Anybody try one of these?

http://www.scienceofspeed.com/produc...old_insulator/

Any gains?

 

I've always used one for the fact that they are reusable. As for gains, not much other than the intake itself does seem to be a little cooler to the touch. I use the hondata one.

 

The link is to Hondata intake manifold gasket.

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/106...-intake-gasket

If you do run one of these, I recommend checking the torque on the bolts on a regular basis as they are notorious for leaking coolant.

 

You will hear lots about these things melting, but pretty much it is from a guy who knew a guy who bought one off ebay. The Hondata ones have been vouched for by people who use them and road race with turboed cars. The worst I have seen was one from a guy who said he had road raced with it for a few years and it was ever so slightly warped. The melted ones are cheap ebay knock offs sold as real "Hondata" and not made of the same material. While Hondata will not say what material they make it out of, it is most likely teflon and has a melting point of over 600 degrees.

I have one, it has been in an SC'ed street car for several years without issue.

Is it worth it is another question. It is a minor pita to install, but if you have the right tools it is not that bad. It will reduce the temps in your intake manifold, and likely the intake air that hits your engine. It will likely not "gain" you anything, what it will do in some situations is keep the heat bog conditions away in some instances. If you are driving the car in hot conditions for really long period of time, no doubt you will still heat soak. But this keeps the heatsoak at bay for longer periods and can make the car from pulling a bit of timing when it might without the gasket.

The biggest issue people really have is the manifold bolts coming loose, but you can use a dab of weak thread lock and really just retorqueing after a few heat cycles is all you need.

If you get heat bog in your car pretty easy, it might help a bit, but don't expect miracles. Somewhere I once saw someone posted pictures that were some kind of infra-red heat photos or something like that, and you could see a very noticable difference in the color (heat) of the engine and the manifold.

If I had to do it again, it would be a tossup, but it is not expensive and if done right causes no real issues. My $.02

 

Thanks man, appreciate the candor.

 

Is there a hell no option?

I'm that guy who heard of a guy who melted his gasket. It's another point of failure which IMO is not worth taking. You already have a blower with a heat exchanger, the gains you'll get from this insulator are minimal. Removing the intake manifold also takes time which requires taking apart many other parts under the hood to get to all the bolts.

Itching for the next mod?

 

8 years on a daily driven turbocharged application with no issues at all.

 

Yeah, it is pretty well known the melted ones were fakes. If it is a Hondata, you are pretty safe.

 

Have had mine for five years. No melting no leaking. If I had to do it again i would only do it if I was removing IM for another reason. It was a pita with no quantifiable gains.

Giant knuckle buster

 

Mine melted.