self but not the heat dissipation.......i believe

 

My car is DD in nice weather, so pretty much during nice warm/hot weather, but I live in Oregon which rains a lot, so I probably drive it about as often as a none DD driver whom live in nice weather area.

But from what I can tell from your picture, you did a good job keeping all the vents in your hood open, and since CF don't exactly conduct heat the same as the OEM hood, I really don't think it matters in terms of trapping more heat.

It would be interesting though if you actually do some testing and let us know. I would buy one of those remote temp gauge people use for cooking, strap the prob nice and tight near the Engine and go out for a drive with some hard pulls and see what your temp is.

Use your OEM hood as baseline, the temp gauge don't have to be perfectly accurate, because we just want to get an idea in the delta between the hoods. (actually those cooking thermometer are pretty accurate from what I've seen.)

Then let your car cool down and try your Mugen hood without insulator, then with the insulator. It would be awesome to find out the difference, especially since you're turbo, the delta should be more dramatic.

 

You should be fine... The reflecting backing you applied will protect against radiant heat. The venting will take care of the convective heat. As long as there is no direct contact between the hood and the manifold, etc. (conductive heat), you look like you have all 3 heat transfer methods covered...

John

 

That's a good idea why didn't I think of that before LOL! I actually have a calibrated thermometer that I use to calibrate equipment...it is basically an RTD at the end of a 20 foot wire so that would be perfect! I just need to figure out where to put the probe seeing as how different areas will be hotter than others. I would just put it dead center, but the vents won't have as much of an effect there...guess I'll have to figure that one out when the time comes, but I will most likely do it soon since I need to do it before I permanently glue the insulation to the hood. I'll keep you posted.